Before I get into the subject this month, I would like to acknowledge all of you who volunteer to mix sound at your house of worship. For the most part in this country, you are the backbone of worship sound. Considering how important your job is, I have noticed that you guys and gals out there seem to have the least training. So, now you know my motivation for the last few months' worth of subjects. This month, we are going to look into monitors.
Monitor cabinets or wedges, as they are often called, are seen and heard on most worship stages. Like the front-of-house boxes that the congregation hears, stage monitors convert electric energy into acoustic energy (sound) and can come in 2-way or 3-way configurations. However, monitor wedges are designed for a different job than their FOH brothers. Specifically, monitors allow your worship band, singers and choir to hear themselves and their fellow players. That wedge shape is to direct the sound toward the performers, which makes monitors very directional. So, you only need to point them in the direction you want them heard.
Simply, But Not Easy
Even though monitor placement is simple, it is very important. Where you place your monitors can affect the perceived tone and can be an important tool in combating feedback. If you ask your worship band players or singer where they want their monitors placed, you may find that they have some specific ideas about placement. I like to have my wedge set at about 10 o'clock to my left. I play 12-string acoustic guitar at my church, and if I place the monitor directly in front of me, there is a good chance my guitar will feed back. At 10 o'clock, I can hear the wedge and I am off axis for resonance-induced feedback from my guitar.
Your worship band players may not be as or particular about their monitors as I am, so let’s look at some standard things we can do to make everyone on the worship team happy. The first thing I think about is the overall tone of my wedges. If you are blessed with a 31-band graphic equalizer inserted between your aux send and your monitors, you will have a lot of control over the monitor tone. If not, you will have to work with whatever equalization you have. But as a rule, the more EQ you have the more control over your wedges you will have.
Signal Flow
By the way, if you don't know, your aux sends from the individual channel strips of your mixing console are how you send signal to your monitors. The signal flows like this: Audio signal from your singers, guitarist, keyboards, etc., enters a channel strip on your mixing board. The aux send knob takes signal to the aux master buss, and from there the signal leaves the board and onto any outboard gear (EQ or other), power amp then the monitors. The only variation in this scenario is if you are using powered monitors. Then you wouldn't be using power amplifiers. Each aux send on your individual channel can create one monitor mix. If you console has four aux sends per channel, you can have as many as four monitor mixes. A monitor mix is a mixture of audio signal level from those individual channel auxs that are sent to the aux master and onto the monitors. Let's say you have two aux sends on your mixer. The first aux send can create a monitor mix that is mostly vocals with a lower level of keyboards and a little acoustic guitar. The second mix can be mostly keyboards with a lower level of vocal and a little acoustic guitar. Monitor mix 1 would be designed for your vocalist and mix 2 for your keyboard player. You will work with the desires of your worship performers to create monitor mixes that make them happy and ultimately perform better.
That Good Ol’ Squeal
Now that you know where to place your wedges on the platform, and you can create a variety of monitor mixes, you only have to worry about feedback. Feedback from your monitor comes from a microphone signal traveling from the mic to the console and back through the monitor. If the wedge is too loud, the signal will be picked up by the microphone and cycled back though the console and monitor again. This loop can cause anything from a howl, to a squeal, to a sharp screech. The fact of the matter is that the phenomenon of feedback does not travel across the entire frequency range. It exist in a relatively tight frequency band. Removing the offending frequencies is where your ears and EQ tools will be invaluable. The process is simple. You must hear what frequencies are feeding back and remove those frequencies.
Let us say that your stage wedge is feeding back a 1 kHz and you have a 31-band graphic EQ dedicated to that particular monitor mix. Simply pull down the 1 kHz slider until the feedback is gone. The challenge here is identifying the frequency and making certain your worship house has the proper EQ gear. As I have said many, many times, listen and learn about what you are hearing. Train those valuable ears of yours and you will become a better sound technician. As far as the equalizer, if your house has one for you monitor mixes, you can thank God. If not, your only choice is to reduce the volume level of your monitor until the feedback subsides. Then talk to your pastor about getting some cash to invest in a better EQ for your house monitor system.
You may have noticed that I didn't mention your preacher’s relationship with your stage monitors. That is because, as a party of one, the preacher doesn't have to compete with other voices or instruments on the platform. So, most preachers don't care that much about hearing themselves in the wedges. It seems like we have barely scratched the surface on this subject, but I am out of time and space. So, I'll talk with you next time.
You can e-mail Jamie at jrio@fohonline.com.
