LIVE SOUND
Travis Stoddart is a live sound technician and recording engineer based out of Hamilton, ON. He has
worked on local festivals including Renaissance Music 5.0 and Winona Peach Festival, and assisted
in the broadcast truck during the 2018 CCMA Awards. He runs his own recording studio, Alleyway
Sound, and can be reached at [email protected].
By Travis Stoddart
5 Tips for Crafting the Perfect
Monitor Mix
M
onitors are always the first
thing a band talks about when
I check in with them at the
end of a show. Crafting great
monitor mixes is also the best way to get
repeat clients as a live sound tech. Musicians
perform their best when they can hear ev-
erything properly.
With that, here are five key tips for craft-
ing the perfect monitor mix, and in turn,
getting your next gig.
Get There Early
One of the best things you can do to set a
solid foundation for your monitor mix is to
get to the venue early so you have plenty of
time to ring out the room. Start by setting up
all the vocal microphones according to the
stage plot and gradually increase the level of
each microphone in its associated monitor.
As frequencies begin to feed back, use an
EQ to notch these out. Ideally, you want to
have this process finished by the time the
artist gets there. Arriving early also gives you
time to ensure all wireless in-ear systems
are properly set up and to troubleshoot any
issues before you’re under a time crunch.
Treat Sound Check like a Dress Rehearsal
During sound check, ask musicians to per-
form as they would during the course of
the show. Have them walk around with the
microphone and ask them to speak while
adjusting or cupping the microphone on
the stand. This can sometimes bring out
nasty hidden feedback since their hand will
cover the porting on the microphone (the
design element in microphone construc-
60 CANADIAN MUSICIAN
tion that creates directionality), effectively
turning their cardioid microphone into an
omnidirectional microphone and reducing
its capacity for rear rejection. Also, ask per-
formers to wear any hats or accessories they
plan to wear during the show. A colleague
of mine once created a great monitor mix
for a country band, only to discover that
they had all donned cowboy hats prior to
taking the stage, and that the large brim
of the hat was reflecting high frequencies
back into the microphones every time they
stepped forward to sing!
Bring Headphones
Once you’ve got all of the band’s monitor
mixes dialled in and feedback-free, grab your
headphones and listen to each individual
monitor mix. Most consoles feature a head-
phone jack and the ability to monitor any
given send via headphones, and you should
have a pair of closed-back headphones you
know and trust in your toolkit. In the age of
in-ears, understanding what your musicians
are hearing and how it translates to head-
phones is incredibly important. Can they
hear themselves clearly? Are there any weird
frequencies that make the monitors sound
abrasive or jarring? Is there anything in their
in-ears that they might find unnatural or
disorienting? These are all questions you
should ask yourself when fine-tuning your
monitor mixes.
Save a Show File
At the end of the night when it’s late and
you may be tempted to pack up as quickly
as possible, take 10 seconds to save a show
file. Most, if not all, digital consoles allow you
to save a show file containing send levels,
monitor EQ, etc. to a USB stick for future
recall. This will come in handy next time you
work in the same room and already have
your monitors rung out, or when you work
with the same artist and want to remember
how much vocal they like in their wedge.
Saving a show file can be the difference
between coming across as prepared and
professional, or scrambling to get a monitor
mix going when set-up runs long.
Above All Else, Be Courteous
It should go without saying, but you’ll get
the best monitor mixes when you’re cour-
teous towards your musicians and seek to
understand their needs. Most professional
musicians know exactly what they want
in their monitors, so take a few minutes as
you’re setting up to ask them what they like.
Always try to address people by name when
communicating through the talkback (if you
have a hard time remembering names, write
each musician’s name on a piece of tape
and stick it on the console underneath their
microphone or instrument), and communi-
cate with musicians face-to-face whenever
possible. Sometimes things outside of your
control will go wrong, but always try to be
polite when troubleshooting and focus
on finding solutions instead of assigning
blame for the problem. Even in less than
ideal situations, if you’re courteous and
professional, you’ll be remembered as “the
tech who saved the day” and will get the
call next time.