Monitor Cam

Dave Skaff shared an interesting story on building the relationship with U2 as their monitor engineer. As you know, their stage designs are always very open and unique with the monitor desks placed under the stage, viewing the performers via video on their consoles.

I asked what were the challenges in trying to communicate and be in relationship with the band when you’re so disconnected by location. Video was so important to him in seeing the band, but he also relied heavily on an internal talkback system between him and the band techs so they could pass on notes to him from the guys. He also spent time up on the deck listening to what they were hearing for context.

What I found really interesting wasn’t so much what Dave needed but what Larry, the drummer, requested. Larry wanted a camera so that he could see Dave at all times down under the deck. His biggest concern was knowing when he needed something that he could see Dave responding. This little psychology lesson is HUGE towards the importance of good relationship and communication between the engineer and band.

Dave said as he was early in his relationship with them, they were used to it taking a long time or require multiple requests before changes would be made. Their requirement to him were that changes happen FAST – 10 seconds or less. With this in mind, in order to train them that he was always watching, he would sometimes make drastic changes when asked knowing full well he’d dial it in more finely but he wanted them to know he was paying attention.

On one of the largest stages in the world, for arguably the biggest band in the world, the same rules apply: responsiveness, attention to detail, and relationship are everything for success in the world of audio!

Sound Check Process…

Some of you know I’ve been actively working towards learning and implementing a consistent sound check process for Kensington at the urging of our music director a few months ago. Remember that we do not have monitor engineers at KCC, so everything is done from FOH at all of our campuses. While my personal process has worked, based on my time spent as a monitor engineer on the road a few years ago, many of our campus engineers or guys who mix when I’m off weren’t having the same luck getting monitor mixes up and going fast and effectively. Sometimes it took as long as 45 minutes to get a 5 piece band checked and in our fast-paced world, this just isn’t acceptable.

I’ve been so focused on the importance of effective leadership from the engineer lately and a lot of that came out of the creation of this process. Here it is and it really is pretty simple. Are you ready?

LEAD.

Talk one on one with each band member as they arrive for rehearsal, help them setup and get comfortable, then go out to FOH and set their preliminary gain and signal integrity while they noodle by informally asking each to play a bit as they come online.

Then once you know everyone is ready to go, tell them where you’re going, then do it. My words are this:

“Ok guys, we’re going to get our check done and your mixes up quickly so you can get started rehearsing. Here’s the plan: I’m going to have each of you play for me one at a time. Once you start playing, everybody motion to me up, down, or stop with your hand when you have enough of the player in your monitor. Once we’re good with the first guy, we’ll move on until we’re through everybody. Ok? Here we go, let’s start with the…”

That’s it. Then do it. There are a couple tricks I’ve found that I think are helpful to making it work from here:

1. You have to be fast. If this takes too long to get through building the mixes, you’re no better off. So know your console, know where your mixes are located, have them labeled, and move fast.

2. Bring up the input in the house first before you put it in everybody’s monitors. Don’t worry about tone in the house, just get the level in a place where the fader is in the range you want it, tweak the gain so you’ll be comfortable creating your house mix since once you commit to channel gain and build mixes, you have to live with it. Then put it into everybody’s monitors. I missed this for a while and if you do, you end up with hotter monitor mixes than is normally needed since they don’t have the reference of what the house will add to the equation.

3. Think for your musicians so you can move fast. Assume someone is going to need a little bit of everything and let them tell you when they don’t. This is much faster in practice than asking everyone who wants each input before you actually start bringing it up in their mix. Same goes for the kit…assume everyone is going to want some kick/snare/hat and treat them as a group. You’ll waste gobs of time if you have to ask everyone who wants kick, then who wants snare, etc etc.

With some practice, you should be able to sound check a band in no more than 10 or 15 minutes. Bands you work with all the time will be even less than that. The most amazing part I’ve found is that, especially when working with new guys you’ve never been with before, at the end of the day when you’re wrapping up, you’ll be very surprised at the feedback you hear. Countless times, band members do not tell me about how great their mix was on stage (although it was) or that so and so said it sounded great in the house (although it usually does). They thank me for a smooth sound check and getting them what they need so quickly because it set the tone for the entire day, made everyone feel comfortable and set them off on the right track from the getgo.

Try it. It takes guts to be willing to take charge and lead, but I promise you it works. I’m watching some of our other engineers start implementing and it’s going to work for them too. Thanks Danny for the advice!

UPDATE: The question came up about not really dealing with rough EQ before starting monitor mixes.  First, for some channels, like kick and snare, the rough EQ is a part of my default scene on our console, so it is already roughed in when we start the day.  For guitars, acoustics, and bass, I’ve been running our monitor mixes for these channels pre-EQ as well as pre-fader.  That way, what the player hears on stage is exactly what the mic is picking up and I can do whatever I need to do for the house without effecting him.  Our guys have really liked this because it makes it easier for them to turn down their guitar amps when necessary and still trust their tone coming from the wedge.  If the tone doesn’t sound right in the wedge, we need to address mic placement, mic choice, or their settings because what they’re hearing is what I’m starting with in the house as well.

Cool monitor mix trick

(This is kinda a hybrid of the stereo monitors mix idea.)

I really like having two mixes down front for a lead vocal rather than one. At KCC right now, I havethree wedges down front rather than two, split up so the outside pair is Mix 1 and the center wedge is Mix 2. When there is a vocalist down front, I set it up so the outside pair is a nice band mix with kick/snare, bass, some guitars, and maybe even a bit of keys. The center mix is vocals only. The result is a mix for the vocalist where they can hear their voice front and center in their face, but they also don’t feel so isolated down there because they feel the band directly all around them, have good pitch and time reference, etc.

This also works well whenever band guys have to come down front for solos or artistic stuff because that outside mix only needs a bit of tweaking to be a great band mix for them to play from. This worked well for Fight Club Jesus weekend with the Nickelback tune when the bass player and lead guitar came down front on either side of the lead vocal for the entire song.

When Danny is leading worship and wearing ears, I turn off the center wedge since he’s getting vocals primarily from his ears, but keep the outside mix pretty well as is. This gives him a great sense of space, again so it doesn’t feel so naked and exposed down front all by yourself.

In cases where we have a bunch of vocalists (more than one), the two mixes can easily be treated as a single vocal mix just by what’s assigned to them, allowing you to spread out the outside wedges a bit more from their normal position and cover a larger area of the stage lip for good vocal mix coverage.

I think I’m going to keep that third monitor there for a while.

Stereo wedge mixes

Stereo Stage Mixes: Pro and Con
By Dan Laveglia

Try It, You’ll Like It…Maybe
For a long time I wondered about mixing wedges in stereo. I was sure it would sound good, so recently I took the plunge and set up a pair of loudspeakers to see what it was all about.

For about a week I tried different things to see what I could find out. During the afternoons on show days I listened to various instruments and vocal mics. In many ways the sound was better than listening in mono. Particularly when a stereo reverb was applied to a vocal mic, or listening to the grand piano. (We have a seven-foot Steinway with three Barcus Berry Planar Wave pickups to choose from.) I continued to monitor during the shows, using my cue wedges in stereo and setting up a mix with EQ’s for myself with real musicians playing real instruments during the performance.

It was really no surprise that this set up was more pleasing to the ears, but was it actually a better stage-monitoring configuration?

All Things Being Equal
What I learned initially was that the equalizers being used must be set precisely in order to keep things where you place them in the stereo mix. I suggest using a stereo unit that tracks both channels with one adjustment if you must go here. The wedges (including their crossovers and power amplifiers) must be well matched too so that you have very consistent performance from both the left and right loudspeakers. This is essential for controlling the stereo field you are trying to create.

Differences in the frequency response between channels in this type of configuration will cause things to shift location in different ways within the field. For example, if you assigned the high hat to your stereo wedges, with the pan slightly to the left, but the speaker on the left was deficient in reproducing the main frequencies contained in this sound (compared to the right speaker), the apparent location of this source when you listened would not be where the pan pot indicated!

While this in itself may not seem too large a hurdle, consider an instrument that reproduces a wide range of frequencies like an acoustic guitar. While it might sound “spacious” being played as a rhythm instrument by itself, I don’t think you really want the guitar to pan from one side to the other as the player picks a lead break playing up or down a scale of notes. (Or maybe you do?)

The addition of more instruments and more deviations at other frequencies soon presents the listener with an auditory mess. Remember, we are trying to accurately monitor audio on a stage in a live acoustic environment.

Sometimes You Do and Sometimes…
Assuming that you have been successful in setting up and tuning your stereo wedges so that the spectral shift is not an issue, this configuration can present good results in some applications. Many keyboard players gain advantage in being able to hear what their rigs are doing in stereo. Even a guitar player with a true stereo set-up may like to hear exactly what he is sending to FOH. Good players will use the stereo mix as a tool to make them even better. But these examples are different. They are for monitoring a stereo instrument with an appropriate playback system, not trying to place mono instruments in a stereo field.

Yes, it is possible to get a great stereo sound and a great mix going with the right console and some good loudspeakers. Guys do it at FOH all the time, right? But as I mentioned above, we are trying to create an environment on the stage where it is easy for the band to hear what they want to hear. Do you really want to create phantom images of instruments and voices in an area between two loudspeakers to make it easier for the musicians to hear? In most cases I don’t think so.

However…
With that said I would like to add that with the right musicians, under the right circumstances, good results are certainly possible. But it will require a musician who understands what he is listening to, and a willingness to experiment to achieve the desired results. (It won’t be something you just stumble on and it’s right.) As for a one-off with a band you’ve never heard…. I won’t be trying it.

In Your Space… or In Your Face
When all of the experimenting was done, when it was actually show time, I made one simple observation that decided it all for me. Yes, stereo instruments sounded better and effects were wonderful…but you know that sound when you are listening to stereo program on your headphones and then you hit the mono switch? BAM… all of a sudden the image is right in the middle of you head, and oh so balanced between your ears. Well, I observe the same phenomena with two wedges in mono. With the loudspeakers placed properly in front of the musician, a mono mix puts the sound (particularly your own vocal) right in your face! And if the object is for the musician to easily hear what he wants in his mix, especially in a difficult environment… I’m going to mix audio the old fashioned way.