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.