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[Bob Leonard]

I recently found a great 70 page guide describing most of the aspects of mixing monitors. I know fairly well that this is an often overlooked part of sound reinforcement, often resulting in a lot of frustration when approached by a novice. The guide is  great for beginners and journeymen alike. Print it out and give it a read. Have fun!

http://www.sae.edu/media/251/a_handbook_for_monitor_engineer s_.pdf

[Mac Kerr]

Nice link. Lots of good basic info, although some of the gear references are a little dated. Methodology is still valid and would be a good read for anyone who doesn't already do this every day. It was interesting to note that some of his research was right here at PSW:

http://www.prosoundweb.com/live/articles/chrisk/diary2/diary 2.shtml

http://www.prosoundweb.com/live/articles/davidweiss/davetobi as.shtml

http://www.prosoundweb.com/studyhall/psw_studyhall/stage_ter ms.shtml

http://www.prosoundweb.com/live/articles/danlaveglia/xl32.sh tml

http://www.prosoundweb.com/live/news_04/bkirk.shtml

http://www.prosoundweb.com/studyhall/lastudyhall/iem.html

http://www.prosoundweb.com/webexpo/namm02/senn/b_beck.shtml

Mac

[Eric Simna]

Bob,  thanks for the link to this.  As a regular theatre guy trying to build up and get to the concert scene this was a very nice read.  Even if some of it is dated, that dated equipment is whats in my price range right now. (College student paying his own way through school, oww.)

Eric

[Bob Leonard]

Thanks guys. Mac your seal of approval has meaning to me. Thanks. Maybe a sticky might help with some of the monitor questions people seem to always ask.

[Tony "T" Tissot]

Nice find.

The only caution I would offer is to think through carefully the compression of vocal mixes on monitors! (i.e. - use sparingly - if at all, and only with the singers consent.)

(Having learned the hard way, in the most embarrassing way )

[RYAN LOUDMUSIC JENKINS]

Speaking of monitors....  We got to work a gig with Maxie Williams a couple weeks ago.  We knew he was a very well respected monitor engineer so both myself and my monitor engineer tried our best to learn as much as we could from him.  He was VERY cool and we picked up a lot of hints that will make us better at what we do.  So thanks very much to Maxie and if anyone ever gets to work with him pay attention because I think we could all learn a bit from people like him.

[Geri O'Neil]

Maxie's a good friend to us around here. Talk about a no-muss, no-fuss kind of guy. Quite a gig he's got, eh? We don't get to work with him near as much as we'd like to.

Geri O

[Dick Rees]

Bob Leonard wrote on Sun, 23 December 2007 07:40

I recently found a great 70 page guide describing most of the aspects of mixing monitors. I know fairly well that this is an often overlooked part of sound reinforcement, often resulting in a lot of frustration when approached by a novice. The guide is  great for beginners and journeymen alike. Print it out and give it a read. Have fun!  http://www.sae.edu/media/251/a_handbook_for_monitor_engineer s_.pdf

Thanks for the link.  It's good to have this info available to refer people to when I don't have time to give them the short course.  

One aspect of the outboard processing always puzzles me a little, though.  I understand the function of a limiter on a particular mix to lessen the occurence of feedback.  I'm just not as comfortable with compression on monitor mixes.  I understand the objective of obtaining a more workable dynamic range, but I've found that it's a little touchy balancing the amount of compression with what I perceive as a tendency for compressed signals to be more prone to feeding back.  Is this the way it works or am I missing something here?

I await the wisdom of the community.

[Tony "T" Tissot]

Vocal compression in monitors - usually "bad" - particularly for a singer with chops.

They tend to fight the dynamics of the compressor in a losing battle. The compressor always wins. The singer's throat usually suffers.

(But I do admit using them for hardcore screamers )

Limiters - I believe they are already in commercial IEM setups. I know they are in the ones I've used.

As far as wedges - I don't really know - I have never felt the need to use limiters.

[Art Welter]

Dick,

Compression or limiting should not normally make a system more prone to feedback unless the unit is changing the frequency response as it goes over threshold.  

Monitors are a gain before feedback game. If you set compressor thresholds too low, gain will be reduced, so the system will feed back at a lower output level.