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[Marsellus Fariss]

It's done all the time in club land but I've always avoided doing both at once. Id rather re-configure the rig with the graphs at FOh and handle it from FOH and just cover up monitor world. Mainly because of having to constantly walk back and forth all night when the muso's ask for changes.

How have you club guys handled this when some shows dont justify paying two techs yet you want to have the capability?

We're about to add the capability but need to work out the details of when to use it and how to handle the added payroll expense.

[Dave Bigelow]

If the snake has an extra 4 drive lines I just ring wedges early and then run the 4 lines to 4 separate channels on the monitor desk. Requires having the open auxes out front but will save you some walking

[Rob Gow]

A good solid sound check, and then I can wander up during a song, mixing from an iPad , and make any adjustments I need on the fly.

[Marsellus Fariss]

A good solid sound check, and then I can wander up during a song, mixing from an iPad , and make Amy adjustments I need on the fly.

Damn. See if we had a digital desk in monitor world I would have a great excuse to "need" to buy an ipad and I could write it off.

[Rob Gow]

Damn. See if we had a digital desk in monitor world I would have a great excuse to "need" to buy an ipad and I could write it off.

It's really handy!! I always wanted an iPad but couldnt justify it before. Now that I've bought one, I can't picture working without it!

[Marsellus Fariss]

We're in this slightly awkward place in the market where having a monitor desk would be greatly helpful 5-8 shows a month and pointless for the other 15-20 since we already jockey up to 6 mixes from FOH every night. It seems from my research of venues production capabilities that in the 500-600 capacity bracket only about 60% of us have a second desk. Of those that I've worked in half the time I was there one engineer was working both and running back and forth because it was a slow night.   

We've never had one in ten plus years although bands do bring them in from time to time either for IEM's or about once a year somebody insists loud enough that we arrange for a rig for them and pass on the production expense.

Maybe we should start our intern ship program back up? Not just as a way to score some free labor but because there would be an new opportunity to get them hands on for some none critical gigs. I've always been real weary of letting the green kids run half my show but you know you gotta start somewhere and I never had that opportunity when I was coming up in the clubs. I just got thrown in head first. Sounds like a good and a bad idea to me!   
 

[Tim McCulloch]

Maybe we should start our intern ship program back up? Not just as a way to score some free labor but because there would be an new opportunity to get them hands on for some none critical gigs. I've always been real weary of letting the green kids run half my show but you know you gotta start somewhere and I never had that opportunity when I was coming up in the clubs. I just got thrown in head first. Sounds like a good and a bad idea to me!   

"Back in the day" when alcohol laws were less stringent, we could send an 18 y/o n00b to a bar gig.  As long as he/she had some food at the table and no booze, they could be there.  It was a way to train at a gig where there was no life & death trauma/drama if there was a squeal of feedback or the mix was less than stellar.  It only took a few gigs for the noobs to figure out if production was a reasonable career choice or they should seek other employment.

These days every gig we do is "high profile" in the eyes of a client or performer, so it's much harder to find gigs where a trainee can make (and learn from) a mistake or 2.

[Stuart Pendleton]

I am working with an 18 yo kid that just started college.  In VA, we can have an 18 yo in the bar with us as long as he doesn't drink and is with someone that is overage to be responsible for him. I started him coiling cables, moved him to lights recently, and have now started letting him mix 3rd set in the bar gigs.  He is picking up things fast and I can foresee a time when I can send him out for SOS jobs alone and things will be fine.  Wish I had another 2 or 3 like him. He is also a foot taller and 100 lbs heavier than me.  He walks over and picks up my QRX212s and walks around with them saying "where do you want these?" At some point I am going to deploy my second 01v96 for monitors and turn him loose. We use IEMS so he may not get the mix perfect the first time or two, but he won't get feedback....

[Patrick Tracy]

I have on occasion put my splitter at FOH and run two boards there, one for mains and one for mons. I have a 12-channel drive snake so it works out nicely.

[Matthew Knischewsky]

We're in this slightly awkward place in the market where having a monitor desk would be greatly helpful 5-8 shows a month and pointless for the other 15-20 since we already jockey up to 6 mixes from FOH every night. It seems from my research of venues production capabilities that in the 500-600 capacity bracket only about 60% of us have a second desk. Of those that I've worked in half the time I was there one engineer was working both and running back and forth because it was a slow night.   

We've never had one in ten plus years although bands do bring them in from time to time either for IEM's or about once a year somebody insists loud enough that we arrange for a rig for them and pass on the production expense.

Maybe we should start our intern ship program back up? Not just as a way to score some free labor but because there would be an new opportunity to get them hands on for some none critical gigs. I've always been real weary of letting the green kids run half my show but you know you gotta start somewhere and I never had that opportunity when I was coming up in the clubs. I just got thrown in head first. Sounds like a good and a bad idea to me!   

If you're already doing 6 mixes from FOH I see no reason to have a monitor desk side stage with only one engineer to run everything. Have a portable EQ rack that can easily move between FOH and Monitors you will save yourself a lot of walking (Or running if something really takes off!!!)

Though I have often run more than 4 mixes from FOH thats pretty much where I put my limit in club land. I found that to be a reasonable threshold to determine which acts need a dedicated monitor engineer even if the act doesn't ask for one. Of course some acts will need a ME no matter what. YMMV, in my case I told the person booking the acts "If the band can't get by on 4 mixes we need to hire a monitor engineer"

MK

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