Death, taxes and monitors are three things that will never go away. Unfortunately, we can’t help you with the first two, but we do have some ideas on how you can create better monitor mixes.
1. Take Care of A to P Before You Go to Q
At least once a week evaluate your wedges for proper operation. Just because no one recently complained about the sound quality of a monitor doesn’t mean it’s operating properly.
Start by running pink noise through each wedge, initially at a low volume level. Make sure that all of the drivers are playing. If the monitors are bi-amped, mute the outputs from either the crossover or the power amps so that you can hear individual drivers. This might be difficult with active monitors; the work-around is to research the crossover frequency and filter your pink noise signal to direct audio only to the desired driver.
Once you have the noise generator “patched” to the monitor output, insert an EQ (hardware or software) on that output. Set one band of the EQ to a high-pass or low-pass filter and remove the frequency range that you don’t want to hear. For example, to hear only the woofer in a bi-amped active monitor, use a low-pass filter set to a turnover frequency similar to that of the monitor’s crossover frequency. Then switch to a high-pass filter so that you can hear the HF driver. After you have determined that both transducers are working, turn up the volume and listen for rattles or buzzes. If you hear anything suspicious, switch to a sine wave and sweep from low to high frequency (say 50 Hz up to 12 kHz). Listening to a sine wave sucks, but it will reveal any problems very quickly.
2. Thou Shalt Not Lie (On Top of the Monitor Desk)
Cue wedges are great, but they often lie, so don’t rely upon them to give you an accurate representation of what a performer is hearing on stage. Go and walk to the performer’s position. From there, you can hear things like how loud the drummer is playing, or how loud the guitar amp is — things that let you know performers’ needs based upon their physical location — and not just based on what you hear in a cue wedge.
3. Flat Response is Highly Overrated
While you have that pink noise generator out, it would not hurt to eyeball the frequency response of each monitor with a measurement microphone — if for no other reason than to ensure that crossovers are set correctly for bi-amped, passive monitors. However, don’t put too much faith in the need for flat monitor response. Just because you can EQ for flat response using pink noise and an RTA doesn’t mean that the monitor will sound good or it won’t feed back. That’s why we often need to…
4. Maximize Gain Before Feedback
In many stage situations, monitors must run as loud as possible without feedback, and the process of ringing out the monitors helps achieve this. Many installed monitor rigs have a 31-band graphic EQ patched on each output bus, which can be helpful for ringing out monitors. For example, if you have a ringing at 1.6k Hz, you can reduce it by bringing down the 1.6k Hz slider on a graphic. However, problem frequencies often fall between the standard ISO frequencies of a graphic EQ, so you may need to see the next tip.
5. Love Thy Parametric EQ
A parametric EQ can help you get “in the cracks” between the ISO frequencies of a 31-band EQ, and there’s nothing wrong with using both EQ types simultaneously. This is easily done on a digital desk where you can patch software EQs on the monitor bus output, and sometimes can route the output through more than one type of (EQ) processor. A parametric EQ will let you “sweep” through the frequency range until you find the exact frequency you are looking for. Furthermore, many parametrics let you narrow the bandwidth until it becomes a notch filter, slicing out the offending band of frequencies without disturbing much else.
6. Don’t Squeeze Too Hard
Compressing a wedge mix may sound like a good idea — until you actually do it. Here’s the problem: In general, we are trying to achieve maximum gain before feedback to get the monitors louder. So let’s look at a loud vocal wedge with a lot of compression in slow motion. Your lead vocalist starts singing and the compression on the wedge clamps down the level, or at least reduces the vocalist’s dynamics. They sing louder but do not hear themselves louder in the wedge, because of the compressor’s action. They ask you to turn up their wedge, and you do so, because (a) you are a very attentive engineer and (b) you’re getting paid $1,500 per night. As the vocalist stops singing, the compressor begins to “let go” (stops controlling) the gain, releasing the clamp, resulting in more gain. That gain fosters feedback — feedback that will happen only when the vocalist stops. When they start singing again, the compressor reduces the gain and the feedback goes away. If you are not aware of this, it will drive you nuts all night long. It may be a better idea to set the threshold and ratio of a compressor high, allowing it to act more like a limiter at very loud levels —thus protecting your gear and, possibly, the vocalist’s hearing.
7. Honor Thy Pickup Pattern
Microphone manufacturers go to great lengths to design mics that reject unwanted sound. We should respect this. If your singer is using a cardioid mic, place the wedge so that it faces the back of the mic (i.e., aim it at the XLR connector). This is the spot where a cardioid mic has maximum rejection. On the other hand, if the mic is super- or hypercardioid, there is a pickup lobe at the rear of the mic so the monitor(s) should be moved slightly to the side of the performer. For a more detailed discussion, see T&P from April 2012, “Mixing Monitors from the Front of House,” page 41.
8. Less Is More
Just because your performer has two ears does not mean they need two wedges. The less crap you can have blowing all over the stage, the better. In the case of a vocalist using a hyper- or super-cardioid mic — just because those patterns have two “nulls” — does not mean that the performer needs two wedges. One wedge facing into the mic’s pickup null can be very effective at keeping the overall stage volume reasonable, and less wedges means less monitor sound spilling into the FOH mix.
9. Watch Those Drum Mics
Drum fills should be placed with care. I’m always amused to see a big-ass drum fill placed behind the drummer, blowing directly into the drum mics. It’s even better when that fill is so #%!@^& loud that it spills downstage into the lead singer’s mic. No, no, NO! Move that thing off to the side so that it’s not on-axis to the drum mics. Drum fills directly captured by the drum mics increase the chance for feedback and create phase issues in the FOH mix. One solution is to make the drum fill smaller, and perhaps use a butt thumper to fill in the low-end. No matter how you try, drum monitors will likely be on-axis to one or two drum mics, but contemplate the idea of using smaller wedges (they’re easier to place) and be creative with location and angle of those wedges. Take advantage of the fact that high frequencies “beam,” and make sure HF drivers are aimed at the drummer’s ears (a good rule of thumb for all of the performers).
10. Cut, Copy and Paste? — Not!
Just because two performers are using identical wedges does not mean those wedges can use the same EQ settings. “Identical” wedges may sound different due to driver fatigue, manufacturing tolerances and the alcohol content of beverages that have been spilled into the woofer. Also, the performers may be using different mics. Here, encouraging everyone in the band to agree on using the same brand and model of vocal mic may help feedback issues. (Good luck with that!) Also, even if the bassist is using the same brand/model mic as the lead vocalist, those mics may sound different for the same reasons as identical wedges. Finally, even if the wedges and mics are exactly the same, no two performers have the same vocal timbre, and their physical location on the stage will require different EQ. You might be able to copy and paste as a starting point, but don’t expect it to be a fast fix.
