Re: [Worship] Praise Band Mix

[David Stone <dstone@chem.utoronto.ca>]

Mark Turner <mturner2@gte.net> wrote:

>I've been lurking a while and it seems that monitor/house mix problems are
>pretty common.  I play electric guitar in our praise band and have found
>that the audio techs are really frustrated by the house mix they're
>getting.  They've told us that the stage mix (amps & monitors) are too loud
>but the leader of our band seems reluctant to change anything.  He's a very
>talented musician and I think he (like the sound techs) wants what is best
>but isn't sure what to change.

We generally DI the keyboard & bass, mike the guitar amp and piano. We
have (currently) only 2 monitor feeds available, so one channel is
basically vocals, the other is a mix of vocals and selected instruments.
The vocal mix goes to 2 floor wedges for the vocalists (!), the 'B' mix
goes to the instrumentalists through small "hot spot" monitors, some of
which are stand-mounted to get them closer to ear level.

One thing I learnt at a recent workshop is the importance of monitor placement
with respect to (1) the walls around the platform and (2) the microphones.
Even an omnidirectional microphone like the SM58 can pick up a lot of
"spill" from monitors if they aren't positioned correctly.  Check out the
specs page for your microphones to make sure you're not sabotaging your
sound in this way. Also, make sure you get the monitors close to those
who need to hear them - there is an inverse square law at work which basically
means that the closer you put the speaker to the ear, the less power you need
to throw out for the same loudness at the ear, which also means less spill
into other areas, less reflected sound from the rear/side walls, etc.

If one particular person on the platform is complaining about
not being able to hear themselves, instead of turning them up in the
mix, try backing off everything else instead!  When the platform mix
is too loud, it often happens because everyone keeps asking to be
"a little louder" because someone else just got "a little louder"...
Proper eq'ing of the vocals and instruments can also help out - one
trick is to eq out the bottom end of the keyboard so it doesn't muddy
the bass, etc. - in other words, use the eq to "layer" all the
different sound sources according to their primary ranges.  And again,
it is better to roll off than boost, i.e. if you need more treble on one
source, roll off the mid and bass.

The other thing I learnt is that most musicians don't need the monitors
as loud as they have them, they just think they do! Some people really
like to feel the music hitting them from the monitors - gives their
performance a boost - but this is really counterproductive if, as in
your situation (apparently) the monitor sound is spilling into the
congregation and muddying the mix.  My best advice on this is to get a
good sound consultant to come in and do some (re)training....

Our sound coordinator is currently considering open/one sided headphones for
the instrumentalists to  get the amps (used mainly as monitors for the
players)
off the platform completely. One of the keyboard players is already using one
half of his Walkman earphones rather than an amp, which has actually been
very helpful.

Hope that something in all that at least alleviates the problem while
you consider long-term solutions.

Cheers,

Dave Stone




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