Photo courtesy of New Life Church, Conway, Arkansas.
I've got a secret to share; some musicians hate their personal monitor mix. Surprised? Half of the people surveyed in a recent monitor mixing class by Mathias von Heydekampf of myMix, were unhappy with their mix. Even worse, not only did the musicians not know how to fix their mixes, they were likely to stay quiet about it.
The problem is we as audio engineers can fall into the mindset of “these are simple little personal mixers, it should be like mixing front-of-house.” Then we take it a step further and believe musicians innately know how to mix what they need because, well, they're musicians.
Five steps are required in successful personal monitor mixing. We interviewed four personal monitor mixing companies about the nuances of each step and how these make the difference between a great monitor mix and an unhappy musician.
First, a truth must be realized. Musicians, by nature, do not innately know how to mix what they need to play in time and be on pitch. As Christian Glueck, product manager at myMix, says, “The most important [piece] is to be aware that the musician's main task is to perform, not to mix. The better they hear the better they will perform, but they can often not articulate what that means.”
1: Set the Foundation
Start at the console and assign channel sends as pre-fader. The musicians should hear the same mix in their ears regardless of what's happening to the house mix.
Ray Legnini, product research and development manager for Aviom, brings up an excellent point regarding untrained church techs – one I've seen before. He says, “Improperly set input gain or novice FOH sound engineers mixing using the console's gain controls can ruin a monitor mix. This can be fixed by doing a sound check to get the input level for every channel set properly and then leaving the gain knobs alone. Mix using only the faders.”
Create sub-mixes for musicians based on their needs, like a drum sub-mix for singers. Don't require a singer to mix eight drum channels; simplify. Musicians should be able to mix quickly and efficiently. The number of channels on the personal mixer should drive the need for sub-mixes. Treat each personal system differently.
Glueck says, “The worst thing is to throw a one-to-one copy of the FOH channels to the musicians: here is everything, so now you can mix what you want. We recommend providing ‘individually important channels' as well as sub-mixes so that the musician is dealing with 10 to 12 channels. While most musicians want to hear ‘almost everything,' that doesn't mean they want or need all individual controls. Less is more.”
A drum sub-mix can be tricky because a musician might want more kick or snare. When it comes to working with drums, Nason Tackett, senior design engineer at Hear Technologies, says, “Chances are, the engineer is already mixing the drums down to a sub group, so simply taking the direct out for this sub group will put all of the drums onto a single channel… Some musicians may want to still have volume control of the kick and snare separately, which is ok…Now, the drums only occupy one to three channels instead of six to 12 channels.”
"You are still responsible for getting a good mix to the performers, even if they have their own mixer.”
Andy Swanson
Marketing Director, Digital Audio Labs
Label the personal monitor channels with meaningful names – don't use “Vocal Two,” use “Bob Vocal.” At FOH, the channels might be labeled as Vocal One, Vocal Two, etc but musicians don't know what that means. They need to easily find what they need.
Tackett takes the monitor setup a step further. Instead of thinking of all musicians independently, create baseline channel setups based on their roles. He says, “Instead of having one monitoring system that everyone uses, why not break up the monitoring system by group? If the rhythm section, orchestra, and vocalists had their own monitor systems, they could have channels that they need.”
He explains it further, “For example, the vocalist's monitoring system could have the main house mix on one knob, then they could have each of their own vocal microphone on an individual knob. They start with the main mix, and turn up their vocal, or if they are doing harmonies, turn up the person that they are referencing for pitch. For the rhythm section, things like the vocalists may not need to be there at all (since they are in the main mix) or they are all sub-mixed onto one knob.”
2: Set the Priority
Instruct musicians to focus on three needs; self, pitch, and tempo. Legnini of Aviom, says, “A monitor mix is not supposed to sound like a record. Pitch references for singers, rhythmic cues for backline players, and the harmonic structure of the song for those playing chord instruments should be the first things you go for when building a monitor mix.”
The pitch and tempo needs of each musician differ based on their roles. For example, backing vocalists need to hear each other for pitch and hear kick, snare, and hi-hat for tempo. Contrast that with the drummer who doesn't need to hear backing vocalists at all. Musicians need to view all sounds in light of the pitch and tempo focus.
3: Set the Depth
The two main controls on personal monitors are volume and pan controls. Mixing everything loud and centered is worthless. Legnini says, “Good stereo placement and imaging brings clarity to a mix and can help you monitor at lower levels as well, making the use of in-ear monitors even safer for your hearing.” Musicians must be taught to think spatially.
Start with the drums and bass centered. From here, the musician should pan instruments left or right, either by what is comfortable or where it's located in relationship to their position on the stage.
Regarding stereo placement of the musician's own channel, Glueck says, “Put your own instrument/voice in the center and adjust the volume so that you hear yourself comfortably, but not too loud. Now, add the other instruments/voices and pan them slightly left and right, similar as you see them. Add more or less ‘room' or ‘reverb' to move them further away or keep them ‘closer.'”
He goes on to make a good point about the workings of the human brain, “There is no fixed rule, other than the more the sources are spatially distributed, they get recognized as individual sources and our brain can adjust a lot of volume changes automatically (which reduces readjusting dramatically)”
A common phrase heard by engineers is “Can I get more me in the monitor?” While personal monitor mixers do eliminate this problem, the health of the musicians' ears should still be considered. And Glueck provides just the tip, “If you feel after adding "everything else" your own channel is not loud enough, use the master to turn everything a bit down and then enhance your own channel.”
4: Add the Room
A huge problem with in-ear monitors is sound isolation and feeling removed from the room. Andy Swanson, marketing director at Digital Audio Labs, says, “Once your mix is dialed in, add either reverb or ambient mics to help ‘open up' your mix. Gradually increase the level in your personal mix and leave both IEM's in your ears for the sake of your health.”
Personal monitor mixers can have controls like reverb. And ambient microphones can be placed on stage or above the congregation. Tackett offers another option, “We recommend taking the reverb and other effects from the front of house's effects processor and feeding them to the monitoring system on their own channel. If you are trying to sing, reverb makes registering pitch very difficult, so giving the musician a dry signal and a separate wet signal allows them to blend it to a mix they find comfortable. Giving them the same effects that the house hears is important, because this gives them an accurate representation of what they sound like to the audience.”
5: Aid in Mixing
At this point, the musicians should have everything they need to create the mix they need, both in terms of channels and sub-mixes but also in the knowledge of pulling in the right channels for pitch and tempo. But there will be times when they still need help and it's where engineers need to come to their rescue. If you're lucky, they will ask for help, but don't expect it.
Swanson says, “Learn to read the performers and what they need. If they are taking one of their ears out, they may need more ambient mics on stage to mix into their monitors. Do they look frustrated? Every once in a while, listen to the performers mixes (keep a pair of in-ears or headphones and a splitter handy) so that you can help them hear what they need to hear. You are still responsible for getting a good mix to the performers, even if they have their own mixer.”
Watching how the musicians use their equipment and how they sound is also an indication of what's in their mix. He says, “Teach your vocalists to keep the mic close. If they are continually ‘off' the mic, maybe they have their mic too loud in the personal mixer. If they are pitchy, help them turn up the main instrument for pitch reference.”
Personal monitor mixers enable musicians to hear exactly what they need. But musicians are not audio engineers and they need to be trained. Swanson says it best, “The tech team and worship team are one, with different responsibilities. Lean into each other. Unify.”
