We are continuing onward this month discussing monitors, subs and how to deal with each. A lot has been discussed on Southern Gospel forums about how this one does this and how that group prefers this other method. I will not take sides in these various debates, but instead will try to share with you the proper methods for setting monitors and subs in a far more professional manner.
Floor Monitors
This is one area where Southern Gospel groups differ from virtually all other forms of music on the planet, and in many floor monitors situations, we are as a whole, dead wrong. I have heard countless Southern Gospel artists proclaim proudly that they want to hear exactly what the audience hears. Great sentiment, but the truth is, all good intentions aside; that is totally, without question, impossible. Ok, now someone will say, “Yeah, maybe, but I still wanna hear the same mix as the audience.” Again, cannot be done, or at least not within the laws of physics.
Your first obstacle in hearing exactly what the audience hears is usually the type of speaker you use for a floor monitor. Monitors are usually far smaller with a limited frequency response when compared to typical main house speakers. Another obstacle is a matter of physics, and the very reason this errant practice will never work. The acoustic space you are standing and listening in is vastly different than that of your audience. You see, there is this little thing in acoustics called “point source reference”. You are listening a mere 3-4 feet away from your monitor, whereas the audience may be 50 to 100 feet away from their source of sound. AS the sound passes through the moisture packed air, the frequency response changes as the high end becomes more and more damped. Plus, you have the effects of the room and the reverberation and reflected sound that combines with the direct sound from the speakers. Even if you used the exact same speaker as you use for the audience, you will never hear the same blend of voices, the same timbre, nor the same acoustic sensation as does the audience. Believing you can is a dandy misconception I hear far too many times in SG circles. So the question arrives, “What should you do?” The answer is simple, forgot the concept of listening to the same mix as the audience. You can’t. You won’t, and furthermore, you are ignoring the best opportunity in the world to make your group sing better and tighter with each other, while holding onto the flawed notion that you will sing better if your monitors are fed from the house mix. I don’t know how this got started, but it was a bad seed that got passed around way too much.
The better method is to use the mixer you already have in the manner it was designed for in the first place. Virtually every mixer made today has one or more Aux sends. Does it ever occur to people that the mixer companies go to great expense in adding all those aux sends for a very valid reason? One or more of these Aux sends will either already be hard-wired, or switch selectable, to “pre”. When you use the aux send in “pre” mode, you are selecting a pick off point for the send that is prior to, the EQ section, and the channel fader as well. In other words, the Aux send in pre mode is not affected by equalizer settings, nor fader settings, as it is totally independent from the remaining input channel strip. So why should you do this? Well, one very commanding reason is that once obtained, your monitor mix will stay virtually the same from venue to venue. The other reason is when you have each singer in the monitor at about the same acoustic level, they should begin to hear each other and move in and out of the microphone as needed to maintain the blend, thus making for a tighter vocal group overall. It takes a little getting used to, but the art of blending together will become far more reinforced the longer your group sings with this type of focus.
Also, when you use the pre sends for your monitor, you can now equalize each channel for the best quality of sound out in the house, for it has zero effect on your monitor mix. Better still, if someone sets back in the audience and mixes your house sound for you, he or she will not be changing your monitor mix with each fader ride performed. For example, our bass, Alan Brewster, usually does one song in our program where he hits a double low E on the last note. We have a person who mixes the house sound at most of our concerts. Each evening this big rich double low E fills the venue we are in, simply because the person mixing has given Alan a bit of help with volume as he reaches down for that very low note. If we were folding the house mix back into our monitor, and the same fader ride was performed, we would most certainly get feedback. One can also maintain a blend of voices from song to song, making sure the melody is just a skoosh out front, and the other vocals are blended together.
Now, I have heard all the arguments why someone might want to hear the house mix in the floor monitor, and I will tell you, as I have told countless others, you will never hear the house mix in your monitors, regardless of how much you would like to think so. There is this little item known as the laws of physics, which becomes a fire-wall you will never overcome. I have even seen groups using the left and right main outs, one for house and the other for monitor. When they need to hear more monitor, they pan the signal toward that side, unaware that they are simultaneously lowering that particular channel in the house. (Not a wise move.) The other reason you really want to abandon the “house mix to monitor method” is you are short-changing both your group and your audience. Get your mixer manual out and read. I promise it will help.
Subs
I sometimes think of sub-woofer systems as how to make a good quartet sound absolutely horrible, for that is the way 95% of SG artists use their subs today. Not too long ago we were at a very large venue with a couple of other Southern Gospel groups, and for some reason, each group was asked to setup their own sound system. One of the groups had a fine John Meyer system that should have sounded terrific. Unfortunately it did not. The reason that it did not, was simply because they ran their subs improperly. They obviously had the subs fed from a separate send, and the sub-send was so hot that it made both their vocals and the music tracks sound muddy. Their bass, who is actually one of the better bass singers going, was so overwhelming the sensation became distracting. Plus, I seriously wonder if anyone in attendance that evening understood any of the lyrics he sang. (That’s probably a worthy thing to strive for in Gospel Music, don’t you think?) A John Meyer system is a fine, quite expensive system, and it should have made a far better showing than it did.
Don’t get me wrong, I like subs and we use them as well, except ours are built into our main speaker cabinets, and not as separate cabinets. The concept of a sub woofer is not to rattle the walls, nor is it to make a weak bass singer sound like JD Sumner. Unfortunately, many in our ranks have not quite caught onto to this proper concept. The idea of a sub is to extend the low frequency range beyond the capability of the main speaker cabinets you may be using. For example, the Meyer cabinets referenced above I believe were the 12” woofer and horn combination. At best the woofer in this system is capable of about 80 Hz or so, and this is typical of most 12 inch woofers. As frequency decreases the woofer’s power handling capability also decreases. This is a function called Xmax, which is the term denoting the speaker’s excursion limits, or in laymen’s terms, how far the cone can travel, at what particular frequency and at what power rating.
Since we need a PA system with a range that extends to at least 40 Hz, and 30 Hz would be even better, we must find a method for doing just that. Enter the 15 inch or 18 inch sub-woofer. These hefty speakers can move a lot of air on the low end, and can be used quite effectively to extend the range of the PA system. But take note, they should not be used solely as a bass synthesizer. The art to using sub cabinets is wrapped neatly in the ability to use electronic crossovers properly. (Although some self powered speaker cabinets have these built in and this relaxes the need for a good working knowledge of electronic crossovers.) With the above Meyer speaker cabinet, I would have likely selected a crossover point of about 100 Hz, thus limiting my main house speakers even more, and thereby keeping the mains from reproducing frequencies low enough to cause serious damage to the speaker. I would set the sub “out” on the electronic crossover to have a low pass filter of 100 Hz as well, and select the crossover slope at 24 db per octave.
Where I differ with many of my SG colleagues, I would never use a separate send to the sub power amplifiers, as my setup would be the same signal that is sent from the house feed. In so doing, one keeps errant hands from turning the volume of the subs excessively high. Subs should instead, be set and for the most part, forgotten. The bottom end should never suddenly boom with tons of ultra low end, but should instead, simply extend the low-end response, and be for the most part, transparent. The audience should never feel the sensation of house mains ending and the subs beginning. Alas, this is rarely the case in SG circles. Think of it this way, a fully tweaked speaker system should be very broad range, and should be smooth from top to bottom. In theory, a finely tuned, well designed speaker system should actually sound like one perfect speaker, (a perfect “one” however does not exist.) It should sound like one speaker that covers the entire audio spectrum smoothly, faithfully, and without huge bumps or nulls in the frequency response. A good speaker system, well tweaked, should never be so overwhelming it overshadows the rest of the system.
One final thought, I was at the home of a SG artist and friend not long ago, and he decided to play his current CD for me on his home stereo. It sounded terrible. I looked at the receiver, and noticed that the bass and treble both were wide open. With his approval, I turned the tone controls back to flat, and increased the overall level just a bit to compensate. His reply was, “That sounds great. What did you do?” I remembered their PA from a few nights earlier sounding virtually the same as his hyped stereo. Remember, it’s quality not quantity every time.
Until next time,
Ben Harris
http://www.southernsoundquartet.com
Author: Ben Harris
| Author's Website: www.southernsoundquartet.com
Written: 04/03/2009
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Category: Sound Advice
Comments: 5
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Ben that's such good stuff. I wish you were in the St. Louis area. I'd hire you in a minute to help me get our system back under control. Thanks for the article.
Yes, you can have the same mix in your monitors as your mains. The sound may not be the same, based on speaker selection, but the mix CAN be the same. By using the left main out (xlr)for say, your main speakers and the right main out (xlr)for your monitors, you achieve the same mix, but not necessarily the same sound. If I am running sound from the stage, this is the way to have the same mix on both mains & monitors with a separate volume from your mixing console.
You need to re-read the article. You can have the same electrical signal going to the monitors, but it will not be the same mix as the audience hears. The point of concidience and distance render that impossible. Besides, its a terrible way to do a good monitor mix.
I totally disagree with your logic,but to each his own. It has worked for me for the last 46 years.
It's not my logic, its physics. The next time you set your sound sytem up play a full CD and stand in front of your house speakers about 5-6 feet from them, now go about 2/3 the way back into the venue and listen to the same music piece. I guarantee you the "mix" will have changed drastically. It is physics, and it cannot be overcome. You would be better off setting the monitors on a pre send and doing overall eq to the floor monitors for the best possible sound in the near field. This will now stay virtually the same from venue to venue, and will leave channel EQ open and available for the house, as the mfg intended. My wife has been driving the long way to work for the past several years too, but that does not make her route the closest, nor the best.
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