how do you rig your stage monitors?

We never seem to get it quite right

using:

Fender SPL 6000 power amp behringer EURORACK MX2004A Fender M300 monitor amp A range of wedge and side fill monitors miles of spaghetti/cables SM58 and AKG mics

It never seems to quite do the job properly. Only once at avery large venue, Wulfrun Hall in Wolverhampton did I personally feel happy with the foldback mix.

So what setup do you use on stage?

A large stage puts enough space between the various participants that you hear your own backline nicely and whatever is in your monitor(s) whereas on a smaller stage you hear everyone else. Since most musicians tend to want to hear themselves 'above' the rest of the band then a small stage area can lead to escalating volume and decreasing clarity.

With our ceilidh band we're all accoustic ... only the bass player has a backline amp and its reasonably quite ... even electric drum kit. Plus we've all gotten used to hearing ourselves 'within' the mix so we simply use sidefills with the same mix of instruments as the main PA. This helps me engineer the sound from behind the drum kit with confidence that what the audience hears is what I hear.

Cheers, Steve W

*Excellent* advice. (One other tip: start the main mix from the vocals down, not the drums up.)

Again, *excellent* point.

One of the biggest problems all soundmen face (and too few know about) is the principle of reverberant zones. Briefly put, a room or a space acts like a reverb spring: beyond a certain threshold, the more energy you pump into the zone, the more it reverberates and the mushier the sound gets. Therefore turning up makes the problem worse; but turning down can help dramatically.

As a musician, nowadays I insist on a fairly quiet stage level - I use a pair of 20W or 30W combos, and if I'm drowned out, the band's too loud. I find that the better the drummer, the quieter he's capable of playing - and my current drummer is world-class. I almost don't need monitors, but I do use them where necessary - and I simply don't have problems with them.

By the way, this does not mean we don't kick ass - we do . But as both a soundman and a player, I've learned to *despise*, with a passion, overly-loud bands. Apart from anything else, I value my hearing *and* that of my audience.

HTH,

Steve http://www.fivetrees.com

(snip ..)

I'm a low noter in a band, but also volunteer unpaid sound man ('cos I like to do it!) for two others.

One of the bands - a m.o.t.r. easy-listening, but very versatile kinda outfit - is exemplary when it comes to on-stage monitoring. Only the bassist has his own rig on stage, the others - keys, guitar, and vocals - use just the monitors. They trust me to make them sound good, and by getting them happy with what they hear on stage first (as suggested) then bringing up the FOH to get the desired overall level, it seems to work very well.

The other band plays rock to varying degrees of hardness (!), and is very, VERY, LOUD! The best I can do for them is to provide the highest level I can get for the vocals on FOH and ride the faders to just keep it out of howl-round. The on-stage vocal only monitors are almost inaudible against the local competition. I agree absolutely about the 'mush', and for the next gig I may try to persuade them to do without vocal monitoring 'cos it doesn't seem to add any value. I confess to looking a little odd at the gig wearing my industial ear-defenders - the sort that look like closed back headphones - but I would not do it without them.