12 May
2018
12 May
'18
12:52 a.m.
Hi friends,
After years of calling at most venues without a caller's monitor, and finding life
much easier at the occasional venues that did provide a caller's monitor, I finally
sprung for my own monitor. Recalling a recommendation some time ago either on this list or
one of the others, I bought a Roland Cube Monitor (CM-30). But having read through the
manual and looked over the unit itself, I realized I don't know what to do with it to
put it to use in this context. I consulted with the sound person for my next upcoming gig,
but that sound person (whom I do appreciate for many reasons) has limited sound skills
and also wasn't sure.
Those of you who know more than me on this subject: Is there straightforward guidance that
would help me use this unit as a caller's monitor? Or, did I buy the wrong unit for
this function despite having good intentions?
Thanks in advance,
Jeremy Korr
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
12 May
12 May
12:55 p.m.
Hullo Jeremy,
1. Hit up the Contra Sound Forum for advice. Callers are nicely
tolerated, actually welcomed. A great place to ask about such things as
monitors, wireless mics, etc. from sound engineers whether pro or super
experienced amateurs.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/contrasf/info
2. Bob Mills book All Mixed Up is a fab resource for understanding many
sound reinforcement tasks. It is, by design, comprehensive enough yet
basic, so may not address every nuance one is interested in. Great place
to start though.
http://bobmills.org/amu/
One might search it (or any other site) using https://duckduckgo.com/ by
entering such as:
monitors site:bobmills.org/amu/
3. My experience regarding monitors is the band does not wish to hear
the caller. Not in _their_ monitor(s) at any rate (why you picked up
your own no doubt.) So, even with a separate one why should they get
blasted by that of the caller?
So consider a position that directs it toward one, away from the bulk of
the band. That may be sideways, up, or both. Elevated monitors generally
work better than on the floor, esp. for the type of sound/information
we're delivering and monitoring.
4. The biggest help I see a monitor for, is to keep the excitable caller
from getting too loud, (you know, when trying to "drag" that one dancer
or couple around the set. <grin>)
It also can help keep one from unintentionally becoming too quiet. Other
than for those purposes I can get by without one, at least for the sake
of simplicity. They are nice.
Pushed on the subject I'd rather have a wireless mic.
I suppose as hearing myself in the monitor is no guarantee of what I
sound like in the house.
Cheers, John
--
J.D. Erskine
Victoria, BC
1:23 p.m.
A number of years back, I was trying to make a decision between getting a
wireless mic and a monitor, and went with the monitor. The monitor I ended
up with was the TC Helicon VoiceSolo 300XT, and it has served me well
(unfortunately, it's no longer made). The Roland that you have is one I
have more often seen used by keyboard players as an aux monitor, and I
don't believe it has any way to place it on the floor or on a stand where
it is angled up towards you, which is a feature I would look for in any
callers monitor. It's possible you could rig up a stand that would allow
you to tip the roland back, or possibly get or make an angled mount that
would let you tip it back on a mic stand. I believe that it is capable of
all of the other things I would want to see in a monitor besides that.
Other features that I would be looking for:
- a "thru" connection for XLR, allowing you to plug your mic into the
monitor, and then send a feed to the board, and where the adjustments made
on the monitor do not affect the signal sent to the board.
- A way to mount the monitor on a mic stand, which gets it up closer to
your ears
- The possibility of taking a monitor feed from the board if you do want
to be able to hear the band in the monitor (particularly nice for singing
squares, or for larger bands where you can't hear the folks on the far side
of the stage.
I really like having a monitor for the reasons John mentioned: it make it
easier to balance your volume with the band, and less likely to abuse your
voice because you can't hear yourself. John is also correct that hearing
yourself in the monitor is no guarantee of good sound in the house. So I
also have a wireless mic and if I am not confident in the skill of the
person running sound will generally go wander around a bit during an early
dance to see what it sounds like.
Jack
On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 12:55 PM JD Erskine via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hullo Jeremy,
1. Hit up the Contra Sound Forum for advice. Callers are nicely
tolerated, actually welcomed. A great place to ask about such things as
monitors, wireless mics, etc. from sound engineers whether pro or super
experienced amateurs.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/contrasf/info
2. Bob Mills book All Mixed Up is a fab resource for understanding many
sound reinforcement tasks. It is, by design, comprehensive enough yet
basic, so may not address every nuance one is interested in. Great place
to start though.
http://bobmills.org/amu/
One might search it (or any other site) using https://duckduckgo.com/ by
entering such as:
monitors site:bobmills.org/amu/
3. My experience regarding monitors is the band does not wish to hear
the caller. Not in _their_ monitor(s) at any rate (why you picked up
your own no doubt.) So, even with a separate one why should they get
blasted by that of the caller?
So consider a position that directs it toward one, away from the bulk of
the band. That may be sideways, up, or both. Elevated monitors generally
work better than on the floor, esp. for the type of sound/information
we're delivering and monitoring.
4. The biggest help I see a monitor for, is to keep the excitable caller
from getting too loud, (you know, when trying to "drag" that one dancer
or couple around the set. <grin>)
It also can help keep one from unintentionally becoming too quiet. Other
than for those purposes I can get by without one, at least for the sake
of simplicity. They are nice.
Pushed on the subject I'd rather have a wireless mic.
I suppose as hearing myself in the monitor is no guarantee of what I
sound like in the house.
Cheers, John
--
J.D. Erskine
Victoria, BC
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
--
Jack Mitchell
Durham, NC
1:20 p.m.
Jeremy, I don't see anything inherent in the CM-30 that would / should
prove difficult for a sound person to accommodate.
A lot depends on the mixer that this would be connected into. If the
mixer has 1/4" aux sends (most, but not all, mixer , a 1/4" Male-Male
line-level cable can connect the channel 1 input on the monitor speaker
to the aux send being used for the monitor. If the mixer has XLR (the
larger 3-prong plugs that you see on mics) aux sends or outputs (the
Behringer XR-18s that have become commonplace in the bay area, for
example), a standard XLR Male-Female cable can provide the connection.
It would then be up to the sound person to send the caller signal to
that aux send, just as they send instrument signals to the stage
monitors for the band monitors.
If you can find out what kind of mixer the sound guy has, I could
probably provide more detail.
When I think of caller monitors, something like a Galaxy HotSpot
(<https://www.galaxyaudio.com/products/PA6BT>) or Mackie SRM150
(<http://mackie.com/products/srm150>) is what I've seen in the wild, and
I have a Galaxy HotSpot as part of my sound kit. These guys have the
advantage that they can be easily mounted on a mic stand, can be aimed
precisely, as well as controls that you don't have to bend down to
adjust. In fact, the Galaxy that I have included a special mic stand
that could hold both the monitor and a mic, allowing the monitor to be
positioned in the null of the mic.
--Nick
On 05/11/2018 09:52 PM, J L Korr via Callers wrote:
Hi friends,
After years of calling at most venues without a caller's monitor, and
finding life much easier at the occasional venues that did provide a
caller's monitor, I finally sprung for my own monitor. Recalling a
recommendation some time ago either on this list or one of the others,
I bought a Roland Cube Monitor (CM-30). But having read through the
manual and looked over the unit itself, I realized I don't know what
to do with it to put it to use in this context. I consulted with the
sound person for my next upcoming gig, but that sound person (whom I
do appreciate for many reasons) has limited sound skills and also
wasn't sure.
Those of you who know more than me on this subject: Is there
straightforward guidance that would help me use this unit as a
caller's monitor? Or, did I buy the wrong unit for this function
despite having good intentions?
Thanks in advance,
Jeremy Korr
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
3:04 p.m.
So in terms of including the monitor in your setup it looks like from the
manual you'll have to connect your mic to the desk as usual. You'll then
need a cable back from a monitor or aux feed on the desk. Ideally this
will want to be seperate from the band mix. If you have a signal splitter
or a second output on a radio mic receiver you can send a signal directly
to the monitor (this is what I do with my setup) - this makes my monitor
entirely isolated from anything except my signal.
Physically the monitor you have can be mounted on a second mic stand fairly
easily , I'd do that and have it pointed at me and not on the floor so as
to make it as localised as possible.
Bob
On Sat, May 12, 2018 at 5:52 AM, J L Korr via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi friends,
After years of calling at most venues without a caller's monitor, and
finding life much easier at the occasional venues that did provide a
caller's monitor, I finally sprung for my own monitor. Recalling a
recommendation some time ago either on this list or one of the others, I
bought a Roland Cube Monitor (CM-30). But having read through the manual
and looked over the unit itself, I realized I don't know what to do with it
to put it to use in this context. I consulted with the sound person for my
next upcoming gig, but that sound person (whom I do appreciate for many
reasons) has limited sound skills and also wasn't sure.
Those of you who know more than me on this subject: Is there
straightforward guidance that would help me use this unit as a caller's
monitor? Or, did I buy the wrong unit for this function despite having good
intentions?
Thanks in advance,
Jeremy Korr
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
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contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net
4 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
Folk Dance -
J L Korr -
Jack Mitchell -
JD Erskine -
Nick Cuccia