Monitors

[MNAirHead]

Do any of you guys have a band rule that the member must buy/own/transport/maintain/cable their own monitors?

[bassmeknik]

Not really but I do anyway, the other members use the guitarists equipment which I find inferior. So I bring my own wedge, cables, power amp, and I hook to an unused sub mix output on the mixer. I have the ability to have my own mix but IMO our band needs to hear ourselves sing so only vocals are in the monitors and to make it easier to balance when harmonizing the levels of each mic is set equally (the vocal mics are all the same vocal mic which helps a bit).

[bassmeknik]

We each chip in and help each other once our own equipment is set up. However our young singer dude often thinks it's ok to entertain his girlfriend while we set-up for him... kids.

[bassmeknik]

I built a decent set of wedges several years ago and they work very well. Mid performance the singer will come over to my side of the stage and often stays when he can't hear his own monitor, but this apparently is not enough for them to ask if they could use my monitor system (I have 4 wedges and 2 stereo power amps, a useful club sized monitor system) but they love their self powered Behringer stuff even though the singer often can't hear himself...

[eriky4003]

I guess every band will be different on that. My brother and I owned the monitors. When we hooked up with our drummer, he had mains and subs so it was a good blending of gear each was missing.
When it comes to gigs, everyone transports what they can and we all set up everything. It generally works out that the drummer just sets himself up and the two guitarists and I hook up the monitors and mains.

[MNAirHead]

reason I ask...

I always travel with my own powered monitor (in my trunk)... have a pass through personal mixer...

Saturday night the drummer was complaining that his bass couldn't be heard and that the monitors were inadequate.

Of course my first thought was "where are your mics and monitor?"


----


I'm getting ready to audtion for a new band -- they're young and moldable. For silliness reduction, I've thought about bringing this up (everyone own and maintain their personal choice of powered monitor)

[two fingers]

Sounds like a good idea at first. But, then again, so does having half a dozen girlfriends.

What you'll end up with is a mixed bag of crap. Many don't know anything about what to buy. They don't know anything about power amps, EQs, or the speakers themselves. One guy will go out and buy a setup that will take his head off. Another will buy some yard sale crap (an 80s 1-10 Carvin and a 96 lb. old CS 800) that sounds like a big a.m. radio and isn't loud enough to be heard. And your band will be a sound guy's worst nightmare. I play bass but run sound also. I can't imagine how I would handle four or five guys walking towards me with individual monitor amps, speakers, EQs and a list of demands for each of them. The only things I can guarantee is that all of them would be offended and none of them would be using their own monitors. It would take a solid hour to make sense of and dial in five different monitors setups and none of you would be happy anyway. You're just asking for a mixed bag of big trouble. If you're a band, either BUY a setup together or RENT a setup together. Individual monitors bare little to no similarities to individual stage rigs. They should be similar, EQed together, well maintained, etc.

All that combines with the fact that it would look like a mess on stage. No uniformity whatsoever.

Makes me quake to think of making sense of separate monitor setups. Oy.

[lowfreq33]

Originally Posted by two fingers

Sounds like a good idea at first. But, then again, so does having half a dozen girlfriends.

What you'll end up with is a mixed bag of crap. Many don't know anything about what to buy. They don't know anything about power amps, EQs, or the speakers themselves. One guy will go out and buy a setup that will take his head off. Another will buy some yard sale crap (an 80s 1-10 Carvin and a 96 lb. old CS 800) that sounds like a big a.m. radio and isn't loud enough to be heard. And your band will be a sound guy's worst nightmare. I play bass but run sound also. I can't imagine how I would handle four or five guys walking towards me with individual monitor amps, speakers, EQs and a list of demands for each of them. The only things I can guarantee is that all of them would be offended and none of them would be using their own monitors. It would take a solid hour to make sense of and dial in five different monitors setups and none of you would be happy anyway. You're just asking for a mixed bag of big trouble. If you're a band, either BUY a setup together or RENT a setup together. Individual monitors bare little to no similarities to individual stage rigs. They should be similar, EQed together, well maintained, etc.

All that combines with the fact that it would look like a mess on stage. No uniformity whatsoever.

Makes me quake to think of making sense of separate monitor setups. Oy.

This.

Ideally you want all the wedges on stage to be the same make and model, both for technical and aesthetic reasons.

[pflash4001]

Originally Posted by bassmeknik

We each chip in and help each other once our own equipment is set up. However our young singer dude often thinks it's ok to entertain his girlfriend while we set-up for him... kids.

This is often cured rather quickly when he gets docked per gig. I had an issue with this for a while. The gear was mine. I ended up loading, setting up, tearing down and reloading mostly on my own. It got old quick. I told everyone that I provided a complete PA including monitors and wasn't asking any money for everyone to use it. The least they could do was help load/set up. It happened again. I told everyone that if they were late for loading or didn't help with setup/strike they'd get docked $20 for each section they missed ($20 if you're late to load, $20 if you go start schmaltzing a drunk tart while we're still picking up, etc.) it added up and attitudes changed or they left. No big deal. I'd rather work with people who are going to pull their own weight.

[Kmonk]

We have a sound guy who carries all of our gear including all P.A. related equipment. He loads it in, sets it up and breaks it down. The only thing I do is set up my rig.

[modulusman]

Two fingers nailed it in his post. The last thing i would want to deal with is multiple POS monitor rigs.

[4Mal]

Beauty of the 16.4.2 is 6 aux mixes with independent EQ... That said, yeah I would prefer to deal with two basic monitor types. 1 drum wedge and the other type for everything else.

I own the pa, provide 3 monitors as that is all we need... I store them with my guitarist and so we split some of the carry.

[gareth dunster]

I second the joy of the 6 aux sends on the 16.4.2. Very easy to call up individual mixes.

[will33]

+1 to all those different monitors being a much bigger headache than just supplying the whole band yourself. Different sends/amp feeds doesn't even begin to address the biggest problem....feedback tendancies. Try to notch the ring out of all of them from 1 or 2 EQ's and you may as well just shut them off. You'd be creating a situation where the extra mixing time and gear required would really call for a dedicated monitor mix engineer. Not to mention the sub par gear and lack of mixing experience brought by the various band members could easily bring volume and feedback wars along with it. Less stuff operated by people who know what they're doing will always bring a better result than more stuff operated by people who don't.

[Misty Mountain]

We just completed (for now) our monitor system, and it worked very well for our first show with it. Our drummer and guitarist/singer purchased matching wedges, our keyboard player already has a powered monitor, and I use a hotspot. Since our current board has only two monitor mixes, the non-powered wedges get one mix (vocals, some guitar, maybe a little bass if they need it) with a line out to the powered monitor for the keys player when he wants it. The other channel runs my hotspot with only vocals through it. Both run through their own EQ channel (with feedback detection-very helpful.) Everyone was very happy with their sound, although the drummer would have liked to a way to turn his monitor down a little - why did most of the monitor manufacturers decide to eliminate level controls? Used to be a very common feature. But it was no issue having a setup like this. We'll add an outboard level control for the drummer so he can tweak his volume, and be good to go.

[Zooberwerx]

We were using cast-off Fender 2-way mains but Ken, our guitarist, bought a couple of compact Carvin enclosures which really do the trick. The balance of the PA is mine but I really appreciate the gesture on his part. This sort of stuff gets expensive after a while!

Riis

[seanm]

Only the two vocalists get monitors and I provide them. I don't have a monitor myself, although I haven't needed one. I think it would help the drummer if he had a powered monitor.

[Vege-mity-mite]

I guess I must be the exception.

We formed a band where everyone contributed something to FOH (except the drummer), and monitors were left up to individual people. I bought IEMs, others bought little hotspots and the drummer bought nothing. The drummer always complains that he can't hear anyone for some reason, but won't spend anything to fix the problem, so he can complain all he wants.

[MNAirHead]

Originally Posted by Vege-mity-mite

I guess I must be the exception.

We formed a band where everyone contributed something to FOH (except the drummer), and monitors were left up to individual people. I bought IEMs, others bought little hotspots and the drummer bought nothing. The drummer always complains that he can't hear anyone for some reason,

but won't spend anything to fix the problem, so he can complain all he wants.

This is the EXACT thing I'm discussing

I run all super high end gear with autopilot features

My preference is iem

We could make some rules/guidelines

Monitors always seem to be what players complain about the most (until its their responsibility)

[gearhead1972]

I own and run our PA, I provide my 2 monitors for keys and myself. one of the other guitar players provides 2 passive for the singers and an active for the drummer. So no we don't have an each member bring his own rule.