How do you mix your monitors

[Ron J.]

We different ideas do you have on what people need to hear in the monitors. I try to accommodate most of there needs. We have a number of new singers, one wants to hear everything, drums, all singers, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, etc. We have tried to tell her that it's not a good idea to have everything. The problem is she is on the same monitor as 2 other singers and she is still asking for more.

I've been taught that less is better and that is what I want to stick with. Also when the monitors get to loud and there asking for more ask what is too loud. This will generally bring out what they want to need to hear. Don't tell them this but that is what I will do sometime and they don't know the difference.

What do you give your worship band to hear as apposed to what they want? Or do you give them everything they ask for?

[prochlea]

They should already be able to hear the drums adequately as well as the bass. if the electric has an amp, they can probably hear that too. All they should have is the singers, acoustic and keyboard.

At some point you have to explain to them, that the monitors can get too loud and ruin the sound out in the house. Remind them that you are doing your job so that they sound good to the congregation and if what they want conflicts with the FOH sound, no one will be happy.

[Gene]

Less is more with monitors. I give them as little as possible; "more" something usually means less of everything else they're already getting. If they have specific requests that won't interfere, I'll give it to them, otherwise I tell them why not.

We have four monitor mixes:
- worship leader: whatever they want, usually own vocals with some other vocals
- instruments: bass + guitar + WL vocal
- vocalists: vocals + WL vocal
- drummer: lead instrument (usually piano) + WL vocal + a bit of other vocals

[waynehoskins]

I've found it really helps to be able to hear the mix you're changing. Headphones are usually good enough. And I agree, "I need more foo" usually means "I need to hear foo, but I can't because bar is covering it up".

Another common problem you'll run into is when two people are sharing a mix, they'll give you mutually exclusive instructions. "I need more piano." "I can't hear anything because the piano is so blankity-blanking loud." "Where'd my piano go?" The easy fix is to give one of them (the piano guy, in our case) one of the IEM sets when he plays. The longer-term solution is to tell them "okay, you're going to have to fight it out between yourselves and then tell me what you need".

In our wedges it's chiefly vocals and acoustic. In our in-ears it's a fuller mix.

[tedanderson]

Most times I find that non-technical singers/musicians can only go by what they hear. They are not capable of accurately asking for what they really want. For example, they might say that they want "everything" in the monitor when in reality they only want to hear themselves in the monitor. Because the sound from the rest of the band covers the entire stage, the singer very well might think that he is getting the entire mix in the monitor when he is really hearing the balance of sound between his voice in his monitor and the rest of the ambient sound.

Every now and then I might get a "know-it-all" keyboardist who tells me to put more bass in Aux #5. When I get to the bottom of what he really needs, it turns out that I just need to simply turn down the lead guitar in his monitor. I try my best to make them focus on what they need in order to comfortably play vs. taking orders as to what to turn up. I simply demand that they tell me what they want/need to hear and then I figure out how to balance it all out.

When I work with some of the more professional groups, they know how to let the sound man do his job. Like if there is a lead singer playing guitar, he might say, "I need to hear more bass." I am not going to put more bass in his monitor, but I am going to turn it up on the side-fills. All in all, with monitor mixes you are "painting" the stage with sound and what a particular musician needs to hear may not be the result of what is in his monitor.

So typically when I am adjusting monitors, I will put every mic/instrument in its assigned monitor. And then when they do the sound check, I have them play a song as I go around the stage and ask each performer what he needs. 9 times out of 10 a musician will have just about everything he needs. The drummer might need a little more bass to supplement what he is hearing across the stage while he could very well hear the lead guitar just fine because the frequencies in the amp might carry much further across the backline than the would towards the singers.

[Ron J.]

We had a class a few years ago for the singers and musicians on the basic of sound. In that we covered the monitors and what happens when we put to much in the monitors. The team at the that time took a while but they finally started telling me what to turn down instead of what they were not hearing. They still tell me what they are not hearing but after they have brought down a number of other things.

Of course the best remady is to get a Aviom System. But the Lord will have to provide for that. Then the only thing the sound person needs to do is mix the FOH.

[Ron J.]

I have tried to mix the monitors with the headphones but what I have found is the monitors sound differante the the headphones. Some things come through better in the monitors than the headphones. I guess if I do like Tedanderson said and assign the instrument to the appropriate monitor and the same with the singers and start there that will take some of the guess work away. It's a starting point.

[cjlowe]

One of the important things with foldback is to try and EQ each instrument its own space in the audio spectrum. If you can get that right, you can keep your levels lower and even give people a bit more in their wedges, because everything gets much clearer.

We run separate monitors for vox 1/2, keys, guitars, drums. Some of our drummers now have IEMs, which we run as a separate channel into a mini mixer (cost about $70), which he plugs an ambient mic into so he can hear the congregation, as well as his click track.

Typically vocals will get leader + lots (relatively) of themselves + a little of the other singers (this allows them to wonder around a little without losing everything, and helps them harmonize). They'll usually get some keyboard, sometimes some acoustic too. That's it.

Keys is mostly keys, lead vox, sometimes some guitar if they want it (and vox, if they're singing). Guitars get themselves (I like my acoustic loud, so I can actually *hear* it when they start playing), lead and some keys. Drummer is behind a shield, and gets lead vox loud, other vox quiet (so if someone is soloing they can follow), guitars, bass, keys. IEM mix has a bit of everything.

We also have a send at the FoH desk feeding into the foldback desk. It gives us the ability to play a backing track and have someone sing along with it. Highly recommend this if you haven't already got it.

Edit: Also couldn't agree more. You have to stand at the monitor, beside the musician, and listen for yourself.

[Ron J.]

I have stood next to the musicians and singers to see what they are actually hearing and made suggestions to them as they are singing (of course during practice) The last time I did that I was wondering why they were not staying ingaged in the song. I found out that they could not hear the snare so I brought it up a little and they couldn't beleave how that helped. I guess it comes down to teaching them to know what they really need and don't need.

[shayward]

Every band I've played in and every concert I've mixed at I've told the musicians the same thing: what you're hearing is to keep you in time and in tune but it sounds totally different in the audience.

Less is more. You can give a little of everything but I agree that the acoustic guitar, keyboard/piano/organ, and singers need to be predominant.

[tedanderson]

Originally Posted by shayward

Every band I've played in and every concert I've mixed at I've told the musicians the same thing: what you're hearing is to keep you in time and in tune but it sounds totally different in the audience.

This is what gets me into trouble. Sometimes I expect the musicians to know this assuming that they should trust that I am not going to stand at the FOH and let the mix sound like crap. I used to get into the same arguement with the sax player every Sunday from him complaining about not hearing himself through the FOH even though he could hear himself on the stage just fine.

[cjlowe]

Clearly, the mix needs more cowbell.