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May 2012

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Audio Review: Movek MyMix Personal Monitor Mixing and Multi-track Recording System

"Over the past decade, personal monitor mixing systems have become available from a range of manufacturers. MyMix from Movek offers several new and different features, including the ability to record your rehearsal or performance right from your own mixer."

by Jim Kumorek

Providing monitoring capabilities for bands has been a struggle in most churches for years. Until the last decade, you either had to provide a mix from the FOH position (front-of-house), or have a dedicated monitor mixing console with its own monitor engineer available-not an inexpensive option, either in equipment or hard-to-find experienced audio volunteers.

Over the last decade, personal monitoring systems have appeared from a variety of manufacturers that allow the band members to create their own monitor mix, relieving audio volunteers from spending most of their time listening to "More guitar! Less drums! More lead vocal! No, now less guitar...!"

I've had the opportunity to work with a few different personal monitoring systems over the last 12 years, some good, some not so good, and some incredibly annoying. In this review I was able to take a look at one of the newer entries in the personal monitoring system product space-the MyMix system from Movek LLC in Edina, Minn.

The MyMix provides personal mixing stations to the musicians in the band, enabling them to mix 16 channels of audio into one stereo feed. It can be listened to via headphones or ear buds, but can also be fed to monitor speakers (either self-powered or through an external amplifier).

What You Get
At its simplest level, the system consists of a group of MyMix personal audio mixing stations connected together through an Ethernet hub. Each mixer can be powered through its own power supply, or a network hub/switch that provides appropriate Power-Over-Ethernet (POE) capability can be utilized to eliminate the need for individual power supplies. The system I evaluated came with a Cisco small business class switch with POE.

Typically, most users would also have a MyMix IEX-16L 16-channel input expander, providing the ability to put 16 channels of audio out over the MyMix network. The audio could come from splitters at the stage, direct outs from a mixing console, aux sends-whatever can provide a line-level audio signal.

However, where things start to get rather cool is that this 16-channel expander isn't strictly necessary. Each MyMix personal mixer comes with two balanced input jacks, which can provide phantom power if desired. These two inputs can be shared on the network with all the other MyMix mixers. Want to create a simple rehearsal space? Provide each musician with a MyMix mixer, and have them plug directly into their mixer. With two channels, one can be their instrument, the other their vocal mic. Every other mixer can select each mixer's two inputs as input channels, and voila-everyone can hear everyone, and no audio system other than the MyMix personal monitors is needed. This concept has some obvious limitations (what about an eight channel drum kit?), but you get the idea.

Likewise, these local inputs can provide the drummer a way to send a click track out over the system without having to tie into the house system. Or perhaps one person brought an iPod with the rehearsal tracks on it. Lots of opportunities can be envisioned for utilizing such a flexible option.

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Jim Kumorek is the owner of Spreading Flames Media, providing video/media production and writing services to the A/V/L, technology, architectural and hospitality industries. He has led audio, video and lighting teams in churches as both staff and a volunteer for over 10 years. He can be contacted at james@spreadingflamesmedia.com.