Somanyquestions
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Monitor mixes for a live band
When you see a live band usually each member will have its own monitor mix.
Often a band consists of 5 people but there are many bands with more musicians. Let's say 10 people require a monitor on stage, how does that get done?
If i look at random mixers in the 1000 dollar price range most of them have about 4 aux options. Is there something i am missing? Or if you want to use 10 monitor mixes you simply need a mixer with 10 aux options?
Thanks.
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Cactus Music
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Re: Monitor mixes for a live band
2017/10/02 19:05:57
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☄ Helpfulby DrLumen 2017/10/02 20:58:10
Your Forum name was wisely chosen :)
It depends on the size of the venue and the scope of the sound system.
Example of a Band.. Dr Fun and the Nightcrawlers. up to 10 piece R&B band. drums, bass, keys, 2 guitars, lead vox with Harp, 3 piece horn section. Not much money to work with , most equipment very well worn and banged up.
I was their sound guy for 10 years. We had a 24 channel soundcraft with 4 Aux and 2 Effects loops. It also had 4 bus submix. All XLR patches.
Heres how the output list looked:
Sub mix 1/2 to Mains to FOH power amp and speakers system
Sub mix 3/4 to powered sub Bass bins and a drum monitor. ( we used a old Peavey bass amp ) Only bass and kick.
Aux 1 vocals 2 wedges singer and guitars
Aux 2 Horn section 1 or2 wedges depending on stage.
Aux 3 Keyboard 1 wedge
Aux 4 Side fill speakers on stands. This was a mix of everything but drums and bass. Some venues were so small this was all we had room for and it worked just fine if they kept their levels down.
OK then they would do a festival stage which we would have probably up to 12 monitor mixes to work with which almost made things worse because now your not sharing and you get too picky :) Those systems are beond the scope of a weekend band. That involves an seperate mixer aptly called the Monitor mixer. Those are specially designed boards with up to 24 matrixes. The stage mikes and DI's all pass throught his board first and are iso connected to the snake to carry on to FOH.
These days large bands are best off with in ears monitors.
Each floor monitor system is a whole PA in itself with a price tag of easily $600 per speaker. That money could be put towards personal monitors,,, see the other thread here about that topic.
Myself I like side fills with In ears as the best of both worlds. Last band I was in we had no stage speakers at all.
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DrLumen
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Re: Monitor mixes for a live band
2017/10/02 21:04:00
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Cactus Music
Your Forum name was wisely chosen :)
It depends on the size of the venue and the scope of the sound system.
Example of a Band.. Dr Fun and the Nightcrawlers. up to 10 piece R&B band. drums, bass, keys, 2 guitars, lead vox with Harp, 3 piece horn section. Not much money to work with , most equipment very well worn and banged up.
I was their sound guy for 10 years. We had a 24 channel soundcraft with 4 Aux and 2 Effects loops. It also had 4 bus submix. All XLR patches.
Heres how the output list looked:
Sub mix 1/2 to Mains to FOH power amp and speakers system
Sub mix 3/4 to powered sub Bass bins and a drum monitor. ( we used a old Peavey bass amp ) Only bass and kick.
Aux 1 vocals 2 wedges singer and guitars
Aux 2 Horn section 1 or2 wedges depending on stage.
Aux 3 Keyboard 1 wedge
Aux 4 Side fill speakers on stands. This was a mix of everything but drums and bass. Some venues were so small this was all we had room for and it worked just fine if they kept their levels down.
OK then they would do a festival stage which we would have probably up to 12 monitor mixes to work with which almost made things worse because now your not sharing and you get too picky :) Those systems are beond the scope of a weekend band. That involves an seperate mixer aptly called the Monitor mixer. Those are specially designed boards with up to 24 matrixes. The stage mikes and DI's all pass throught his board first and are iso connected to the snake to carry on to FOH.
These days large bands are best off with in ears monitors.
Each floor monitor system is a whole PA in itself with a price tag of easily $600 per speaker. That money could be put towards personal monitors,,, see the other thread here about that topic.
Myself I like side fills with In ears as the best of both worlds. Last band I was in we had no stage speakers at all.
Most of the bands I worked with typically had a small monitor mixer. One band would rent out their gear and occasionally we would use the effects loops on the monitor mixer for additional mixes. I hated having to run the monitor mixer. Like you said, some people just get too picky. :/
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Rob[at]Sound-Rehab
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Re: Monitor mixes for a live band
2017/10/03 05:32:32
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Cactus Music
These days large bands are best off with in ears monitors.
Each floor monitor system is a whole PA in itself with a price tag of easily $600 per speaker. That money could be put towards personal monitors,,, see the other thread here about that topic.
Myself I like side fills with In ears as the best of both worlds. Last band I was in we had no stage speakers at all.
that's the world today. we don't use any stage speaker no matter what is provided (and that has first puzzled some FOH guys but in the end pleased them as they don't have to worry about our monitoring at all anymore) i.e. we have a rack mounted X32 which either provides just the monitor mix or in case of smaller gigs everything including sound for main PA. each one in the band gets his personal mix from P16M mixers next to them which feeds into in-ear monitoring. it takes some getting used to get yourself a real good monitor mix in a short time during sound check (as even with in ears you get a lot of the ambience coming back in via the microphones) but honestly I wouldn't want to use anything else anymore.
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Somanyquestions
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Re: Monitor mixes for a live band
2017/10/03 08:53:26
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Cactus Music
Your Forum name was wisely chosen :)
Thanks. I'm a wise man. Sometimes. Cactus Music
It depends on the size of the venue and the scope of the sound system.
Example of a Band.. Dr Fun and the Nightcrawlers. up to 10 piece R&B band. drums, bass, keys, 2 guitars, lead vox with Harp, 3 piece horn section. Not much money to work with , most equipment very well worn and banged up.
I was their sound guy for 10 years. We had a 24 channel soundcraft with 4 Aux and 2 Effects loops. It also had 4 bus submix. All XLR patches.
Heres how the output list looked:
Sub mix 1/2 to Mains to FOH power amp and speakers system
Sub mix 3/4 to powered sub Bass bins and a drum monitor. ( we used a old Peavey bass amp ) Only bass and kick.
Aux 1 vocals 2 wedges singer and guitars
Aux 2 Horn section 1 or2 wedges depending on stage.
Aux 3 Keyboard 1 wedge
Aux 4 Side fill speakers on stands. This was a mix of everything but drums and bass. Some venues were so small this was all we had room for and it worked just fine if they kept their levels down.
OK then they would do a festival stage which we would have probably up to 12 monitor mixes to work with which almost made things worse because now your not sharing and you get too picky :) Those systems are beond the scope of a weekend band. That involves an seperate mixer aptly called the Monitor mixer. Those are specially designed boards with up to 24 matrixes. The stage mikes and DI's all pass throught his board first and are iso connected to the snake to carry on to FOH.
These days large bands are best off with in ears monitors.
Each floor monitor system is a whole PA in itself with a price tag of easily $600 per speaker. That money could be put towards personal monitors,,, see the other thread here about that topic.
Myself I like side fills with In ears as the best of both worlds. Last band I was in we had no stage speakers at all.
Great info! Really helps me a lot. So besides the Aux's i can send a sub mix to a monitor as well? So it's just like another aux output?
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Cactus Music
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Re: Monitor mixes for a live band
2017/10/03 16:25:14
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Somanyquestions
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Re: Monitor mixes for a live band
2017/10/03 16:56:48
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