Earlier on, we discussed monitors for performers...mainly the set up. This time out, I'd like to concentrate not so much on the "how" but the "what" to put into them.
Before we delve into this, let's establish the principal function of a monitor system.
Ken's Road Tip #12:
The primary function of a monitor system is to enable a performer to hear himself and other performers as needed in order to play / sing on pitch and in time. It is not meant to be a duplicate of the house mix.
And the corollary to that:
The more crap you put into your mix, the harder it is to pick what you need out.
Lets take a look at the stage plot for The Dawgs, and see what is where.
We're going to make some assumptions here, which when deviated from will throw the whole thing out the window:
- Everyone is using an amp on stage
- The band doesn't get too crazy with their stage volume, and has a relatively good balance between all the instruments
- Your monitor system is somewhere between "OK" and "Really Good". If it's "World Class", you don't need my help. If it's "Total S#!+", I can't help you.
Ladies & Gentlemen, Please Welcome...
We'll start with the principle vocalist. Since they're normally in the center of the stage, you would hope that they could hear the instruments clearly. If that's the case they should only need their vocal in their slant, and then any harmony singers under that.
If your singer is confident enough, and can hear his reference pitches from either guitar of keys, then that's a good place to stop. Where you run into problems is when they ask for "a little bit of everyone". If you're dealing with a 100 watt monitor with a 12" speaker and 1" horn, it's not going to take a whole lot signal sources before you're not going to be able to pick your own voice out of the mix. Remember, your monitors are there to help you hear what you can't...not make everything louder.
And Now, The Other Guys...
Unless you have multiple lead vocalists, we'll assume that everyone else who sings in the band is also playing an instrument. If you've got enough mixes to give everyone their own, you're golden. If you have to share, someone is going to have to be dominant in the mix...no way around it.
Remember what I've already said about the monitors should supplement, and not replace everything you hear? This is to the guys / gals that get to set up right next to the PA speakers....you're already getting a ton of sonic info. If it's usable, then use it! I usually wind up right by the stage right PA cabinets, and I can get by just fine with no monitor slant at all in a small club.
Getting Crossed...
Referring to the above stage plot, you could make that the case the bassist could use a bit of one of the guitars in his monitor for pitch reference within the chords. I can tell you that being a singing bass player is a tough thing. Most of the time, you're playing the root note of a chord, and then your supposed to sing some interval above that. Having one of the melodic instruments to key off of is usually a big help.
Sometimes guitarists and bassist will place cabinets on each both sides of the stage, typically driven by separate amps. This is referred to as cross-stage monitoring. Some bands take it further than that. Alex Van Halen counts on hearing Eddie's guitar so much that there's a dedicated amp and guitar cabinet just for Alex behind his drums.
A system like this is cool because it can take some of the load off the monitor system, but it's more gear to bring. However, if you playing on house sound systems where you're at the mercy of the equipment and monitor engineer that's there, it's the way to make sure that you can all at least play together.
Give The Drummer Some...
I feel sorry for drummers...they typically work harder physically than anyone else in the band, get shoved to the back of the stage, and usually spend the night staring at the lead singer's butt (not by choice). They also have the hardest time hearing what's going on, and that's bad for the whole band.
While I just said to not put everything into the lead vocalists, drummers just about need that. Well, everything except the whatever is getting blasted out of the amps right next to them. So make sure that they've got a good system to listen to and are able to get the instrument cues they want...'cause if the drummer stops....well, it ain't good.
When I first got into live sound, I couldn't understand why a drummer wanted his own drums coming back at him through the monitor...until I filled in on drums for a sound check with a loud band. Without that sonic info in the monitors, it's real easy to overplay and hit a lot harder than you should have to. The result is you can physically exhaust yourself in just a few songs. By giving them at least their kick and snare back to them, they tend to lay back and let the PA do the work.
Now, I've seen monitor requirements for drummers that ranged from just kick and snare to absolutely everything, including a mic on the ride cymbal! I'm not going to call out any names, but that poor drummer for Quiet Riot must be one deaf mo-fo.
And on that note -
Getting Everyone On The One
Here's another "lesson realized and learned". On a small stage (less than 20' wide) you're really not going to have this problem. But once you get on a bigger stage, you start to realize that everyone is hearing the drummer at a slightly different time. Remember, sound takes about 1mS (.001 seconds) to travel 1 foot. So, if you're on a 40' wide stage (and the drummer's in the center), the guys on the outside are hearing him about 20mS after he hits a drum.
Yeah, that doesn't sound like much. But try this if you're a guitarist...get a delay pedal and set it to 20mS with 1 repeat and 100% effect. Now, try playing a rhythm pattern. Kinda gnarly, ain't it? That's actually what's going on, except not everyone is hearing the drums at the same time. You'll have people with just a few milliseconds of delay (and you really can't discern anything less than 10mS), and others with more. What happens is that you start to get a smearing of the notes across different band members.
The answer? Put a little bit of the at least the snare (and the kick if your monitors will support it) into everyone's monitor. Now, the signal gets to the monitor slants at roughly the speed of light, and then only has a few feet to get to the performer's ears. I've been able to get bands to really tighten up just by doing this for them. If you've never tried this (and you're spread out on a stage), you should.
Oh Wow Man, He Stuck It In His Ear...
I get asked time and time again about in-ear monitor systems. I've been using them since about 2005 to try to conserve the hearing I've got left. In The Rhythm Dawgs, I'm the only one using them, and I've been in two bands in the last few years where everyone was on them. I plan to write more about working with in-ear systems soon but for now just realize that if your entire band is thinking about using them it can get a bit complicated to deploy and you will have to have a sound man out front for your shows.
So how about we talk about in-ears next week. I'll cover setting 'em up, off the shelf versus custom mold earpieces, and the pros and cons in general.
Until then, keep the meters out of the red.
Ken Carver has been a musician and performer since the early 70's, and involved with live music production since the mid 70's. He worked for 15 years as a broadcast engineer, building numerous studios and transmitter sites around Texas. He's also worked in Critical Care Communications for the medical industry, R&D for an automated lighting manufacturer, and owned Project Lighting & Sound in the 80's. He currently heads up an R&D Hardware Technician Team at National Instruments in Austin, and still performs on the weekends in the Central Texas area. You can reach Ken at itsjustlogistics@gmail.com
As some of you know, I spent last week cruising around the Gulf of Mexico with my wife Barb. It was our fifth cruise, but our first time on Princess Cruise Lines. Even though I was on vacation, I was hoping to get a little inspiration for an article while we were on the ship.
Right after boarding the Crown Princess, we got to hear a rather good cover band playing on the Lido deck. I had a chance to visit with them after their set, and got to see them perform (and sit in once) during the week. The band was Goodtimes, Inc. from Brighton, England. After watching them for the duration of the cruise, I gained a great deal of respect for what these guys and gals do.
First and foremost, playing on a ship is basically up to a 10 month tour, but playing the same venue the entire time. It's funny when you think about it...you don't travel to the audience, they travel to you. That's a long time to be out and away from your family and home. And oh yeah, plan on working seven days a week. Musicians and entertainers can usually get off the ship (the crew calls it "going outside") at most ports, but any time the ship is sailing you could be working.
Yes, room and board are included in the contract. But I've seen the rooms...and there ain't much room in the there. Take a typical college dorm room and cut it in half. Now put 2 people in there. Cozy, ain't it?
Oh yeah, forget about any creative freedom. Depending on the cruise line either your playlist is dictated by the home office and/or what you want to play has to be approved. And every band on the high seas has to be able to play "The Electric Slide". Seriously.
On the plus side, the money can be pretty good (salaries for musicians rage from $450 to over $1000 per week), you're covered by insurance, and it's pretty cheap to live on the ship. And if you love to play, you definitely get to do that a lot.
But what really struck me was the harsh realities of playing to an audience that's not really there to see the band. There's nothing that will suck the life out of a performance quicker than an appathetic audience that sits on their hands.
So, why do they do it? Most will tell you that it's a steady income and it gives the chance to travel that they wouldn't ordinarily have. There are a few delusioned individuals out there that think they're going to get "discovered" on the ship. I'm sure it's happened somewhere at sometime, but it's not going to be great odds.
I guess where I'm going with all of this is to say appreciate any gig you get. If you're getting to play music in front of people, regardless of the pay, you're getting to do something that the vast majority of the populus never gets to realize. Enjoy yourselves!
Oh, one last thing....to all the white folks out there, please clap on the "2" and "4" counts...not the "1" and "3". Thank you.
Next week, we'll get back to the technical side and talk about monitor mixes. What you want in your mix may not necessarily be what you need.
Until then, put some money in the tip jar for the band.
Ken
Ken Carver has been a musician and performer since the early 70's, and involved with live music production since the mid 70's. He worked for 15 years as a broadcast engineer, building numerous studios and transmitter sites around Texas. He's also worked in Critical Care Communications for the medical industry, R&D for an automated lighting manufacturer, and owned Project Lighting & Sound in the 80's. He currently heads up an R&D Hardware Technician Team at National Instruments in Austin, and still performs on the weekends in the Central Texas area. You can reach Ken at itsjustlogistics@gmail.com
When I started writing this article, I quickly realized how much the word "sub" gets tossed around in bands.
It can mean a speaker system designed for low frequencies, as in "I can't feel the kick drum...turn up the subs."
It could refer to a replacement musician...."Louie got busted again and can't make the gig, so we'll need to get a sub on cowbell for the night."
Or, it could simply be what the drummer had for dinner.
But today, we'll be referring to the term in the context of sub group on sound board.
Explain This Again
So first and foremost, what the heck is a sub group? In it's most basic form, it's a way to control a large number of channels with one or two faders. If you were looking at this from the stand point of signal flow on a board, it would look something like this:
OK...easy enough. But why would you want to do that? Let's say you've got a drummer with a fully mic'd up kit. That can take anywhere from 6 to 12 (or more) inputs on the board. After you get the EQ on each drum set, you're going to balance the levels of the inputs with each other. So now you've got a balance between all the mics.
Then you start adding in the other instruments, and you quickly find that the drums are getting buried in the mix. Sure, if you're careful you can grab a bunch of the channel faders and push them up. But, if you had routed the drums to a sub group then you could just grab that fader (or faders if you're doing the drums in stereo) and adjust from there. You're changing the overall level of the drum kit, without affecting the balance between the mics. And when you're mixing during the show, it's a lot easy to do and not mess up the balance.
What's Good For The Drummer...
...is good for any other groups of similar inputs where a balance needs to be maintained. After drums, I usually sub-mix vocals next (even if there are only 2 vocalists, and I'll explain why in a bit). Sub mixing the vocals gives you an easy way to turn everyone up and down while again keeping the balance.
In fact, taken to it's logical end this is what I might do on a mono system with 4 sub groups.
To Sub Or Not To Sub
You'll notice on the diagram above that not everything is routed through a sub group, namely the bass and lead guitar. This is based on only having one mic or DI on each of these, so it's only one fader to deal with. Back in my days of excess in the late 80's I had this ridiculous bi-amplified stereo bass rig that took up of 4 channels on the main board (Pre-effects DI, Time-based DI, and 2 mic'd cabinets). That was a prime candidate for a sub group.
Horn sections and percussionists are also perfect for sub groups.
But Wait, There's More!
Having the convenience of turning multiple channels up and down is cool, but with a sub group you also have the option of applying processing to the group. The most common is compression...especially on a vocal group. And here's why it's cool...if it's set up correctly then your system will just about mix itself.
Let's look at what happens without group compression first. You have the vocal mics set up where each mic sounds good through the system and the the level is balanced against the music...not too much but not lost in the mix. That's fine for when you have only one person singing, but what happens when you get to the part of the song where there's a two part harmony. Now the vocals are a little further ahead of the music than desired, so you either turn up the instruments (bad news...because you just started the upward volume spiral), or you have to turn down the mics. And now, the harmony part is over and your lead vocalist is buried. There's got to be an easier way.
Captain Compression To The Rescue
If there was just some way to automatically adjust the volume....oh wait, there is! This is precisely what compressors were designed for...automatically controlling the volume (in fact, they were first referred to as A.V.C.'s, or Automatic Volume Controls).
Some boards now include group compression (Carvin, Presonus, and others). But almost every board has an insert point on the sub groups. Patch a compressor across the vocal sub and set the ratio at 3:1 with a threshold of 0dB. What you want is just a little compression on one voice (maybe 1 or 2 dB), 2 to 4dB for two-part harmony, and up to 6dB for three-part. What happens then is that as you add harmonies the vocals get a little louder, but not too much. And as a result, you shouldn't have to jack with the vocal levels throughout the night, at least until the lead singer gets drunk and starts forgetting the words...they bury him in the mix.
Moving In Stereo
If you have a sub group that you want to spread across the stereo field (drums, keys, etc), then you'll need to route to two sub groups. Those, in turn, would get routed out left and right to the main bus on the board.
How you do this varies from board to board, so this is one time where I would encourage you to read the manual that came with your gear. But, in general, it's a combination of routing buttons and a pan pot on the channel (digital boards...way different most of the time).
Let's look at a close-up of a photo from last week's installment:
You'll notice that the bus assign switches are paired up 1-2, 3-4, and L-R. If you select the L-R, you're going directly to the output and bypassing the sub groups. Useful for the bass and lead guitar, but let's say we want to set the drums up in stereo so that when the drummer does the huge Neil Peart 6-tom fill from high to low it moves across the stage. We'll pick sub groups 1 & 2 for the drums.
So, you would select the 1-2 button. Then, don't forget on the sub groups themselves to assign group 1 to Left, and group 2 to right.
If you're trying to do stereo, don't make the mistake of selecting both Left and Right on both sub groups. You've just mono-ized yourself. (If you're using a single sub group or running all of them mono, then yes...you would select both.)
Now, go back to the channels for the toms and adjust the pan pots. If your drummer is right-handed and sets his kit up in standard configuration with his high toms on his left and floor toms on his right, then you're going to want to pan just the opposite. In other words, pan the high toms to about 2:00 on the right, and the floor tom to 10:00 left. Then split the difference between the rest of them. Overhead mics (if you're using them) can go 9:00/3:00, but I wouldn't pan anything wider than that. Just make sure you've got things panned so that the sound lines up with what the audience is seeing (unless you're just wanting to jack with 'em).
I've got to give props today to a gentleman named Dave Rat, who runs Rat Sound out of Oxnard, California. Dave started out cobbling systems together in his back yard, and now supplies sound and Front Of House engineering to bands such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, and others. It was Dave that turned me on to the idea of group compression. He uses it just like I described (except with 24 sub groups and 12 stereo compressors). We should all have such problems.
Next week, I'll be missing in action. Our cat Spot will be answering the phones and replying to email while I'm out.
Until then, keep the meters out of the red!
Ken
Ken Carver has been a musician and performer since the early 70's, and involved with live music production since the mid 70's. He worked for 15 years as a broadcast engineer, building numerous studios and transmitter sites around Texas. He's also worked in Critical Care Communications for the medical industry, R&D for an automated lighting manufacturer, and owned Project Lighting & Sound in the 80's. He currently heads up an R&D Hardware Technician Team at National Instruments in Austin, and still performs on the weekends in the Central Texas area. You can reach Ken at itsjustlogistics@gmail.com
