Pro Sound Web: A recent assignment placed me behind a monitor console once again. It had been a while since I stage-mixed on a regular basis, so I enjoyed the change of scenery.
But this end of the snake presents a very different challenge from a front of house mix or a system engineering position.
4 comments:
I'm going to go ahead and let slide the colloquial use of "guy" in this article...
Anyway, overall this is a really good overview of the art of monitor mixing and offers a lot of good pointers. As the article says, mixing for monitors is very different from mixing for an audience because the purpose is different. This is why it makes sense for the monitor mixer to be a different person from the front of house mixer. The problem is that monitor mixing is something you don't experience until you each a certain level of production value on shows, therefore it can be hard to gain experience doing it. I personally have never worked a concert large enough that it required active monitor mixing, but after reading this I feel like I'd have a better sense of where to start.
I thought this was a nice overview of what monitor mixers do. I don't really know anything about sound therefore I was kinda surprised to learn that typically the monitor mix and house mix sound alot different. This is interesting because I would think the artist wants to hear what the audience hears to better cater to them. I imagine mixing monitors is a very difficult job because musicians can be so picky about how they want to hear themselves. I realize that his is also something really specific to the concert world, but I would be interested knowing how this monitor mixing concept plays into theatre.
Having a good A2 who has experience with monitor mixing and cabinet placement is great. With that said the psychiatrist part of this article is really a much more important part. Being able to interpret what an artist wants from what the artist says is very important. Yes it is important to get the training and knowledge to setup the monitors correctly from an acoustic standpoint but it is also really important to make sure that you can talk to artists and not come off as condescending. Many artists have at least a rudimentary understanding of what you are doing and the best monitor mixer will be the one who can develop trust and a good working relationship with the artists.
This article appealed to me from the moment I read the title. As a person who in his short life has only really mixed front of house I have always been interested in the difference between what I have done and the other side being monitor mixing. The closest opportunity I got to mixing monitors was at a job as a sound assistant at a theater out on Long Island where we had this Irish Rock band come and we had a monitor setup. Unfortunately due to my lack of experience as a monitor guy my boss mixed monitors and gave me the FOH position. Since then I have worked as a monitor technician through a recent internship with KM productions. A production company based out of Long Island. After reading this article I feel more comfortable with my ability to try to mix monitors.
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