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.
Another "above and beyond" feature that's really nice is the ability of each MyMix mixer to record both its 16 input channels as well as its two-channel output mix onto an SD card. The musician can then take their personal mix of a service or rehearsal home with them and evaluate their performance (or use as a personal rehearsal track for home use); or, they can bring those 16 input tracks into a post-production audio tool like Adobe Audition or ProTools and do a separate mix-down. If you don't have more than 16 channels in your worship team, here's a way to get multi-track recording without needing a dedicated multi-track recorder.
Each possible input channel can be assigned a name at its source, so that when you go to configure your mixer and select the channels you want, its name shows up instead of merely a device name and channel number. Once channels are assigned to your mixer, this name is what appears on your mixer's LCD display. So, you don't need to remember that the saxophone is channel four-the box for channel four on your mixer's display will automatically say "Saxophone." Hard to get more straightforward than that.
Some Observations
When I opened up the well-packed evaluation kit, I first noticed that there was no printed documentation included (a packing oversight, no doubt). No problem-it's all available on the Movek website. As I've used this type of system before, I thought I'd take this as an opportunity to see how far I'd get without reading any directions.
Within about 10 minutes it was up and running, connected to eight of the audio outputs of my PreSonus Firepod system to receive its input signals. After reading the documentation, I also connected a microphone to one of the MyMix mixer's local inputs and shared it on the network as an additional input, and had no problem adding it to another mixer's inputs for mixing.
This system is very intuitive, with one primary control-a large knob that turns to select an input channel, and pushes in to set that channel into volume adjustment mode. Turn the knob to adjust the volume of that channel, and push again to accept the change.
Other buttons allow you to mute the output of the mixer and start and stop recording to the SD card slot. In addition, the unit includes four "soft keys" that change functions depending on what mode you're currently in. At the top level, they allow you to adjust the main mix volume, solo a track, mute a track, and enter into a settings modification mode.
How it Performs
Sonic quality was excellent (I used the system with a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones-your mileage will vary depending on what you use for your ears), and the volume of the system seemed more than adequate. Most systems designed for in-ear listening limit the volume to avoid hearing damage; I expect that the MyMix is no different, but I thought that the volume delivered was more than strong enough.
Each mixer includes a removable microphone-stand mount, which is something that you have to pay extra for with some of the other personal monitoring systems.
I always try to find some negatives to highlight in a review as well as the positives-no product is perfect, and good product selection for your house of worship requires understanding the pros and cons. However, I'm having a hard time coming up with much for cons. The interface is simple but effective; having quicker access to volumes of individual channels would be nice, but that would mean lots of knobs, and that would make the system clunky. A coffee dispenser would also be nice, but....
Bottom line? I am thoroughly impressed with the system, and would highly recommend considering it for your personal monitoring system. MSRP of the MyMix personal mixer is $649; the IEX-16L is $999. Coming out soon is a digital input version of the IEX-16L, with an anticipated MSRP of $1,299.
