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Three Signs Your Monitor Settings are Bad

Topics: Mixing Skills, Monitor Mixing By: Chris Huff April 13, 2012

Three Signs Your Monitor Settings are Bad

Monitors need active mixing, too.
Photo provided by kikashi

Evaluating your monitor settings is a crucial step during the sound check and during the church service.  Consider these three signs your monitor mix is bad or had gone bad.

1. A musician isn’t playing in time or looks lost.

This will happen if you didn’t get the right monitor mix during the sound check.  It can also happen if they can’t hear the monitor due to the addition of the singing congregation.

Pro-actively, ask the musicians, at the end of the sound check, if they are ok with the monitor levels.  During the service, if this happens, increase the overall volume of the musician’s monitor.  As you reach the right volume, you’ll see the lost look go away and the house mix improve.

2. The house mix doesn’t sound right.

This will happen if the monitor volumes are too loud.

You can check this during the last part of the sound check.  Walk to the third row from the stage and listen.  You should hear the house speakers and possibly a little monitor/stage volume.  If the monitor volume is too great, then you need to cut the monitor volumes.

3. Musicians are bouncing up and down.

That is to say, they are signaling they need more volume or “more me” in their mix.  This isn’t so much a sign the mix is bad as it’s a sign the addition of the singing congregation has made their monitors hard to hear.

In the case where you have multiple musicians signaling for more, increase the volume of your master monitor aux sends.  This keeps the monitor mix consistent while increasing the overall volume.  If it’s just one musician, go for a small bump in the monitor volume followed by a slight bump in their channel in the monitor.

A tip regarding monitors and guitar amp’s

Consider guitar amp placement if you are having monitor problems.  For example, if a singer keeps complaining they are hearing too much of the guitar, check where the guitar amp is placed.  They might be on-axis with the guitar amp and so the monitor mix has nothing to do with it.  Consider placing the guitar amp in a different direction or placing it on the opposite side of the guitarist so no one else is on-axis with it.

The take-away

Check with musicians during and after the sound check regarding their monitor mixes and volume levels.  When it comes time for the church service, expect to make a monitor volume increase.  Also, know that monitor mixes might have to change so keep your eyes on the musicians during the service, especially during the first song.

Question: When do you know your monitor mix is bad?

Filed Under: Mixing Tagged With: Mixing Skills, Monitor Mixing

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Comments

  1. Graham says

    May 21, 2012 at 8:54 am

    What does one do when the foldback is so loud, I don’t even bother to put one worship leader through the FOH system? Unfortunately this person also happens to fill the position of TD…

    Reply
    • Chris says

      May 21, 2012 at 9:11 am

      Graham, start from scratch. Start with this article. Not sure how you do it, but it could be very helpful. Feel free to email it to the worship leader :)

      https://www.behindthemixer.com/proper-stage-monitor-setup-meeting-the-desires-of-the-band

      Reply
  2. Nathaniel Hopking (@soundboyIC) says

    May 9, 2012 at 12:37 pm

    “@churchsoundguy: Three Signs Your Monitor Settings are Bad: http://t.co/CD5WudtG” @BenHuckle hope this helps

    Reply
  3. David McLain (@churchsoundguy) says

    May 9, 2012 at 10:54 am

    Three Signs Your Monitor Settings are Bad: http://t.co/3yQTxPRX

    Reply
  4. Barny says

    April 19, 2012 at 11:54 am

    Sometimes the best thing, especially during sound check, is to lower everything else rather than increase the specific channel they’re after. Beware the monitor level arms race!

    Reply

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