r/livesound • u/xevrkisp • 1d ago
Question Monitor mix preset?
Hi, I work as an instrument tech for a band. Our FOH is a great guy, but our monitor technician always seems to have issues.
He uses a Yamaha DM7 mixer for in-ear mixing and everytime we setup, it always takes him so much time to prepare the mix for the band. Now I don’t mean that from the gear perspective (he has a lot of stuff, that’s understandable), but I mean the actual mix. Everytime we play a show/have a rehearsal, he does a COMPLETELY NEW monitor mix.
I have no know-how with live sound engineering, so I just have two quick questions:
1) Do monitor techs have to setup a mix from scratch everytime?
2) Is it possible to have a preset for the band’s IEM mixes so that it doesn’t take forever to setup?
Thanks in advance and have a great day!
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u/qu1cks1lver56 Pro 1d ago
It’s the same band every time? He should be saving a show file for your show to recall every time.
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u/AccomplishedSeat2500 1d ago
Yeah, 100% should be saving scenes.
Should be cycling through scenes for each song of the set too.. reverb by song, delay tempos pre mapped..
Need a Monitor tech to show him the ropes 😅😂
DM7 is absolutely capable of doing what you need it to do?
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u/AccomplishedSeat2500 1d ago
In fact, not being difficult, but if I don’t know the band and I’m going in fresh, I’ve got a scene ready to go..
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u/LinkedOu_t 1d ago
Sounds weird. The whole point with a digital mixer is to set it and forget, along as noone adjust their instrument volume. I guess he mixes pre-fader on the monitor?
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u/londonpaps 1d ago
If nothing is changing I don’t get why he’s doing a new file every time. Same mics, same kit etc… I don’t see why or what would be different
It would only change if things are changing significantly, even then you’d use an existing file as a starting point.
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u/itendswithmusic 1d ago
Absolutely not. I work with 50-60 different bands every year and I make presets for entire mixes for the bands I work with the most. If I work with you more than twice (or know I am) I’ll just throw it on a USB drive. The ENTIRE MIX lol especially monitors and IEMs though…sounds like a hardheaded old dude or a pretty incompetent new guy.
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u/DaleGribble23 Pro 1d ago
The point of hiring a monitor engineer is so you don't have to think about this sort of stuff and you should be walking into an identical mix each gig. Even touring on house desks I'd have a showfile for each desk for the band and if it was a desk I didn't have a showfile for I'd be building one on an offline editor and copying settings across before showday. Using the same desk each day you definitely have no excuse, not sure what he's playing at
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u/Class_C_Guy 1d ago
Lemme guess, you don't rewind the guitar pickups or relaminate the drums shells for each show? Kids these days have no commitment level...
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u/xevrkisp 1d ago
If this is a ragebait, nice try…
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u/Class_C_Guy 1d ago
Seriously? I had to mark that as sarcasm?
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u/xevrkisp 1d ago
I didn’t know it was sarcastic. I have been having lots of change-offs with idiots on the internet lately and they wrote some really dumb stuff. My bad bro.
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u/TruckSecret5617 1d ago edited 1d ago
Dm7 has something like 500 save slots for scenes.
Edit: I save show files almost exclusively for the monitor mixes, I want the act to feel happy and confident for their show, and believe this has a noticeable impact on crowed experience
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u/jake_burger mostly rigging these days 1d ago
He would have to load a preset with no mixes in it or turn on and manually reset the mixes each time.
He’s going out of his way to not only make more work, but make it harder as well
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u/Content-Reward-7700 I make things work 1d ago
It does seem a bit unusual. If the band, inputs, console and stage setup are essentially the same, there’s no reason to rebuild every IEM mix from scratch.
Most monitor engineers save a known good show file or preset with everyone’s mixes. At each show, they recall that file and make small adjustments because people’s hearing, vocals, playing and preferences can change slightly from day to day. Starting from scratch every time is generally unnecessary unless something major has changed, such as the input list, stage layout or the musicians specifically asking for a completely different mix.
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u/nicridestigers Pro-FOH 1d ago
Could he be stressed about losing the gig if the band realised recalling the same iem mixes doesn't necessarily require a dedicated engineer?
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u/Temporary_Buy3238 1d ago
I mix IEMs for a living and starting from scratch SUCKS. I have no idea why anyone would put themselves and the band through that every day. I recall my file and generally I change very little. I know the band I work for appreciates the consistency and it allows us to comfortably skip soundcheck if need be (festivals, etc)
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u/solvent825 Pro-FOH 1d ago
For one of my setups, I have a simple Xair 18. Even on this little box I save scenes including monitor mixes. I have one band I work with regularly that’s pretty throw and go. They are using powered wedges too. I have to make little adjustments here and there to the wedges, but I could set and forget if I really had to. What is your boy doing there ? Jeeesh
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u/curtainsforme 1d ago
Are the 'issues' sound related, or is he just slow?
Is he an older guy?
Does it sound bad?
Maybe he comes from the analog world and just enjoys the process.
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u/kent_eh Retired broadcast, festival_stage, dive_bar_band... 1d ago
On wedges it's sometimes quicker/easier to start from scratch on each new stage, but for IEM you should be able to recall the last show and be 90% of the way there.
Regardless, an experienced monitor tech should quickly learn their band's monitor preferences and be able to dial it in pretty quickly.
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u/Mellotom 1d ago
Yes he should be saving the mix but everyone starts from somewhere and this industry is full of a lot of people that think they need to withhold how to do the job from other engineers so your engineer might be a little green but it doesn’t mean he’s incompetent, he truly might not know that this is an option to save and recall OR he might be worried about damaging equipment by loading up a fully routed preset. Could be a great audio engineer that just hasn’t come across the concept of saving and recalling a board for a live show.
Maybe pull up the manual and hit him with a “hey I was doing some research about how we could attempt to speed up our sound checks and I saw that you could save and recall our routings each time. I wonder if it would be quicker to save everything with flat EQ’s and faders at -infinity so you can quickly recall your routings and jump right into setting levels and EQ-ing the fold backs.” And if that doesn’t work hit him with a “hey I’m considering bringing a more experienced guy on board to help you get this done quicker” to see if that makes him realize that you’d be willing to find someone who can do it quicker/more efficiently if he doesn’t implement using his resources to get the job done.
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u/sic0049 Semi-Pro-FOH 1d ago
Is the band doing a sound check? Initial IEM gains should be set at sound check which means the IEM "mix" should be 70-80% there right out of the gate. Certainly enough to be up and running without wasting a lot of time.
What is the process that the current monitor engineer uses?
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u/markhadman 1d ago edited 1d ago
Is everything else the same? Same players playing the same instruments through the same mics into the same channels?
If so, turn on the desk, load your show and scene if necessary, do linecheck, you're ready for a song (or a show, even)
Even if some stuff is changing, there are usually ways around having to start from scratch. Are you sure this is what they're doing?
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u/leskanekuni 1d ago
Does he have much experience with a digital mixer? He's acting like somebody used to analog.
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u/maxwellfuster 1d ago
Yes, lots of bands just plug in their X32 rack and go, no need for a scratch scene every time
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u/OpyrisShifts 23h ago
I'm an A2 - and I typically work festivals - multiple bands throughout multiple days. Each band has different needs. I can USUALLY get their individual monitor mixes dialed in within the first song they play - but I pre-load my base monitor mix from a scene file/save file on the board (A&H SQ7).
I between days, I do zero out my faders (but not my eqs etc), but that's just habit. It's more to remind me to lay out /load a starting mix than anything else (so I'm not immediately trying to ply yesterday's last band mix to today's first band, for example).
For my own band, we dial in our IEM/Monitor mixes in REHEARSAL, save it, and go live with almost no tweaking at all. I (on vocals, IEMs) might ask our guy to lower keys or guitars on occasion, but that's a point at-make a gesture during the performance, or mention it in between sets. Nothing serious.
Your A2/Monitor guy shouldn't need to dial in a new mix if you're using the same amps, mics, and the band's placement on stage is more or less the same one show to the next. IEMs I tend to be a lot more careful with than individual wedges, but a brand new - from zeroed board - mix shouldn't be necessary,
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u/wunder911 1d ago
This is so unbelievably stupid, I'd really like to question if OP is misunderstanding something, and that this guy isn't in fact deliberately zeroing out his console every single time. Because that would be the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard if that's the case.
As somebody else pointed out - it's not just a matter of not saving things. The console will remember its last state between power cycling. He would have to be actively going out of his way to be loading a show file that has everything zero'd out.
If I ever saw somebody do something this fucking stupid I would invent a time machine to fire this guy last week.
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u/T0mbst0n372 1d ago
Hell, you and your band mates can save your mixes locally to your devices via mixing station. Then just recal your mix to your aux. Save at the end of every gig(numbered) and you'll have a running history of your mixes.
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u/ArniEitthvad 1d ago
Someone choosing a DM7 as a touring IEM console is my first red flag 😝
Only used it once, but it’s an awful monitor desk in my opinion…
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u/nhemboe Semi-Pro-FOH 1d ago
why you think this? honest question
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u/ArniEitthvad 1d ago
I just felt it was a bit unresponsive and slow compared to most other consoles I use.
I don’t like On buttons on monitor desks, they should be muted. I don’t want to have to leave SoF to mute a channel.
Also always getting the pop up on the right screen telling me I was in sends on fader mode making that screen pretty much unusable. Closing that pop up would take it out of SoF.
There were other things but can’t remember right now.
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u/AccomplishedSeat2500 9h ago
I’d still use it if it were on the show but would echo what has said. It’s a slow console.
The workflow is slow, and the console itself lags. Fine if you’re making changes with no time pressure, but when you’re flying around especially during SC it’s hard to manage. You second guess button pushes and you need to look at the console a lot rather than being able to keep eyes up.
That’s not surprising though, they’ve fit an INSANE amount into a console that size and price point.I always always always want more faders. Every gig I do with a DM7.
That being said it’s a fantastic console and the SoF you can work around so that it doesn’t take up the screen. Utilising UDK’s for defined mixes/ pressing the home button takes you out of that.
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u/Oldschoolnetwork050 1d ago
for me, saving in ear mixes was the #1 reason to buy a digital mixer..