I’ve had quite a few questions regarding ambience mic technique, what to use, etc.  We now use three sets of ambience/audience mics, each with a different purpose for capturing the room.  Inspired by some great discussion on the Digidesign User Forum, my implementation is…

Mics #1 are a set of Audio Technica 835 shotgun mics (purchased for this project) on the outside corners of our stage, mounted just under our side screens, pointed out into the room.  These are the primary audience pickup source because so much of the audience’s energy is directed towards the stage that these do a great job of capturing without adding too much PA to the mix.  They’re inexpensive and sound good for what I’m using them for.  You could certainly upgrade the make/model here to something more boutique but this serves our purposes well.

Mics #2 are a set of Crown PCCs placed on the lip of the stage at the 1/3 and 2/3 lines from left to right.  These combine with the shotguns to provide some presence and immediacy to the signal since another set of shotguns wouldn’t be acceptable aesthetically in these positions.

Mics #3 are a pair of Shure SM81s hung from the first catwalk, almost at the half way point of the room, also on the 1/3 and 2/3 lines to the stage.  These mics serve almost entirely the purpose of room ambience – making the mix sound like it is happening in the auditorium rather than happening in a dead studio.

The three sets of ambience mics serve dual purpose for us – ambience for IEM and ambience for the broadcast/record feed.  In the IEM world, we lean most heavily on the shotguns at the front of the room at the corners of the stage and supplement that with the PCCs on the front of the stage towards the center.  These mics are used mainly because they provide localization of what the artist is hearing in their ears.  For example, when someone to the artist’s right calls to the stage, we want everyone on stage to turn their head in that direction.  Likewise, if someone on the front row is singing their heart out, it’s cool for the artists to be able to sense that from those PCCs on the front of the stage.  That localization goes leaps and bounds towards breaking down the isolation.  Every artist is different with how much ambience is just right.

We may still look to add an additional set or two but I’m stuck because adding them will mean needing to deal with delay times between those mics and the rest currently in place.  Two of my current three sets are directly in line with the PA so there’s little issue there.  The delay induced by the third set certainly does some phase stuff to the mix but the added space it puts in the mix when the speaker is up is worth the compromise to me.  So we’ve dodged the bullet to this point and I’d like to avoid having to go there with more mics.  This is one of the only limitations of creating the broadcast mix inside the Venue rather than in an outboard mixer/processor.  There is no way to have the degree of time alignment control that would be needed in the broadcast feed without making other more significant sacrifices.

The shotguns are the most important piece of the puzzle for me because their pickup pattern is most effective at picking up the audience and rejecting PA and stage bleed.  The PCCs are next important to fill in the center stage imaging – think of the shotguns panned hard left and right and the PCCs panned at 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock or 10 and 2.  The hanging mics are almost halfway back in the room and that time delay adds depth to the ambience space. For IEMs, it can be distracting.  But for broadcast, it enhances the size of the room and makes it feel more real when you’re listening back.

It’s been fun going through this IEM journey the past 2 weeks.  To wrap up the series, I thought I would post the full songs that all of the mixes were taken from you so can see the context of the performances.

These two tunes are from an all-worship series we did in late August/early September. First, “My Savior, My God”…

Next, a Danny Cox original I’ve posted before but with a fresh mix of the track…

Thanks everybody.  Back to regularly scheduled programming next time around.

We finally made it to the last and likely most important mix in the IEM series…lead vocal/worship leader.  In this particular example our lead vocal is also playing acoustic, so not surprisingly you’ll hear those two inputs most focused in the mix.

As with some of the other mixes we’ve discussed, our vocalists seem to largely prefer their voices dry…if they want to wetten things up, adding more of the extras channel does the trick.  This works well in our particular setup since the vocals are fed to the IEM system direct off of board channels – adding verb would increase the complexity of routing.

I strongly encourage everyone who wears ears to keep both sides in all the time.  My primary reasoning is that your brain does a cool thing when it receives similar input from both ears in summing that source 6 dB internally.  So, if you only wear one ear, you’re going to have to turn up your IEM mix approximately 6 dB in order for it to feel as loud as both ears in.  Obviously you have to be really careful with this because an untrained artist could easily cause themselves hearing damage night after night of crazy levels in their IEM.

I say all that to say, the mix an artist wants changes pretty dramatically depending on whether they are wearing one or two ears.  These mixes you’re going to listen to today are one ear in mixes, so you’ll find that the acoustic, vocal, and click are WAY more out front then in the other mixes we’ve analyzed since the artist is getting a lot of their sound ambiently through their other ear not wearing the IEM.

Our philosophy at Kensington regarding ears has been to do everything possible to gain band acceptance.  By doing that, the stage volume lowers significantly and vocals have a much easier time just hearing themselves through a wedge.  I’ve mentioned that we have 6 channels of wired ears and 1 wireless transmitter/receiver system.  Because of this wireless limitation, we haven’t pushed very many vocalists to jump to ears.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing since vocalists often have a much harder time adjusting to performing through IEM systems then instrumentalists because it can effect their pitch center, how loudly they perceive their head voice, etc.  So we’ve had good success getting musicians on ears and, by doing that, getting enough sonic space on stage for the vocalists to be able to hear themselves comfortably through wedges and not have to deal with their transition yet.

I’ve heard from another large church that they have the policy that a new vocalist must sing BGV on ears for at least 6 months in order to get used to them before they would ever ask them to sing lead VOX.  I can certainly see the wisdom in that approach.

We’ll wrap this whole thing up next time with the live mixes of the 2 songs we’ve been using for test material so you can hear overall context.  See you then!

Continuing the IEM series, today we’re talking about the keys mix. We’re departing from the two tunes we’ve used for the rest of this series since there weren’t any keys in that band.

On a given week, we submix as many as three keys sources in mono to send to the IEMs. The first source is Ivory from our Slam Grand.  If the piano shell is not in the set, often times I will still run MIDI out of the primary keyboard into the Ivory system so that tone is available if we want a grand piano patch in the day.  The other two inputs are our house keys – a Yamaha Motif8 and a Korg Triton.  Every once in a while one of our artists might bring in their own boards but it doesn’t happen very often in a month.

I was concerned when we first installed our IEM system that the keys would need to be in stereo just like the drum kit in the ears mixes and that would present channel count issues with our desired allocation.  Thankfully, I don’t think anyone has ever commented on the keys being submixed to mono rather than stereo.  As a result, the only truly stereo submixes in the ears are the drum mix and the extras channels.  Everything else goes to the IEMs in mono and can be panned around in each individual mix as desired.

I’ve received a few questions via email for more information about the ambience mics specifically so I am preparing more info about that to tag onto the end of this series.

With that said, check this out…

Next time we’ll listen to the final IEM mix – lead vocal/worship leader.  Thanks for reading!

Continuing our series on IEM mixes, today we’re going to focus on the drummer’s mix.  If you’ve missed the other parts of this series, go back through the last few days posts to catch up.  Sorry for the data dumps in some of these posts but I’m just trying to make sure I cover things as thoroughly as possible.

When we first adapted the PQ system for our IEM mixes, I was concerned that a stereo drum mix that everyone shared might cause problems.  The reality couldn’t be further from that.  A stereo aux creates the submix for the drums and it is slaved to the channel pan so whatever panning is done for the house translates to the ears.  I actually leave the sends to this aux set to unity in my default console setup.  That way, as I soundcheck the drums, I can build my house mix with the faders near unity and it translates almost perfectly to the ears.  It is RARE to need to tweak the mix for the ears – I actually can’t tell you the last time I listened to it other than preparing for these posts.  It just works every time.

By now you should be sensing some trends.  The ears mixes are pretty dry and really simple.  If we had a separate monitor desk, I’m sure there are more things we could do to make the environment even better for the artists (things like manually riding audience levels, riding solos, adding effects if desired, etc) but this system works for our guys, as evidenced by the wide acceptance factor.

Song #1 is still “My Savior, My God”.  Check it out…

Song #2 adds the click and track.  Again the click takes almost singular focus in the mix since everyone is locking to it.  I can’t speak very much into what it takes to be successful with the whole click track thing from an artist perspective.  Kensington has been using click’s for so long that it was just something we do by the time I got here.

Again, if there are questions, let’s use the comments section to discuss.

Next time:  keys mixes.  We’ll have to use different songs then the ones we’ve been using so far since there wasn’t a keys player in this band.  It will be good to change it up a bit, as well!

Today’s IEM mix we’re going to evaluate is from our bass guitar player. Again, there’s very little processing on the mix. This one would probably benefit from listening on better speakers then those on a laptop. The experience is pretty different for me listening to these clips on my speakers vs. on some good IEMs so you’ll probably find the same thing.

Right now is a good time to stress the importance of good ear pieces in order to achieve wide acceptance.  When I started at Kensington, all that we owned were some Shure E1s and NO ONE was excited to put those things on for anything.  The first time we did a band with ears for a holiday, everyone but the bass player wore E1s and it was painful.  Now we use Shure products exclusively (I’ve written about this before – check the archives if you’re interested in why) and have a mix of SCL3, SCL4, and SCL5′s.  Since I consider us still in the early days of a transition campus-wide to IEM, only a small handful of our artists own their own ear pieces.  Most use our house sets.  We stock the replacement foam and change it for each set whenever a new artist is using them.

Focusing now on the mix, our artists get a stereo drum mix to their PQ mixer for their IEMs. Everyone gets the same drum mix and we find that works fine for us. The only exception is that the bass player also gets the kick channel individually in addition to the stereo mix since bass players always want more kick then the rest of the band. When you listen to the first clip from “My Savior, My God”, the first thing that jumps out is the placement of kick and bass in relation to everything else in the mix. There’s also quite a bit more of the extras channels in this mix then in the electric mix we listened to last time. One caveat though – due to the channel limitations of our system on this particular night, the bass player chose to have mono extras rather than the normal stereo. Personally the stereo part of ambience is really important to me but this particular artist isn’t reliant on ambience so its a simple trade off. I’m actually surprised in listening to his mix that he has this much extras present. Regardless…

The second clip, like last time, adds a click and track into the mix. What is interesting is that with this mix, the click is pretty buried. In fact, once the drums kick in I don’t think it is very present at all. Again you can get a better idea of the importance of the extras channel in the mix when you hear the crowd singing along.

Again, if there are questions, let’s use the comments section for this. I’m really not sure what else is helpful to share.

Next time: drums IEM mixes

Today we’re continuing the series on IEM mixes.  I’m in my fourth year mixing at Kensington and when I started here, every artist on stage used a wedge and those wedge mixes were created for better or for worse at FOH.  The job was daunting, to say the least.  Fast forward to today and all but three artists (40+) now use IEM solely when they play at our main Troy campus (the portable campuses have not begun transitioning to IEM yet but hopefully soon!).  All of these things I’m sharing in this series of posts are things we’ve learned along the way in order to gain such wide acceptance from artists.  This is by no means the only way to do it but it is OUR way.

The first IEM mix we’re going to evaluate is lead guitar. Most of our worship arrangements are electric driven so this is a pretty important place to start. Our mixes are generally very dry and we use the extras channels to add space when desired. I’ve worked with artists who like more processing in their ears but this setup seems to work for our artists since we don’t have a dedicated monitor engineer.  There isn’t any significant processing on the mixes you’re going to listen to – they are created with a stereo PQ channel on the Venue, the on-board limiter is engaged to protect the output on the top end, and that mix then feeds the wired IEM system.

I have two samples from tunes to listen to for the electric guitar artist. This first one is from “My Savior, My God”. The instrumentation is electric, acoustic, bass, drums, lead vocal, and BGV. It sounds a little cliche, but you’ll quickly see as we go through this series that each person’s mix probably starts with a “more me” philosophy. This makes sense when you remember that I strongly encourage all of our artists to wear both ears all the time and this results in lots of isolation from the outside world in what they’re hearing. The result is a big need to hear what the artist is doing individually, and then surround that with the other instruments to provide timing, pitch, and ensemble. The band is not playing to a click in this one so you’ll see where our artist placed the drums in relation to everything else. I think it is interesting how out front his guitar really is in his mix, yet you can clearly maintain the placement of the kit, vocal, and the worship leader’s acoustic.

DISCLAIMER – this obviously isn’t the only way to build an IEM mix but hopefully it is helpful to hear what a really good musician is listening to.

The second sample is a little different in the band is playing to a click & track. At the start of the tune, you’ll hear the count off and a really broken down intro. The electric is just doing atmosphere stuff at the beginning and really kicks in at 1:12. The interesting thing here is the difference in placement between the click and the drum kit in this one. As I listen to the mixes that most of our guys dial in, it seems when playing to a click, everyone really dials into that click and keeps it out front with the kit tucking in behind it. This might just be a preference thing but it works for our guys since everyone is so used to playing to a click. Obviously your mileage may vary.

If you have any questions based on what you’re hearing, feel free to use the comments on this post for discussion.

Next time: IEM mixes for bass

One of the biggest questions and challenges I hear about from other audio guys, especially in churches, has to do with IEM mixes – what should be in them, what do good ones sound like, how do you help your artists have successful mixes, etc. etc.

Today we’re going to start a little journey over the next 2 weeks to cover each major instrument – bass, electric, keys, drums, and vocals – and talk about what makes good mixes for each category.  I also have actual samples that I have recorded so you can hear what real guys dialed in and we’ll analyze each one.  I’ll be posting Mon-Wed-Fri this week and next to continue this little series.

To start things off, I want to refer you to a video blog I did a few months ago about our PQ system that might be helpful so you can see more about how our particular system functions for our artists, just for context.

Next, a tool that is REALLY critical to good IEM mixes is what we call our “extras channel”.  A common complaint you’ll hear from artists who are first transitioning to IEM is that it can feel really disconnecting and isolating.  All of a sudden, guys hear themselves in glaring detail – for good and for bad.  If the tone is aweful, it’s much easier to ignore it when its just coming from an amp at your feet or a wedge.  When it’s in your ear, there’s no escaping it.  The biggest trick to making the ears feel real and less isolating is effective use of ambience mics.  I’ve written about this before, but we have three sets of ambience mics that I use as the primary foundation of our “extras channel” – a set of shotguns on the side of the stage, a set of PCC mics on the 1/3 and 2/3 lines of our stage lip, and a set of small diaphragm condensors hanging over the crowd about half way back.  These mics are mixed on a stereo aux that is fed to the IEM.

The “extras channel” allows the artist to decide how isolated they want to feel when they’re wearing their IEMs.  It is really important that this mix be stereo so it will feel right.  A couple of our guys choose to have mono extras just because they want to use one of their PQ channels for something else, but for the majority of artists I don’t recommend letting them go mono.  Stereo is really important.

Along with the ambience mics, I also mix post fader sources for anything else the artist might need when they AREN’T playing so they can remain connected to what’s going on – speaker and greeter mics, video playback sources that might role while they’re waiting to play, and talkback from the stage manager so they can hear rehearsal requests and communicate back and forth.

Here’s a sample of what the “extras channel” sounds like when we isolate it all by itself during a worship tune.  It really doesn’t sound like much on its own, but the presence that this adds to the mix has done wonders for IEM acceptance at Kensington.  If you don’t have something like this in your ear mixes, you don’t know what you’re missing!

Next time:  electric guitar IEM mix

The past few weeks have been spent doing research and preparing a proposal for an IEM system solution for our portable campuses.  The Troy main campus has over 90% acceptance of IEM over wedges and the results in lowering our stage volume have been awesome, especially in partnership with the on-stage PQ controllers.  However, campuses use wedges exclusively, only with the current exception of the drummer.

There are lots and lots of options when it comes to providing ear pieces for our music team.  Because these will be universal fit, the players are narrowed down a tad, but its still dizzying to consider all of the choices – Shure, Future Sonics, Westone, and Ultimate Ears.  Of these, the Future Sonics Atrio M5 series are my favorite sounding pieces at any price.  They are the only ones on the market that are 100% armature-free which also means a single full range driver with no crossover.  The result is thick, tight low end response and very natural high end that is pristine without sounding hyped.  The difference is pretty remarkable.

However, when it comes to outfitting a department, Shure’s inventory and support seems to be untouchable by the others.  If we’re going to own a bunch of universal fit pieces between 5 campuses, being able to stock bulk orders of the replacement foam becomes extremely important.  Shure is the only one I’m aware of who can meet this criteria.  They even upgraded the material in the past few months away from the yellow foam that was functional but too scratchy in the ear and wore out quickly to a new black material that is denser, sounds better, and stays cleaner longer.

Second, and just as important, is the warranty and support.  Recently I had a couple sets of E4′s that started having what I would consider driver issues where one side either stopped working or didn’t sound quite right (and cleaning them thoroughly didn’t solve the problem).  For less than $10 per set, sending in these broken units to Shure gives you a brand new set a week or two later.

I’m curious if anyone has similar support stories about the other manufacturers.  It seems the trend I see across large programs like ours is that while there may be other choices that sound better, Shure is the staple for ear pieces because of the ease of acquiring large quantities of replacement foam and a generous warranty/service policy.

What do you think?