Is the stage volume too loud for your church’s congregation? Does it seem like your sound engineer has too little control over the house sound? Do the people on stage complain that they can’t hear themselves or each other? Are you constantly battling feedback? Stage monitoring systems are complex systems, sometimes more complex than house PA systems. For this reason, if you are experiencing any of the above-mentioned problems, it is important to thoroughly evaluate your current situation (equipment selection, placement, etc) and to know the possible solutions that are available.
Choosing the type of Stage Monitor System
Wedges, headphones or in-ear monitors (IEM’s): which is right for your church? Dale Alexander, principal consultant of Creative Technologies in Carrollton, Texas, replies “That is not a simple question to answer, as there are many factors concerning this issue. How big is your room, what is your worship style, how many musicians do you have? What is the skill level of the tech crew, are your musicians professionals or amateurs and, what is your budget? Another item to consider is where will the monitor mixes originate. Are they all to be mixed from the front-of-house (FOH) position, or do you have a dedicated monitor mixer? Or, will the musicians have an opportunity to customize their monitor mixes?”
Monitors interact with the Room
Tom Young of Jaffe Holden Acoustics in Norwalk, Connecticut explains, “Monitor systems can create spill into the front-ofhouse listening area simply due to reflection. Box-shaped platforms with hard, untreated wall surfaces are prime reflectors. But careful aiming of wedges can help keep the upper-frequency reflections from reaching the front-of-house seating areas.” Floor-Wedge Loudspeaker monitors The most common type of stage monitor is the floor monitor, or wedge. Criteria for selecting a stage monitor include: coverage angle, maximum sound pressure level (SPL)/ volume, vocal clarity, bass response, size, fidelity and price.
Ted Leamy formerly of Electrotech, a major tour sound company, and now with JBL suggests, “It is very difficult to evaluate a monitor system as you would a stand-alone speaker. The clarity of the mid-range frequencies is all-important when the monitor is placed in the stage environment. One model doesn’t fit all.”
Paul Folkestad of Guitar Center, the nationwide musical instrument and pro audio retailer, suggests, “There are two distinctly different horn orientations when it comes to stage monitors. Horizontal orientation is better suited for use when several performers must hear one monitor. This is due to the wider dispersion angle of the horn.” A strong vertical coverage angle would be more appropriate for a single performer.
A third option includes monitors with horns or co-axial drivers providing conical coverage offered by Radian, Tannoy and EAW. Of course wedge monitors are available from an extremely wide range of manufactures. If you want to make a more informed decision about stage monitors, contact a local and qualified dealer about auditioning some stage-monitors in your church.
Miniature Loudspeaker Monitors
Miniature monitors, such as those that can be mounted on mic stands, are another option for churches. But many of those we interviewed urged caution. Folkestad says, [Miniature monitors] are the most misunderstood type of monitors on the market today. The small, four-to-five-inch driver size severely limits their usefulness. They are all designed as a vocal monitor and perform only marginally in this capacity due to their limited frequency response.”
Tom Young concurs. “Mini monitors may be appealing for their visual size. But with very few exceptions, they do not provide good quality sound and they generally splash sound all over.”
Overhead Monitor Loudspeakers
Another option is to “fly” or suspend monitors above the stage. A common practice is to attach the monitor speakers to the back of the house speaker cluster(s). Young says, “Depending on size and layout of choir, acoustics of choir loft, hang points and quality of [house] cluster design, [flown monitors] can either be wonderfully effective or a complete waste.” He notes the same need for very precise loudspeaker coverage applies here as much as it does for a front-of-house loudspeaker system.
On-Stage Monitor Mixers
When asked if there isn’t a better way to do monitors, than a few large wedges with some Aux sends from the FOH board. Young replies, “Mixes that are created from house console will not necessarily translate into good mixes for stage monitors. Over the past two decades in secular performance, we have developed methods for successful stage monitor mixing that include splitting the mic lines to an on-stage monitor console and with a human operator.”
A separate monitor mixing console with it’s own dedicated sound engineer may be an option for some larger churches, but most average-sized churches will find this prohibitive. As an alternative, Rocky Giannetta of Fault Line, which represents Crest Audio and other brands in Northern California and most of Nevada, suggests a more cost-effective solution would be to “allow the band to create its own mix…using a small monitor mixer that is designed specifically for that purpose, such as the new Crest XRM monitor mixer.” The XRM is a small rack-mounted mixer with mixing and routing capabilities more commonly found in larger consoles. Being rack-mountable, the XRM can easily and unobtrusively placed on stage allowing musicians and presenters to create their own mix or mixes.
In-Ear Monitor Systems
If your on-stage problems include sound from monitors and instrument amps bleeding into the microphones, or if they are loud enough to affect the house mix, the situation may warrant a personal monitor system using headphones or IEM’s and getting rid of the wedges and guitar amps. This approach will clear up the FOH mix and reduce or eliminate “bleed” into the mics.
Besides helping improve the overall sound quality, using IEM’s can have other benefits. Mark Frink, in an article he wrote recently for Mix Magazine points out, “IEM’s can lower sound exposure and help conserve hearing because individuals no longer have to compete to hear themselves over others. Besides the obvious advantage of effectively eliminating feedback, IEM’s can reduce vocal fatigue.”
But IEM’s have drawbacks too. “The isolation that IEM’s provide is great, but it can be very unnatural,” says Rob Nevalienen who has mixed the in-ear monitoring system for Stephen Curtis Chapman and Styx. “You have to add ‘size’ back to the mix with reverb and audience mics, but you also have to squash the dynamic range to keep things from jumping out, especially on vocals and guitars, which you wouldn’t normally do with wedges”
Nevalienen suggests a gradual introduction when making the switch to IEM’s. He also recommends sound engineers should try them, to learn the limitations, before asking the performers to make the switch.
There are two types of transducers used in-ear monitors: the dynamic driver, most commonly found in ear bud-style ‘phones, and the balanced armature type found in hearing aids. Each has its pluses and minuses. But there is one thing that most of them have in common: most IEM’s are the occluding type, which reduce ambient sound levels.
It is widely agreed that hard-wired systems have better sound, lower cost and less potential RF problems than wireless. Paul Folkestad says, “The biggest IEM problems are: A) High cost of even a single system. B) Trouble getting the application right. C) The tendency of performers to use only one ear bud” Ear bud is a term often used for the piece of the monitoring system that is actually place in the ear. Karl Cartwright, who works in new product development at Westone Labs, a Colorado Springs, Coloradobased manufacturer of a wide range of hearing protection and in-ear monitoring systems says, “People using one ear bud tend to run that monitor at a higher volume.” He notes those who wear a monitor in each ear usually run them at 6 dB less than those who wear just one. For those who continue to use just one in-ear monitor, Cartwright recommends alternating ears every few services or performances.
“There is an industry misconception that inear monitors, like earplugs, are hearing protectors,” says Michael Santucci, president of Sensaphonics Hearing Conservation, Inc. a manufacturer of ear protection, in-ear monitoring and telecommunications equipment based in Chicago, Illinois. “Unlike earplugs, in-ear monitors are capable of damaging hearing as easily as a floor monitor. They can be used as a tool for hearing preservation if used properly.” A wide range of options exist for churches switching to in-ear monitoring systems. Walkman-type earbuds represent the entry-level solution. Standardized ear buds with removable rubber or foam inserts are a mid-level possibility. Customfit ear buds molded to one user’s ear canal are the high-end choice.
Monitoring with Headphones
But traditional consumer-type headphones are an also option, especially in churches where band members are on a rotation (sharing the equipment) and isolation from high sound levels is not needed. “As a musician, I do not want to be completely isolated from the natural acoustic energy in the room and on the platform”, Alexander says. “Therefore, I prefer an “open-air” type of headphone. For people who don’t want the headband over their head, there are several very good walkman-style (ear-budstyle) headphones that are OA.”
Musician-controlled Monitor Matrix
But, as mentioned earlier, getting the right monitor mix involves far more than having the right monitor speakers, whether they are wedges, flown or wall-mounted monitor speakers or IEM’s. The importance of monitor set ups that are pleasing to the musicians and performers on stage has led to a range of products that allow each individual on stage to control his or her own mix. These are small monitor matrix systems. The most widely used are from Furman, Rolls and Intelix.
An interesting variation, one that also addresses some of the problems associated with the un-natural isolation often associated with in-ear monitoring, Shure’s PSM 200 Personal Monitor System offers an adaptor that allows users to wear a lavalier microphone and control capability to adjust how much ambient on-stage sound is heard through the in-ear monitor. Shure’s entrylevel PSM 200 system can also be upgraded to wireless by adding the P2T TransMixer. This unit serves as both a mixer and a transmitter. The TransMixer includes two inputs that split signals through to the FOH mixer or another P2T.
“More-of-Me” Monitor Units
The mixer feature on the Shure PSM200 and the other individually controlled monitor mix systems fall under the growing industry term “more-of-me” or MOM systems. These units allow the performers to adjust the level of their voices or instruments relative to the rest of the mix without disturbing others or changing their mix. Entry-level personal MOM monitor units include the Rolls PM series of headphone amps that can be found for less than $100 depending on the model. Effects loops and limiting are not included, so that must be done with separate outboard gear. However, these, and other personal MOM units, can be placed near the performer for easy access, and any number of monitor mixes can be sent from the main console to the MOM units allowing easily expansion. Other low-cost, multi-channel, musician-controlled MOMstyle units are available from Shure, Oz Audio, Rane and Samson.
Author’s View on Monitoring in Churches
Like many other readers, I mix sound on the weekends in a larger church with a fairly contemporary program. Although my profession has allowed me to design hundreds of sound systems for churches, only a few of the very largest churches I have worked with have an on-stage monitor engineer and wireless IEM systems. While such a system may be the ultimate monitor solution (it’s the standard way of doing things in the concert touring industry), it also requires the greatest resources. At the church where I run sound, the vocalists were using IEM’s, but the rhythm section of the band was still using wedge monitors, as they had poor results with the entry-level IEM earphones. We recently converted the band to traditional consumer headphones and a MOM control unit with excellent results. This has helped the band to hear themselves better and it dramatically reduced the stage volume. The result is much more control at the FOH console, and a much tighter house sound.
David Kennedy is the principal consultant at David Kennedy Associates d-k-a.com, providing expert design of Architectural Acoustics, Sound and Display Systems for churches. He can be reached at (559) 294-6060 or dkennedy@d-k-a.com.
