monitoring desk for live purposes?

1

11miles

New member
What woud you recommend?
Which brand?

Our band is only startign out, so the budget is so very limited!

So i was jsut wondering of getting a normal mixing desk, that coudl do the job!
E.g. HAd at least 16 inputs, had at least 4 aux sends, and direct out!

What i woudl liek to know, how does a true monitorig desk differ from the PA one?
Also, the direct out i am planing on using, is it normal that they are balanced? If the Line in of the console is, so shoudl be the direct out, right?

Also, i have seen some really great monitoring desk out there liek crest 24, not my budget right now. I have seen, they promote a split!
How is that different from the Direct out?

I know i am not asking really normal question, maybe even dumb ones, but i am really trying to think of the system!

And it was you guys who made me do it!
I started asking you about some IEM systems and stuff liek that, and now i am considering to buy a dedicated Monitoring desk with us, everywhere we will play!
But we are aready doing the rehearsals with IEm, its pretty amateur, (old dynacord desk, with 4 aux sends, which are offcourse cracking, to a behringer ha8000 and through wire to our ears(20m of cables included)
We cant go on the stage like that, so i am trying to discover america again here :D

But i dont care if i soudn stupid, i woudl liek to knwo as much as i can!

Thank you in advance!
 
Well, a split is typically XLR, and happens BEFORE the preamp whereas a direct out is affected by the preamp, and sometimes also by EQ's, filters, and faders etc...

The Crest is an excellent little board for IEM's, but if you need to spend less, I would seriously consider an Allen Heath Mix Wiz3.
 
Hey x-static thanks a billion!

YOu are the one who started this!!!!!!


Form when you mentioned me the way to do it right, i cant get my mind off of it!

And i still have a million things to ask you!

First of all-

Crest is really out of my league!
Allen looks really cite, but maybe also not very cheap!

What i want to know is (offcourse this may sound stupid) but, is there a way to use a normal mixing desk?
What would i loose?

I have a million more questions, please dont give up :)
 
I have jsut checked the allen & heath you mentioned!

It has direct out's also, no XLR out the same as Crest acutally?

Now i am sure those are really great products, especially, you backign their reputation!

But i really am wondering if i can get away using a normal mxing desk!
That offcourse has the direct out!

But i dont undesrtand it, why would i use direct out, if it is already affected by the consoles pre-amp and eq?
Too bad!

Well lets go on with the question:

_So i have the monitoring desk! This is my plan, and please correct me if i am wrong!
This is a plan to make a setup, a ''bullet-proof'' monitoring system for my band. Something we can use on rehearsals and live shows! Nothing really changes!
What i do is make my own cables, that goes from our amps dedicated balanced out to the FOH.
First of all, i writeh the track names, of the channels, hopefully for a long time!!!

- At rehearsals we dont play through our cabinets, (guitars and bass) because we want to get use to not hearing anything except directly through IEM!- We rehears and also make the monitoirng mix for every member as close to perfect as possible!

- Hooking it up:
I use good cables (so i can use them also for live!) i woudl write on each end of the cable where to plug it and on the desk and on the amp so a moron with 40 iq coudl hook it up!
And then through aux sends to the IEM systems!
Singer and guitarists has wireless, drummer keyboardist are taking the IEm through wire through Behringer HA8000!


- for makin geverything neat and tidy i also make cables prepaired for the FOH console, from the direct outs to the snake going to the FOH console, where another completely different mix is being made!

- My thoughts;
i think using balanced DI for monitoring is much better than the miked cabinets ones! That would mean getting all sorts of weird sound from 3 different mics, that is without using gates, but that is too complicated!
Also, this way, you can really, get the bullet proof system, because the balanced DI shoudl not change from the rehearsals to live show!
nothing shoudl change, right?

-also; i dont think pre-amps have much to do with it, if i run everything except the vocal through line in?
THe mics tha re infront of the cabinets are going straight to the FOH consoles, because the DI is in the monitoring!


Where did i go wrong?
please all of your thoughts, ideas? opinions.....
 
a true monitoring desk has a matrix system so you can make individual mixes for each of the monitors. Remember each monitor needs to be amplified so it's self powered monitors or a stack of power amps.

Why would a band need a monitoring desk? Surely any decent live venue you'll ever play in will have a dedicated monitor desk or hire in a decent enough FOH desk to give each band member their own monitor mix?

Maybe I missed something in your post
 
Great answer, thank you!

I am thinking of getting our own monitorin gdesk, because we are all gaoing IEM(in ear monitoirng)
For that i would not really realy on the FOH desk of the venue, because that would mean every time, every show, we have to do the IEM mix all over again!

If we would bring our own desk with ous, a desk that would be setup, to play the monitoring exactly liek we wanted to, that woudl mean no hassle for monitoring ever again!
I have really bad experience with monitoring, propably not the only one?

1) the quantity, beign the singer and the guitarist i need good monitoring, to hear my self sing, so the control of the singing must be good! That requires a very good mix. Something that can be fast and easily done at practice and rehearsals. In a live show? I dont think so!
Especially, because then i am not the only one in the band!
We all need IEM, because we play on click/metronome, something i think is a very good idea. Not because of us being on time, we have the drummer for that!
I like to start a song on my own, and then bring the loop beneath it, maybe some strange weird FX, arpeggio from the keyboards, and you need click for that. The other idea is that the drummer could only hear it, and he would give us the rythm on the stics or hi-hat, gently! But thatis a no no, in my case!
I want to be imapct, lights down no sound, and then all of a sudden BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

2)yes, big venues maybe have dedicated monitoring desk but the same as if you woudl use jsut the FOH's submix channels, you woudl have to do the mix IEM mix from starters! Thatts a no no, again!

3) some venues are really great, and some are really crap! And if i want to make as much things perfect i woudl not liek to rely on what coudl happen! I liek it to be at ease, no worriess, because at least i will hear what i want and how i want it!
Also, i had difficult times because the FOH mixer had 4 submixes, and 2 they were using for FX. SO only 2 for monitoring! That means singer gets one, and drummer gets the second! What about te rest!

I hope i will be playing at venues, where that is not possible to happen, but again i would juust liek to be sure!



Some questions?

About the complete matrix?
I dotn understand!

In a normal desk, you can perfectly assign every channel the exact amount of it to the subgroup channel!
I mean i am doign that already with my 20years old dynacord mixer!
I dont have direct out and that is what really bothers me! Also, it is pretty big 24 in, we dont need that, so i am looking at soemthign more cousy!
Soundcraft spirit 4 looks amazing!

I am jsut afraid of what X static said about the pre-amps? i would offcourse take my shure beta 58 first to the monitoring desk and then with its direct out to the sanke and to the foh desk!
Hopefully i would not affect the signal to much!
Also, what i was thinking, i woudl take
not the whole drums, but maybe jsut the OH (1 is enough) and if the venue is really big, somekind of ambience mic for the crowd.


I have done some research about hte bass response in in-ear earphones!
Lots of people suggested me that to really get the i have to completely isolate the surrounding noise, in another words custom ear molds!
I am OK with that, but then i will really not hear anything else!
And if there are people in front of you.......
On the other hand, you can always take one off, and that wont hurt the mix, in your ears, because i have mixed it in mono¨!



Also, another question?
How do you get the stereo mix form the monitoring desk to your IEM? I mean the busses are not stereo? Or are they?
I mean i know i coudl take it stereo, with taking one sidel the monitoring mix and the other jsut my vocal! but that bothers me!
I liek it better if everythign is mono, on the other hand it can get really crowdy :)
 
I think you've got a lot more research to do if you think you can buy a mixer for a monitoring desk, set it up once and never have to touch it again from venue to venue.

Then there's the going deaf thing a hell of a lot faster

The whole idea of monitors is to pipe in to the performer the things he can't hear clearly on the stage.

As a bass player, years ago I used to ask for a bit of kick & hats, tiny bit of guitar and some vocals. That was all I ever needed.
 
I am not really expirienced in the field of monitoring and monitoring desks!

But bare me with this one, and tell me where i am wrong, or where the problem is!

Let's say for the sake of argument (the band's setup is 2 guitars, bass, keyboard, drums, leadvocal)
The guitars are POD xt live and Voodu Valve (both balanced output, with built in speaker simulator) bass is Ampeg SVT3 PRo with balanced output!

Keyboards also line out!.

What i do in the rehearsals i plug all of the above straight to the desk! so i have everything i can in the mixing desk. Also the vocal, i forgot(that is me, singing!

Now normally the desk woudl be either Power mixer or have a poweramp that woudl send the signal from desk's main out to the speakers, everybody including the drummer could hear! So everybody is happy!
Except the guitarist who would want to be hear himself better than the bass, the bassist viceversa, now the drummer gets loud, in the end, the singer looses his voices, because he needs to shout!
So insted of going to the speakers, we get IEM! and since the desk we own although old, has 4 busses i can send all of us each own mix!

Where isthe problem?

And since we all hear ourself perfectly and liek the tone we are having (guitars, bass) we have setup the monitoring exactly as we would like it, how can that change from place to place?
I mean guitars DI is still going to be DI, and bass also!
The drums however are the next step, but so far, that was not the problem!

Form the desk i would use for monitorin giwoul duse its direct outs to go to the snake and from there to FOH console. Also i coudl mice the amps cabinet if the FOH engineer woudl feel that is neccessary!

Please tell me where i am wrong? I woudl liek to know everything and be aware of any problems!!!!

And what you said about you beign the bassist and wanting this and a little bit of dead!
If you had IEm i think your desire to hear others woudl not change from place to place,right?
I think what every musician wants is to feel comfortable on stage!
Well how woudl a musician feel if he would know that he has the monitoring setup exactly hwo h wants it!
Also, the IEM vs, the monitor wedges?
I think the IEm wins the olympics in that conversation, not just the first round!

Please prove me wrong!!!!
 
In 20 years of playing in bands and working in studios your band is the first live act I've ever come across that use no on stage amplification.

I guess times are changing. Good luck on your quest.
 
i have heard for lot of bands that dont use it, also metal bands ( :eek: )

But what i ment is that Di outs and straight to the console desk ismore of a IEm thing!
THe amps can also be amed for FOH purposes!

But i do agree on making it as quiet as possible especailly in small venues!
And if i can do ti siletn, on stage why not!

By the way, if you dont believe me, check out the last Audio Media!

There is an interesting interview with the soundguy that does Garbage on thei current tour!
Also MAnson tour couple of years back, so i guess he knows what he is talking about!
HE said, that the only volume onstage is-
1- Shirley's Voice
2- and Butch Vig's Cymbals!

Everything else is either triggered (drums) or DI (guitar POD and Bass POD)

MAkes you think ha?
 
It sounds like you are on the right track, but may have a few misconceptions.

First off, there is not w whole lot of difference between a Monitor console and a FOH console. Monotor consoles typically have faders for AUX ouputs whereas much of the time FOH consoles have knobs (we are talking master section here). Some FOH consoles do have faders for aux outputs as well (typically more expensive ones) but Monitor consoles usually have them at the bottom of the master section where they are more readily available. Monitor consoles will also often have no real "group" routing and "main" routing, but will also have additional aux sends, and often times no channel faders. Monitor consoles are almost always post EQ on the aux sends. So can you use a FOH console to run monitor mixes? Absolutley. You can use ANY console so long as it has a the correct amount and configuration of aux sends.

As for the direct outputs.... As a FOH engineer I would be pissed if a band rolled in and sent me my signal form the direct outs of another mixer. The problem with this is that the FOH engineer does not have full control of the mix. Everytime you guys make an adjustment on stage than it also adjusts the signal going to the FOH console. Also, you will be using the preamps on your monitor console before sending the signal to the FOH console and thus are reducing the FOH engineer to using your preamps sound, and depending on what console you are using, possibly even your EQ and all of the FOH inputs would be closer to a line level signal. The proper solution here is to have some sort of snake split. A snake split will sepearate the single source signal into two distinct feeds. One for FOH, and one for the Monitor console. In general adjustments made to one set of signals will not affect the other which results in true independance for both FOH and Monitors. However, unless your split is transformer isolated, there is still a small amount of overlap between the two systems, but is typically unnoticable and realistically will not affect anything.

From the sounds of things, your band wants to have 5 distinct individual mixes. What this means is that you would probably want your console for monitors to have 5 post fade, post EQ aux sends available for your use. In general, that and the raw amount of channels available are the only two real requirements for your console. Rather than using direct outs, I would at the least order single channel XLR splitter cables for every channel on your mixer that you plan on using (and sending to FOH so you would not need one for the click track). The Crest mixer is more expensive, but it also offers 6 STEREO mixes, and a built in passive XLR splitter. This means you could each run stereo mixes which would be much nicer in the long run and will allow you to have a better mix at a slightly lower volume.

Now, as to the question that Lemontree debated concerning whether or not you should have your own monitor mixer? This depends in my opinion on how well someone in your band can run it. If someone can run it well enough to make you all happy, than by all means, you SHOULD get your own monitor mixer. Things won't really be exactly the same every night, even if you are carrying all of your own mics with you. However, as long as you attempt to set up the same every night, your mix should be about 80% there right out the gate. Many bands do this now due to consistency. You should be able to have your monitor mix dialed up by the time FOH is finished setting trims. Venues will love it if you roll in and get up and down quickly and easily. Many many venues have inadequate sound systems, and that is especially true of monitoring. Even more venues have inadequate Engineers on hand and just don't care enough about the bands. I teach all of my employees that the most important thing at EVERY show is that the artist is happy. That is the one thing that will make my job at FOH the easiest. In fact, I have taught all of my guys to make sure the band is happy and comfortable before they even put their gear on stage. A happy comfortable band plays better, and is happier with less than if they are in a bad mood during soundcheck.
 
Thanks xstatic,

it's been a few years since I've been out on the road but you explained what I was thinking a lot crearer than I ever could.

Only problem I see is if you're setting up like that and you're not the only band on the lineup. The FOH engineer is gonna have a lot of repatching to do between bands and I know they hate doing that. We used to have our PA size and the amount of seperate monitor mixes required on the band Rider. First thing I'd do as tour manager was check that everything was in place soundwise and check their security measures.

Playing in bigger venues like London Astoria, Glasgow Barrowlands, Dublin Olympia, Sheffield Leadmill all these bigger places have a dedicated on stage monitor engineer in eye contact with the band at all times. But, even the smaller pub venues will have the ability to give you atleast 4 seperate monitor mixes onto the stage if you request it in advance on your rider.

Another thing.....

I see a lot of guitrists using pods these days on stage but I can't remember seeing any that weren't running from the pod to a power amp and a speaker cabinet and having that mic'd up and sent to FOH
 
LemonTree said:
In 20 years of playing in bands and working in studios your band is the first live act I've ever come across that use no on stage amplification.

I guess times are changing. Good luck on your quest.
Click to expand...



I saw a band that did this about 10 years ago. It sounded horrible. But that was back before everyone and their brother made amp modelling processors and what not. I think these cats just ran from the line out of a head and straight into the mixer.


My old band actually did this for some practices in which we needed to be quiet. We all used headphones like in a recording set up.



I think the key element here is this.....

bands are a pain in the ass. Especially for a FOH engineer. If you come in sporting some mixing console and telling them all about wanting to use you IEM's and what not, you will officially become the doucheband of the night. I have played shows with about a million other bands on the bill and one of the 3-5 bands are always the doucheband. Whether it be their 43 piece drum kit with triggers, their own mixer, and Tommy Lee's old drum case that is the size of a small truck....or the assmunches who bring 13 full stacks in to play on a stage that is 12' wide for a bar filled to the brim with 22 people. Save the IEM for when you play the Grammy's. Don't be the doucheband.
 
Well, since my main career is as a FOH engineer, I beg to differ on a lot of points. If the IEM setup is done properly, it can be just as fast, if not faster than a traditional setup. As a FOH engineer I can have a band like the one described soundchecked in 5 minutes or less if I don't have to worry about monitors as well. All I need to know as a FOH engineer is the system I am using, and which mics are on stage. From that information, I can build a mix that will please the crowd within minutes. Assuming no actual technical difficulties on stage (noisy lines, bad cables etc...) I can dial down that mix and get most of the subtle stuff accomplished within one song. This is especially true when I don't have to compete with backwash from monitors and from overly cranked amps on stage. I was under the impression that the band in discussion here DID use amplifiers on stage, but that the IEM's themselves were fed from the emulated outputs. This means that as a FOH engineer I am actually looking at a standard stage setup, but not competing with monitors. It also means that i don't have to deal with phasy hollow vocal mics that are picking up too much of the wedges... another huge bonus.

Personally, if a FOH or monitor engineer gets that ticked off because some band wants to use their own stuff like that, than they need a new job. The logistics of bringing in an IEM system is very simple, especially when the band also has their own mixer and split system. As long as the band knows how to get their stuff on and off quickly it really should be even easier than a conventional changeover/soundcheck that happens at so many small to mid sized shows. The monitor engineer really should not have anything to complain about here either. All that he/she really has to do is make sure that the 16 to 24 lines needed get routed through the snake splits.

The proper setup here is to have the mixer and all the IEM's mounted in the same rack that lives on stage, or just off to the side. Then there should be a tail long enough to reach the venues main snake head from whatever split system the snake uses. If the band can have all of their stuff prepped side stage and a couple of well built cable looms, setup should be able to be done in no more than 5-10 minutes. If the drummer can't help because he/she has too much stuff to setup, the rest of the band should be able to help run all the mics really quick because keys, bass, and guitar should only take 60-90 seconds to setup. All guitars should get tuned during the prior act, and then touched up once they are on stage. This can even be done as the set starts by having the singer and/or keyboard player talk to the crwod for a second. As a FOH engineer, all I really need to start a set is to have the band go through all the mics line by line giving me about 10 seconds at each mic. This gives me time to establish a gain structure and whatever EQ is necessary to start the set.

So, in the end, I disagree heavily that bands are a pain in the ass for a FOH engineer. In fact, I find that acoustic acts are much more complicated. With an acoustic act it is much more critical that little things are done first since everything is more open and revealed in the mix. With a band i can quickly cover something up for a second until it can be fixed. In the end, the crowd never notices it with a band, but everyone does instantly with an acoustic act. Now for a monitor engineer bands can certainly be a pain in the ass. They have to make 4 to 12 different mixes for the pickiest ears in the room. They have to interpret everything that each band member asks for, and also learn how to interpret each band member differently. Any monitor engineer should be happy when a band rolls in with their own ears setup in any sort of proper fashion. If a band does this, than they have a short changeover and a whole set off to relax.
 
thank you all for you posts, suggestions, nagging :D

''By the way, if you dont believe me, check out the last Audio Media!

There's no question of not believing''
GOOD. because i take my music, this forum, and everythign concernign it very serious!
ANd i am nto here to make fairytales and crap stories about how good i am and how expirienced i am!

''I think the key element here is this.....

bands are a pain in the ass. Especially for a FOH engineer. If you come in sporting some mixing console and telling them all about wanting to use you IEM's and what not, you will officially become the doucheband of the night. I have played shows with about a million other bands on the bill and one of the 3-5 bands are always the doucheband. Whether it be their 43 piece drum kit with triggers, their own mixer, and Tommy Lee's old drum case that is the size of a small truck....or the assmunches who bring 13 full stacks in to play on a stage that is 12' wide for a bar filled to the brim with 22 people. Save the IEM for when you play the Grammy's. Don't be the doucheband.''

Tell me something, please!
How do you think is a doucheband to a FOH engineer. Someone who does not care about his setup, who does not care, how the band sounds, where the monitors, are, if they hear themselves properly, if their show can be really as good as they were planning and rehearsing, or the band who gets to the stage, not giving directions but taking them from the FOH engineer, abotu where they shoudl stand, where shoudl the amps be placed and how many triggers are on the drums!

Off course there arte a lot of bands, who want to look cool, but they dont with their gear.
BUt f you come prepaired, and want to really make an effor,t i think FOH engineer notices that and if he lieks what he is doing he will appreciate it!
If not, i think he shoudl quit his job ASAP!
So i agree with you xstatic, not just there but on other issues also!

YOu see i did not know about all the direct out things that are in the consoles!
I knew there is not a big difference between the consoles and i really hope i will found something although the Allen & heath really looks wonderful!
On the other hand i did nto finf the split channels on it neither did i found them on the crest?

And i have been searching for a splitter, but really we woudl need a whole system, i mean for at least 8-10 channels!

I think you are erally overreacting with this difficult setup, leave IEM at home....
I would go with Xstatic here, if it is done properly....


LEt's imagine the worst case scenario...... And tell me where i am wrong!
And thinder and LEmontree, you can also participate in this imagination of mine, as you we woudl all play in this ''festival'' with our bands!

So there are 15 acts on the stage within the day!
No chance to get a real soundcheck, for anyone!

You are on at 19h.30, people are gathering, no way you can afford to go wrong!

So usually you woudl setup the amps, your stopmboxes, have a line check and astart playing, with onyl hoping what woudl be heard once strumm the first gutar part, or kick the drum! The monitors? Totally forogot them, but no time, we will play how we can, because i erally want to have a good show!

You see, this is wher it breaks, if you ask me!
THis is the moment, that separates a band form a bunch of freinds playing music!

You cant go on stage thinking, liek well we can play like this, no soundcheck, the sound can be awful, but i really want to play!
And i have my amp and cabinet i can lean on, and if i dont hear my bandmates good, i will jsut step to them....
Well let say that somehow passes, but what about the singer? How willhe hear himself?

Not this maybe an exagguration, but i really want to make a worst case scenario here!

We all heave been there and god knwos (i for one) dont want to go back!

This is what i have in mind!

the time is 20.10 (LEmontree's band stopped playing, THunders33 is still on) xstatic is out FOH mixer!

We go on stage an 80% of the montioring is setup!
what is now hooked up is being hooked up, and xstatic instead of spending time with monitoring, he really does not have the time to do, he does the line check. All system go, we start playing!
And we paly jsut like we played the past 3 months in the rehearsals! We knwo our sound, we can hear eachother perferctly, and the singer can hear like he knows, the control of the singing is really extraorinary with IEM!
If this woudl not be an open air fest, but a small venue, i woudl not WOULD NOT use cabinets, but as i have already explained as my desire, use line-outs of my pre-amps speaker emulators!

I think x static (being a credited and long-time lots of expirienced FOH engineer) already counted and explained all the advantages of going direct, no bleeding, no wedges.......

And now with my questions?

How on earth can the sound from rehearsal change drasticly from venue to venue!

When you have a cemented setup at rehearsal and except the use of the main vocal dont use any mics, everythin is line in (NO PRE_AMPS) the sound cann not change!
THe settings on the guitar/bass pre-amps can be exactly the same, no need to change it!we woudl leave every knob on the console the same, and have prepaired everythign prior to playing like xstatic explained!
Where is the problem?
 
Xstatic, no disrespect meant to you on my previous post. I have done FOH for local bands. Sounds like you are talking about doing stuff on a more professional level. When I say bands are a pain in the ass, I am saying that as someone who has been in a band, mixed for bands, booked bands, promoted bands, and dealt with bands for the last 15 years on many levels. There are a lot of cool bands out there. But there are a lot of pains in the asses too!
 
Thunder, I did not take your post as disrespectful, but merely as your own opinion, which I can respect. I have only been working with bands now for 10 years, but I make my living doing it and have worked with bands from Blues Traveler to James Brown, to Sum 41, to Sevendust, to Cannibal Corpse, to Jason Mraz , to Emmy Lou Harris, and hundreds of other bands.

I do agree with one thing though. When dealing with local bands it is often a much bigger pain in the ass. Too mnay local bands feel like they are experienced and are owed something and as a result show up with egos that they can not come close to backing up. I don't however think that this has anything to do with whether or not they are hauling some equipment with them. Over the years I have learned to be as accomodating as possible with every band. Otherwise, my night becomes hell. I have learned that with proper communication and a willingness to make certain sacrifices, that even some of the worst bands to deal with can still turn out to be an OK experience. As a FOH engineer, I never let a bands shit get to me. If I do it just means that FOH will be worse than it already is. As a Porduction Manager though (which I do on occasion) I do go head to head with the bands on certain issues to make the lives of my crew and engineers better.

As far as the running the amps direct thing goes.... I still would not want to run FOH with direct amps, but have no problem with sending the direct signal to monitor land, and even mixing it with the cabinet mic at FOH. I have to admit though, I have worked with a small handful of bands who did run direct and it actually sounded great. But, for every one of those bands I have also worked with 5 bands that the direct signal sounded awful.

Back to the snake split.... The Crest rack mountable monitor console has a built in snake split on the back of it. The FOH version of that same console does not (if I remember right) and is also less expensive, and loaded with completely different routing options.

If you do go with something besides the Crest, I reccomended the Allen Heath Mix Wiz3 for a reason. First, you get 16 channels in a frame that can be rack mounted. Second, it has decent sounding preamps and EQ's, as well as offering a 4 band EQ with mid sweeps whereas most mixers of that size and price seem to often only offer three bands of EQ. Third, the Mix Wiz has 6 real aux sends as opposed to stuff like the Mackie VLZ's which say they have six, but it's really 4 auxes in disguise. With the Mix Wiz you can have your 5 in ear mixes and then use the 6th aux send for the extremely cheap reverb section for your ears as well. If you hook a laptop up to the Mixwiz and load your own custom reverb parameters, the onboard reverbs become about 500% more usable. For all intensive purposes though, the onboard stuff should do the trick for in ears with careful level setting.

If you do decide that you need to buy an actual snake split, I can sell you a 24 channel snake split with one 10 foot trunk and one 25 foot trunk for somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 or $550. This is however just a basic split... no transformer isolation (not that critical these days) and no ground lifts per channel. Should you want those options it does get more expensive, but can be added per channel. I can also have the snake head be a rack mountable box if necessary.
 
xstatic said:
I don't however think that this has anything to do with whether or not they are hauling some equipment with them. Over the years I have learned to be as accomodating as possible with every band.
Click to expand...



number one, the second part of this makes me hope that I can some day work with you! I have worked with some pretty cool sound techs, but most have been assholes for the same reason that most local bands are douches. They think they know it all.

As far as the first part of the statement....I have seen it more than I would like to remember. Some dude can't start the show because he forgot to buy a 9 volt for his DOD stomp box and he is too cheap to buy a power cord. Or some ass insists on running speaker cables for his keyboard signal line and the hum is louder than the vocals.

The funny thing is, every single time I have seen IEM's used, they end up pulled out and hanging from the neck because the person using them could not hear anything with them.



anyway, cool resume!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top