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[John L Nobile]

What would be the best way to eq monitors with today's technology? In the past I've used a vocal mic and eq'd the monitors for tone and notched a few rings with a para eq. Lots of running back and forth between the stage and amp/eq rack.

I'm thinking of buying Smaart and using that to help me. My thoughts were to use a vocal mic as reference, use pink noise and try to get a flat response. But I thought that I may not get a good sounding rig that way. Other option is a reference mic but I have KSM9's and they're pretty bright.

Suggestions are very welcome. I'm getting busy at FOH doing sound and lights and I'm now trying to run monitors from a laptop remote to an X32 monitor board.

Had a random feedback issue last night that I couldn't nail down from FOH. Found it during the break. Keyboard player had moved his wedge behind him and it was pointing directly at his mic.  Whenever he moved his head from in front of the mic.......

I'd like to minimize issues like that and not worry about stage sound so that I can concentrate on everything else.

[Chris Hindle]

What would be the best way to eq monitors with today's technology? In the past I've used a vocal mic and eq'd the monitors for tone and notched a few rings with a para eq. Lots of running back and forth between the stage and amp/eq rack.

I'm thinking of buying Smaart and using that to help me. My thoughts were to use a vocal mic as reference, use pink noise and try to get a flat response. But I thought that I may not get a good sounding rig that way. Other option is a reference mic but I have KSM9's and they're pretty bright.

Suggestions are very welcome. I'm getting busy at FOH doing sound and lights and I'm now trying to run monitors from a laptop remote to an X32 monitor board.

Had a random feedback issue last night that I couldn't nail down from FOH. Found it during the break. Keyboard player had moved his wedge behind him and it was pointing directly at his mic.  Whenever he moved his head from in front of the mic.......

I'd like to minimize issues like that and not worry about stage sound so that I can concentrate on everything else.

Once someone changes the relationship of monitor and mic, all your work was for naught.
I'm used to dealing with "Peel the paint" volumes. Pretty well have to do that with the muso in place. (Look out for cowboy hats)
Chris.

[John L Nobile]

Once someone changes the relationship of monitor and mic, all your work was for naught.
I'm used to dealing with "Peel the paint" volumes. Pretty well have to do that with the muso in place. (Look out for cowboy hats)
Chris.

Good point. I'm getting to those levels now. Had it a lot easier in my previous show as the cast wanted a quiet stage level.

Just looking at the best way to get a good starting point so that I can get a little quicker with monitor setup. It would be nice to setup monitor board and FOH at the same time from FOH. Probably wouldn't get any kick in monitor requests if I had it pounding in the mains at the same time.

[Chris Hindle]

Good point. I'm getting to those levels now. Had it a lot easier in my previous show as the cast wanted a quiet stage level.

Just looking at the best way to get a good starting point so that I can get a little quicker with monitor setup. It would be nice to setup monitor board and FOH at the same time from FOH. Probably wouldn't get any kick in monitor requests if I had it pounding in the mains at the same time.

Yikes. Are you ever in for a surprise........
More it's pounding in the mains, more monitor is needed.
Drummer (and bass) is looking for the click (or tap) of the beater. That's not in the wash off the back of the mains, and it is quite late in the slap off the back wall. Texas Headphones anyone ?
Chris.
** I do have a "rough in" preset when I lite up the system, but it is "corrected" for each use.

[Jerome Malsack]

For the rough in preset 

Read these two articles some. 




http://www.prosoundweb.com/article//church_sound_feedback_facts...._and_fiction/
http://www.prosoundweb.com/article//church_sound_optimizing_stage_monitors_for_music/

[Stephen Kirby]

I did the outdoors pink thing and set up parametrics on my monitors to get them essentially correct.  Then I use the graphic on the gig to get the best GBFB without losing intelligibility.  This is one place where the iPad remote on the digital mixer comes in handy.  Saving the running back and forth.  I can cup or hold a hand over each mic and tweak right there.

[Debbie Dunkley]

I don't get to work with monitors very much anymore - I'm spoiled with the bands I work with as they are all iem. When I run sound at the outdoor shows I do each year for bands I am unfamiliar with, I am suddenly reminded of the downside to using wedges and how time consuming it can be to dial in.
I really enjoy being able to just run a freq scan whilst running the last few cables, sync the packs, hand them out, and let everyone control their own mixes from their phones...........lovely.

[John L Nobile]

I don't get to work with monitors very much anymore - I'm spoiled with the bands I work with as they are all iem. When I run sound at the outdoor shows I do each year for bands I am unfamiliar with, I am suddenly reminded of the downside to using wedges and how time consuming it can be to dial in.
I really enjoy being able to just run a freq scan whilst running the last few cables, sync the packs, hand them out, and let everyone control their own mixes from their phones...........lovely.

I'm jealous.

If I had a guy that knew how to run monitors in the area I'd book him. I do have a guy that helps me setup and I'm slowly training him. He's the slow part but he's getting good at cabling.

2 things I don't like about this biz. Monitors and pipe and drape.

[Kevin Maxwell]

What would be the best way to eq monitors with today's technology? In the past I've used a vocal mic and eq'd the monitors for tone and notched a few rings with a para eq. Lots of running back and forth between the stage and amp/eq rack.

I'm thinking of buying Smaart and using that to help me. My thoughts were to use a vocal mic as reference, use pink noise and try to get a flat response. But I thought that I may not get a good sounding rig that way. Other option is a reference mic but I have KSM9's and they're pretty bright.

Suggestions are very welcome. I'm getting busy at FOH doing sound and lights and I'm now trying to run monitors from a laptop remote to an X32 monitor board.

Had a random feedback issue last night that I couldn't nail down from FOH. Found it during the break. Keyboard player had moved his wedge behind him and it was pointing directly at his mic.  Whenever he moved his head from in front of the mic.......

I'd like to minimize issues like that and not worry about stage sound so that I can concentrate on everything else.

I have probably posted this before because I have this saved as a word document.

EQing monitors.

Some of the things that help have already been mentioned. To get the best gain before feedback a good monitor is a must. The trick I use is I use SMAART I put pink noise into the monitor so it is going thru the monitor EQ. I route the vocal mic pre-fader into one of the channels of SMAART. I aim the vocal mic into the monitor (be sure the mic is only routed to SMAART at this time and not to the house or monitor feeds) and proceed to EQ the frequencies that are sticking out. This process usually eliminates needing a person to stand in place with or without a hat. Then the next thing to do is listen to see if you got carried away or not. Many times I also find that I need to carve a little bit around 250 out also. If you did it right and it worked it will still sound good and be resistant to feedback. I have been able to make monitors extremely feedback resistant with this method (most of the time) sometimes it doesn’t work the first time you try it and you have to do it from scratch again. I like to start at the lower frequencies and go up to the high frequencies it seems to work better this way. I have gotten monitors to be extremely feedback resistant to the point of someone pointing a mic at a monitor and it is not feeding back.

One time just for my knowledge I ran a cable from a monitor on stage to another one of the same model and had it next to me so I could hear what the person testing the monitor (talking and yelling into it) and telling me to keep turning it up was hearing and if and when it feedback. It was at an unbelievably painful level and I vowed never to do that again. And one of the musicians had arrived towards the end of the experiment. I told the guy I was working with that that level was insane and if they ask for more than that they must be deaf. A little bit later the musician sheepishly asked for more knowing what I had said.  So I gave him more.



If you are EQing it properly with SMAART you hopefully aren’t sucking the life out of it. One of the problems with the “RINGING” out of monitors is you are likely to get carried away. You can make a monitor never feedback because there is almost nothing left to amplify. A properly EQed monitor will hopefully be feedback resistant and sound good. But the difference between a really good monitor (expensive) and anything else becomes very obvious in a case like this.

Unless the acts hearing is so shot they need frequencies boosted that are going to feedback. For the times when linear doesn’t work and you have minor problems with the monitors occasionally squeaking I just very recently wondered how a good Automatic feedback suppressor with only 2 filter set to release after 5 seconds for each one would work. Just to catch those times when they do something like dip the mic into the monitor when you have had to set it too harsh. 

I just realized the one thing I forgot to spell out and kind of assumed it was a known. The quality of the EQ makes a big difference. Some EQs (usually the cheap ones) just don’t work well for monitors. The final decision is still out, but so far I seem to be having good results with the TruEQ in the M32 for monitors and also for my vocal Mix Bus insert. If you look at how the filters interact it is much more like a parametric. If you pull down 3 filters next to each other you don’t have the bumps between them, they act together. You also have the Parametric built into the Mix Bus send so you can use that also.

[John L Nobile]

Thanks Kevin. I'm going to try a Smaart demo and try your method.

[ProSoundWeb Community]