Musicians May 2015

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1 participants
1 discussions

Interactions with sound tech (esp. setting monitor mix)

by James Saxe via Musicians

Dear musicians, I have what might seem like more of a sound-tech question than a musician's question, but I'm interested in musicians' perspectives on it, so I'm asking it here. My apologies if anyone thinks I'm going off topic for the list. The question is: What order of doing things, and what manner of interaction between sound tech and musicians, do you find most effective and efficient and pleasant for getting the monitor mix set in a way that makes you happy? Here's some more detail that may clarify what I'm asking about in case the short form above seems too vague and general. Let's say that we've got everything wired together and powered on and that I've got the pre-amp (a/k/a "gain", "trim", or "sensitivity") knobs on all the channels set to compensate for the fact that not all mics and pick-ups are equally "hot" and that some instruments may be fundamentally quieter than others and would be overwhelmed in a purely acoustic setting. Now I (in the sound tech role) want to figure out how much of each channel to put into the monitor mix in order to make you happy. Possibly some EQ adjustments will also be needed, but even leaving that aside, there are still lots of different ways I could proceed, and some could be much better at keeping you happy than others. For example: * Would you rather set monitor levels with the house levels already up (which is the realistic condition in which you'll be playing)? Or would you rather get the monitor levels set first and then, if necessary, do some fine tuning after the house speakers come up? [Assume to start that interference with a newcomers' session isn't an issue, but feel free also to add how you'd like the sound tech to cope if it is an issue.] * Would you like to start from some guess at the monitor mix (say, all instruments about equally loud, or a monitor mix that parallel the house mix except for maybe cutting instruments that are especially load on stage [e.g., piano]) and then tweak from there? Or would you rather start with the monitor master volume knob set to some medium level but monitor feeds from all channels completely off, and then bring the channels up one at a time? And if the latter, do you have a preferred order (e.g., lead melody instrument first)? * Would you rather start by having everyone play at once? Or would you rather have people play one at a time to get the initial mix set, then play all together to see whether any adjustments are needed? For a band that uses multiple monitor mixes, there are even more possibilities: start by working on one monitor mix at a time? start by working on one instrument at a time (in all monitors)? start by setting each musician's instrument(s) one at a time in his/her own monitor mix, and then ...? Of course once the dance gets going, all the monitors will be on, and you (musician) may be hearing some of what's coming out of a nearby band-mate's monitor as well as your own (and sound from the house). If monitors need to be moved or turned to keep you from getting blasted by someone who likes to hear a lot of him/herself, that's best discovered during the sound check. In all these scenarios, there's the question of how to communicate your needs to the sound tech ("I'm hearing [too much/too little] of [myself/someone else] through my monitor [someone else's monitor].") and vice versa ("OK, now can I hear just the guitar, please?"). I'm most interested in the situation where the mixing board is on the lip of the stage and it's *not* one of those remote-controled models that would let the sound tech make a series of adjustments on a tablet while standing on stage beside one of the musicians. So what do you like to do about that? Obviously everything's easiest during the sound check, when you have the liberty to play a little, stop, talk with the sound tech, let the sound tech make adjustments, play a little more, etc.--a liberty you don't have if there are still some changes needed after the dance starts. Whew! Obviously any routine might need to be adapted as issues arise, but I'd still be interested in learning people's first preference about how the routine of setting the mix would go (from a musician's perspective) in cases where it doesn't go off into some trouble-shooting side-track or something. And I'm interested in hearing from multiple people, since part of my goal is to get an idea of which preferences are pretty widely held and which are variable from musician to musician. Of course there's a lot of variation among musicians in how much they know about operating sound gear, whether they're able to play and have a conversation at the same time, whether they have gear that gives them control over their own monitoring (and know how to use it), whether their band configuration allows someone to leave the stage and listen in the back of the hall or stand by the board and offer comments to the sound tech, etc. I imagine some of those differences might affect your answers to my questions. If you've read all this, thanks for your patience, and thanks for whatever thoughts you care to share. --Jim

9 years, 6 months

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Musicians May 2015