Inside IEM Mixes: Electric

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.

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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.

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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

New series…Inside IEM Mixes

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!

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Next time:  electric guitar IEM mix

Unwritten Rules of Mixing Monitors Part 2

Continuing the discussion from Friday, here is part 2 of a cool thread I ran across recently on one of the discussion forums about the unwritten rules for mixing monitors that they don’t teach you at Full Sail.  This is all the kinds of things I think many of us take for granted but will take a growing engineer up several levels by mastering.  Credit goes to everyone who contributed to the thread!

1. This is mostly personal preference, but I like having my cue wedge on the ground just like the performers have it. Some people put them up high on cases, but I think I should be hearing it exactly like the performer does, so mine goes on the ground.
2. Keep your eyes open: sometimes you can ‘see’ where feedback comes from and fix it easier than trying to guess where it is coming from…
3. For festivals I sharpie and board tape “You’re sound guy’s name is __________________” on the monitors.
4. For tours I sharpie and board tape “You’re playing in ________________” on the monitors.
5. Get the band to work on the best stage balance they can before you add wedges, this can save a lot of grief and makes the job a whole lot easier. I know of at least one band (and have heard of others) who taken to moving back-line offstage (usually to the wings) to keep levels sensible.
6. Listen to what the artist asks for in their mix, then give them what they need. If you get a good working balance, with good musicians you shouldn’t have to push faders around much as they will be able to make adjustments themselves in their own dynamics. This has the added benefit of the artists being able to communicate better, musically, and should lead to a much better vibe on stage, hopefully leading to a great gig. They feel good, they are happy with the monitors because they were able to play well, you get the credit, win, win , win!
7. Amateur vocalist that have problems staying on the mic and pulling away, lowering their level in the monitors can help get them the on top of mic better in an effort to hear themselves. From time to time I’ll get vocalists that will back off the mic when the monitors are hot, then complain they can’t hear themselves. Then the vicious circle of upping the gain, hacking the EQ, them backing off the mic more may ensue. Dropping their level all the time may not help, but it often can when they are afraid hot monitors whilst on on top of the mic.
8. I also put “Mix # _____” on the tape, for the artist to see. It helps them in sound checks feel more involved and communication is good.
9. I think a lot of the discussion in this thread is saying “get the band on your side early into the game by serving them with a pro attitude.”  If there’s ever a situation where they’re just not happy in the check, I always go out on the deck and listen next to them, rather than just sit on my butt and use the listen wedge. This is usually a good thing to do for both tech shooting and gaining trust with the band. “Can do” is always the best approach.
10. When troubleshooting a problem such as no sound from a channel or mix, don’t turn it up before isolating the problem. When you do find the problem you could end up with horrible feedback until you can get to the trim or mix level.

Unwritten Rules of Mixing Monitors Part 1

I came across a cool thread recently on one of the discussion forums about the unwritten rules for mixing monitors that they don’t teach you at Full Sail (I added that last part!).  This is all the kinds of things I think many of us take for granted but will take a growing engineer up several levels by mastering.  Part 1 today, part 2 on Monday.  Credit goes to everyone who contributed to the thread!

1. Never put anything in someone’s wedge mix they didnt ask for.
2. Never change a mix after the third song, unless its a ballad or something rehearsed in soundcheck.
3. The best soundcheck adjustment can be moving a monitor slightly or changing the angle using a short 2×4.
4. Know what your wedges and IEM’s sound like. Know what wedges sound like solo, in pairs, and with and without the foh rig on.
5. Every stage is different but low end and especially low mids build up fast with 6 or 8 wedges all blasting away. Once you start adding a vocal to 2 or 3 different mixes you may have to start dialing back more low end than you did when you tuned one wedge with one vocal in it.
6. Be responsive. Sometimes on crowded stages this is hard to do when every musician seems to have wishes at once.
7. Don’t rely on your cue wedge all the time. Listen on stage whenever you can during soundcheck time so you can hear the actual mix, wegde and stagenoise combined on the musicians spot.
8. When the stage is loud and the singer wants more of his/her vocal in the wedge, and you’ve reached the point where this can’t be easily done, you can often subtract competing instruments/vocal from the mix and solve the problem.
9. Unless it is specified on a rider, number your mixes from downstage to upstage, and from stage right to stage left. This is consistent with how you would see it from FOH. It should also match the way vocals are typically laid out too. It doesn’t matter which side of the stage you are on, keep the mixes the same way. Usually the drum mix is the last mix in line.  A typical 4 piece band would be like this. Downstage right is mix 1. Center vocal is mix 2. Downstage left is mix 3. Drums are mix 4. You will find that this numbering scheme has become a de facto standard in the SR world and engineers and bands alike will appreciate the consistency.
10. Take care of your ears. The stage is a very, very loud place to be. Add in the fact that you have to listen to a cue wedge at pretty extreme volumes to get over the stage wash only makes it worse. I usually mix 2-3 songs off the wedge, then pop in my ear buds and use the headphone out on the console. This really helps you prevent ear fatigue, and it actually lets you here those tiny squeeks a little easier.

What are yours?  Add them in the comments section.

Videoblog: PQ Tour

How did we live before PQ?

I need to take a few minutes to sing the praises of the Digidesign PQ controllers as a part of a Venue system.  I know there are some other alternatives out there, but after going through my first major holiday on our Venue platform, I can’t imagine doing monitoring any other way without adding another console (which is out of the question for us).

When Kensington began 18 years ago, FOH and monitor duties were covered by a single desk and operator.  Fast forward 18 years and FOH, monitor, and broadcast duties are still covered by a single desk and operator.  Because we’ve lived this way for so long, it is not in our paradigm to do it differently.  Enter PQ.  Now we get the best of both worlds because we are still technically functioning under a single desk and operator, but we’ve been able to move the far bulk of monitor mixing out of the engineer’s head and into the hands of the artists.

The magic of the PQ system for us is in a couple things…

1. Because PQ is simply a remote control for a stereo matrix on the console, we are able to provide an artist with control whether they are using ears or wedges.  Our stage is probably 80% ears week to week, but there’s normally a mix or two of wedges in each service.  Because PQ is so tightly integrated into the console, I don’t have to worry about giving the artist control since if it gets out of hand, I also have access to the mix.
2. Being able to automate PQ mixes throughout a service is really cool.  I’ve found that the majority of our guys would rather not have their mixes automated since they don’t need very many changes.  But PQ ties so cleanly into the console automation that it is wonderful to be able to offer a patch or level change to be stored so they don’t have to worry about it.
3. It sounds great.  I’ve listened to some other systems and have never been impressed by how they actually sound.  PQ really sounds good.  You can drive it hard and it will respond just like the console – smooth and analog sounding.
4. Because no audio passes through the PQ controller, we’ve been very successful giving a mixer to the stage center worship leader for rehearsal so they have full flexibility to dial their mix, store it into each song’s snapshot, then remove the mixer for the service so we don’t have to look at it.  Works great!

Now it is rare to have to worry about monitors.  Soundcheck has been revolutionized because we don’t have to spend all the time for me to do FOH things – dial gain and get stuff happening, then go around the stage and build everyone’s mixes.  Once I’ve established gain for everyone, the band just needs to run a verse/chorus a time or two so that everyone can dial in, and we’re ready to go.  It should go without saying that I’m also able to provide a better FOH product because of not having to think about monitors.