Setting up for Gig (Desk,Monitors and Amp)

DiamondJQuimby

Hi,

We have a gig coming up in a couple of weeks and we are renting some equipment which one of the lads is sorting for us.

I have a couple of questions on the setup of a Rig,

We have got two tops and two bass bins and a Powered Mixer. I am pretty sure we have another Amp for the bass bins and another for the Monitors.

We are Miking up two guitar Amps and the Bass is going to be DI'd into the desk there are two vocal Mics and we are using three Mics for the drum kit.

We have 10 Channels on the desk,

Assuming we have everything connected correctly and it is all going out to the Bass bins and tops, I am a bit confused as to how Monitors are normally hooked up. and What do you send to the monitors?? Do we have to send a full stereo mix back to stage monitors or just certain instruments and vocals,

Any help appreciated,

Cheers

D

Savman

Usually your monitor mix comes off your Aux sends on the desk

if the desk is a Dynacord or Soundcraft or Mackie or similar there'll probably be any number of outputs marked "Aux 1, Aux 2" and so forth. This is the signal for your monitor, it need to be run via a poweramp or to an active monitor as it only carries signal and not power.

The more Aux sends you have the more separate mixes you have and if you want your 1st monitor full of Lead Vocal (lead vox is say channel 1 on ur desk) you use the Aux 1 send on Channel 1, its normally just below the EQ on each channel.

Easy enuff

edit: in cases where the desk has internal FX that occupy Aux 1 & 2 you would have Aux 3 for your monitor and so on

DiamondJQuimby

Thanks Man.
Sounds good.

We have two 250 Watt 8 Ohm tops that we are going to use as Monitors and We are probably only going to send the Vox and Guitars back through them we reckon the Drums and Bass will not have a problem hearing each other would this be a good way to go??

Cheers

D

Savman

if you're a moderately loud band and your set up suggests you are, then your Vocalist may struggle for volume unless you back off on guitars in the wedges.

If possible try positioning both guitar amps diagonally across stage, amps do not need to face the crowd all of the time in fact this has no real benefit when using a full PA rig.

The general rule of thumb is to keep it as simple as possible, bearing in mind that as the gig goes on musicians tend to get louder and vocals do get lost so leave plenty of headroom in your monitor & FOH mix for vox. Personally I'd recommend not sending any guitar to your monitors unless absolutely essential and use the floor monitors simply as vocal monitors. If you've only 250w monitors they wont handle well if you're running everything into 'em.

Also, while I'm waffling, try remember that you can play around with Kick Drum & Bass Guitar in monitors moreso than guitars because frequency is everything, if you have something that sits in the hi mid-range freq. near vocals -like guitars- it's an uphill battle. Try also eq'ing the 2 guitars differently if their sound allows for one amp to be "trebly" and the other to be "bassier" - clarity is not achieved easily trust me

MagnumForce

A agree with everything Savman said and would have said it myself if he hadn't got there first. The only think id disagree with is him saying not to send guitars to the monitors, in my experience, having guitars in the monitors is pretty essential if the two guitarists are an either side of the stage, which they usually are, as its difficult for one guitarist to hear the other across even a small stage what with a bass amp and a drum kit between em.

Savman

MagnumForce wrote:

A agree with everything Savman said and would have said it myself if he hadn't got there first. The only think id disagree with is him saying not to send guitars to the monitors, in my experience, having guitars in the monitors is pretty essential if the two guitarists are an either side of the stage, which they usually are, as its difficult for one guitarist to hear the other across even a small stage what with a bass amp and a drum kit between em.

aye true but i'm sure they manage ok in rehearsals!

DiamondJQuimby

Yeah that is what we are worried about the two guitarists not being able to hear each other..

We manage ok in rehearsals but we don't always have our drummer there when he is playing with us we start to lose each other in the mix.

I think it is going to be a bit of a fine balance to get it right..

Thanks for the advice much appreciated.

D