![]() Musicians have become conscious of their stage volume and their hearing. Fortunately, times have changed: Microphones are better, and so are monitors. As long as it was loud, the talent would be happy. In the old days, this concept was paramount, almost to the point where the sound quality of the monitor didn’t matter. We know that one of the goals of a monitor system is high gain before feedback. Now we can turn our attention to tuning or “ringing out” the monitors, in order to maximize volume before feedback occurs, which basically means pushing gain until feedback occurs, then using EQ to reduce the troublesome frequencies until you achieve an ideal balance with the P.A. (Image credit: Future) Gain, feedback and EQ Note the small lobe at the back of the super-cardioid pattern, which indicates that the mic accepts some sound from the rear. The front of the mic is at 0 degrees the areas of maximum rejection for this pattern are roughly 120 degrees off-axis on either side. 3: Supercardioid pattern with optimum monitor placement. I often see two wedges placed on either side of a singer’s mic stand without regard to the mic’s pattern, but a cardioid mic is more prone to feedback when monitors are placed in this configuration because even though a cardioid mic rejects some sound from the sides, it still picks up a fair amount.įig. That’s the spot where you want to place a stage wedge, because the mic will reject sound coming from that direction, whereas your ears will not. A cardioid pattern is most effective at rejecting sound that comes from directly behind the mic, also known as 180 degrees off-axis. Take a look at figure 2, which shows a vocalist and the monitor position for a cardioid microphone. To minimize Unwanted feedback and endure the optimum rejection of unwanted sound, always test microphone placement before a performance. Avoiding Pickup of Unwanted Sound Sources: Place the microphone so that unwanted sound sources, such as monitors and loudspeakers, are directly behind it. Note the location of the pre-fader send relative to the main channel fader. 1: Simplified signal flow through the channel of a mixing console. If you shut the valve at position 4 (Main Channel Fader), water is stopped from flowing at position 5 (the post-fader send).įig. If you are having trouble understanding this scenario, think of signal flow as water, with each fader as a valve. This is very distracting to performers and “ties” their monitor mixes to the house mix- defeating your intent in the first place. If you use a post-fader send from the console (5), then every time a vocal fader is adjusted for the house mix, the vocal level in the monitors will also change. Note the position of the prefader send (3) relative to the main channel fader (4). This is a critical detail because it means that the monitor mixes will not change when the faders are adjusted for the main “house” mix. (Think of these as audio “valves,” as I explain below.) Monitor mixes should be generated using pre-fader sends from the mixing console. A monitor system provides easy communication between the monitor engineer and musicians separate mixes between house and stage systems, with individual mixes for each musician and high gain before feedback in the monitors so that the monitor level can be raised above the volume of the band.įigure 1 shows a simplified signal-flow diagram of audio passing through a mixer channel the circles with arrows represent trim controls or faders.
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