How To Mix Monitors from Front of House

Mixing monitors from FOH means using one channel for two jobs – stage sound and FOH for the audience. This means sharing the same gain & EQ for both, which limits what you can do during the show. On an analogue desk, using a Y-split can be really helpful, at least on the vocals, as this gives you separate channels for each job. On digital desks, you can split all the channels with ease – this leaves you with only the Gain being shared. But digital desks do have Digital Trim, which then allows further control over the gain of each channel.

Justin’s personal preference with the Drum Fill is to put the sub and top on separate mixes - this allows easy control of Low Frequency feedback without affecting the rest of the drummers mix.

All channel processing on shared channels is audible in both monitors and FOH. It’s preferable to NOT have compression on most instruments in monitors as this affects the way a musician plays – if it’s over-compressed, they will play harder and possibly “overplay”, which is not an ideal situation, so if you have a digital desk. It’s worth splitting as many as you can/need.

Start by getting your desk set up –in this case the Midas Pro 2 – in readiness for all anticipated requirements.

Justin sets up the desk for a simple band with 16 channels, and double patches for a FOH and a Monitor layer – making sure the monitor layer is not routed to FOH! Best practice tip - use post fade sends-on-fader for swift feedback control. He also sets up a dedicated monitor FX to accommodate requests from artists for reverb in the monitor, using a separate reverb unit to the FOH reverbs and a GEQ across all monitor mixes.

Next up – checking the stage end.

Everything needs to be tested... All your components need to be checked, the phase relationships need to be coherent and your monitors need to sound more-or-less the same. Testing this all one your own can be tricky, but there are ways around this. Justin also discusses the testing and positioning of wedges to be used in pairs, as is commonly done for the lead vocalist. 

Next up – positioning wedges on stage.

Justin discusses the use of Drum-Fills, Side-Fills and In-Ear Monitors

Drum fills can change a lot depending on whether the drummer is left or right handed, and which side the drummer likes their vocal mic to come at them from, so leave that kind of thing till last to set up.

Getting the drum wedge high up and off the stage (on crates or any other kind of “stand”) so it’s closer to their ears, means using less electrical energy, and reducing the overall level on stage.

Side fills- these are often old FOH PA that have been redeployed as side fills when the main PA is replaced. Side Fills have as many disadvantages as advantages – if the vocal is right for the singer in the centre of the stage, it’s likely to be ear-splitting for the musicians on the side of the stage!

There are ways around this, by flying the side fills, for example, or using low profile fills which then do not drill directly into musician’s ears, and help with sight-lines.

Many bands now use side fills, these also have their own advantages and disadvantages. Justin discusses some of these issues.

Many small venues have a very small stage. Fitting both the monitors and the band onto the stage can be difficult!

Justin discusses using (or not using) coupling to achieve additional level for, say, a bass player, and the maximum distance he likes to have between a pair, so as to avoid the Haas Effect.

And what to do when the wedges take up so much space on the stage that there’s no room for the band!

Watch this for top tips and tricks for how to make the most of your space and still allow the musicians to hear themselves perfectly.

Avoiding unpleasant surprises is one of the aims of a live sound engineer, so good EQ techniques are essential to retain control.

When doing monitors from FOH, it’s necessary to set the gain so that it works both for FOH and for Monitors. Justin talks us through the method of starting with setting it for FOH, and then using the Digital Trim if necessary to adjust monitors, and the difference between sharing channels between monitors and FOH and having separate channels in different layers.

Other topics covered: Frequency recognition, using high pass filters, feedback control, sonic control, using Graphic EQ, fundamentals v harmonics, how EQ affects gain structure, proximity effect, single wedges v pairs, the effect of reflective surfaces like glasses and what happens when you cup the microphone hip hop style.

Justin discusses what kinds of surprises you might want to prepare for from the band, and how the FOH mix influences the monitor sound.

This episode discusses: best practice when responding to band member’s demands, what contribution FOH sounds make to the stage sound, how to prepare for artists who do not turn up for soundcheck, artists fashion accessories like mirror shades and hats that turn into instant reflective surfaces, the importance of brushing your teeth, what sort of noises to make (especially since no artist ever counts to two as part of the act), why you should soundcheck with FOH PA on.