Sound Advice
Live Monitoring
I have been busy as of recent, designing and building a new floor monitor for our group and another identical one for our friends, The Childress Family from Madisonville, KY. Jamie Lutz of the Childress Family actually did most of the cabinet work. This process got me to thinking about monitors both on the floor and in your ears and I thought a quick look at both forms might be in order. I have always been partial to one very good monitor on the floor in front of the vocal group rather than then multiple monitor arrangements I see so many times with other groups, both Christian and secular alike. Here is my reasoning:
FLOOR MONITORS
When a vocal group, either trio or quartet, is standing essentially side by side singing harmony it is very important to hear the blend of those voices. By doing this you can move in or out of your microphone to maintain a solid blend. Hopefully any variations you can’t quite adjust for while singing, your sound person out in the house can correct, so that the audience hears a well-blended performance. This is a very good reason not to use more than one vocal monitor down front. Now, I know I am going to get many contrary responses to that statement, but I am positive I can back that up with sheer physics.
You see with a single monitor down front everyone in the group is hearing the same mix, from the same point in time, from the same aural and acoustic space. The phase response across the stage coming from one source, simplifies the character of the acoustic space and eliminates all the problems associated with multiple monitors. Multiple floor monitors confuse the acoustic space with varying phase angles, time delay, and time smear, and this cannot be avoided no matter how hard you try. The only solution to the problem is to get rid of all but one front floor monitor. For example, the typical floor monitor array usually consists of one monitor per singer. The audio mix is then controlled so that each individual within the group is hearing themselves in their own monitor a bit louder than the rest of the group. Put 3 or 4 such monitors down front, and you have a very phased sounding stage. You see, the basic track or band is usually sent to each monitor in equal amounts, along with a blend of all vocals, with the intended vocal for that monitor a bit louder than the others. In a typical 4 monitor setup, each monitor is receiving much the same source signal. While monitor #1 might be ok for singer number one on its own, it is also being acoustically fed across the stage to singer #2, singer #3, and singer number #4, and more troubling, each one of these positions is receiving that signal a few micro-seconds later than the previous position. Combine this with monitors 2, 3 and 4 also contributing to the wash of phased acoustics across the stage and you have an acoustic stage that is totally awash with phased and comb filtered sound sources. In fact, these four monitors have the square equivalent of 16 separate acoustic signals, all combining and nulling out at frequency intervals that would baffle you to begin to list. How anyone can hear to sing in time and in tune in this situation is a mystery to me, to say nothing of the stage wash into the audience that also makes the sound in the house sound brittle and pinched.
So in the above scenario a single monitor will certainly out perform many monitors easily, provided that such a monitor is designed for the job at hand. If you have a narrow coverage monitor with the typical 60 degree coverage angle, you are limited to how close the monitor can be to your standing position on stage. The further you place the monitor away from you, the wider the inherent coverage will be, and the more power required to fill the sound field. A single floor monitor for a vocal group must be very wide in dispersion pattern and wide in frequency response to accomplish the goal intended. Using just the one, typical floor monitor wedge for a vocal group will provide disappointing results, and may deter you from using this approach altogether. However, if you choose the proper type of floor monitor and are careful in its placement, excellent results WILL be obtained. I would not use a single monitor with less than a 90 degree dispersion horn. And this does not mean one of the popular powered speakers laying on its side, which would yield a horizontal dispersion of about 40 degrees. Remember, the 90 degree dispersion angle is the complete coverage angle. In other words, coming straight out from the horn, just as if a laser light was beaming out of the center of the horn, you have 45 degrees of coverage to the left and to the right, for a total of 90 degrees. The biamped monitors we just finished for down front have a dispersion of 120 degrees, which I found to be more than adequate. As an example of how angles of dispersion and distance from the monitor equate, I have listed below the actual width of the sound field in respect to distance from the floor monitor:
As you can see, if you need to cover a quartet type group such as the Dove Brothers who typically use all of the stage during their performance, you must have a monitor system capable of providing very wide coverage both in frequency response and high frequency dispersion with plenty of power. Monitors systems of this nature are rare and expensive, but when compared to buying 4 typical wedge floor monitors, and their associated power amps, they might be comparable. When you consider how much easier it would make the process of singing together, and how it would improve your house sound due to the lack of backwash, it would likely be a bargain.
IN-EAR MONITORS
Obviously in-ear monitoring has come into it’s own over the last several years. In fact, to the point of making floor monitors, in many cases, a thing of the past. However, in-ears have their problems too. Just as multiple monitors, each with their own personal mix, have severe limitations, so do in-ears. For an example, early in my recording career, I was working a session in Nashville with some of the finest players on the planet. Jimmy Capps was playing acoustic this particular day and after a couple of takes on the same song that did not seem to quite gel, Jimmy came to me in the Control Room and asked me what kind of mix I was feeding to the cue system. I told him I had a mix for the drummer, one for the piano player, one for the guitar player, and one for the acoustic and bass. He asked me what I was listening to, and I told him I was trying to do as good a stereo live mix as I could because I was making roughs as we went along. He then said in the driest of tones, “Why don’t you feed all of us, the same mix your listening to. We should all be working on the same record.” I did as he requested, and the cut came together in short order after that. What Jimmy told me that day changed forever the way I did cue mixes for recording. I still do the same method all these years later, and as of yet, I have never had a complaint.
The very idea of in-ear monitors, are at odds with the concept of close vocal harmony. That is not to say it cannot work, or you need to forget about ever using them. In-ear monitoring can certainly reduce stage wash and will automatically tighten the house sound. It is to say, that just like everything in this world, some common sense goes a very long way. If you insist on using in-ears as your own personal monitor, with your voice louder than every one else in your group, then I can guarantee you the overall blend your group is getting is not as good as it might be if you used them correctly. Whether you use one, in one ear only, or both ears, to me has little bearing. If you are using in-ear monitoring, make sure you do so with all vocals evenly mixed, and not with your own personal vocal louder than the rest. If you work the vocal blend from a base line of all things being equal, the blend and the tightness of your group will improve. If you continue hearing your own part louder than the rest, then the blend will never be as good as it might be if done otherwise. A good compromise combination is a floor monitor down front, with a good vocal mix, and one in-ear with just a tad of your own voice. By using this combination, you can get the best of both worlds. But it is not without it’s drawbacks. First off, from a safety point of view, using one ear bud can damage your hearing as people tend to run the one ear bud louder than they would if both ears were being used. Secondly, you lose the perception of binaural hearing, and in some cases this can play havoc with your pitch and timing. The process of using in-ears properly is a learned process much like riding a bike. It takes some getting used to, and the adjustment is sometimes a long tedious chore.
Many bass singers use in-ears to help them hear the very lowest notes they must sing. Do you recall J.D. Sumner putting a hand over one ear? Well, J. D. was trying to accomplish back then what in-ears have made easily possible for bass singers of today. Even still, a bit of common sense maybe required here. Our former bass singer, who was a bit hard of hearing anyway, went crazy for in-ears the first time he tried them, and thus, we bought him a set. After a few trips out using these, our sound person at the time came to me and complained that Charles could not be heard in the audience now at all. No matter how much gain was applied to his mic channel, he simply could not be heard above the other three singers. What I learned then I have seen repeated many times over with other bass singers we have been on programs with. You see, as the microphone preamp gain was increased on the console, in an attempt to get Charles to be heard, it also increased the level in Charles’ ear bud. With each increase in gain at the console, Charles backed off even more. I finally convinced him to have the level set just barely audible in his ear, so that he would still support his notes and sing out loud enough to be heard. This is another reason for not sending the house mix into the monitors, but that is another story we will address again someday.
Our music is about harmony and blending together. Monitors are there to aid us in that process of singing. Whether those monitors are floor monitors or personal in ear devices, the concept is to hear one’s self and sing in tune and blend with the other singers of the group. Southern Gospel group singing is very different than a solo act. We usually do not have one vocalist that is the star with the others as backup singers, but rather, we are one. This requires a totally different approach to monitor aids than those of other forms of music. The ability to sing together well is the goal. We should not explore ways that inhibit that goal.
Southern Gospel artist often frequent music stores to purchase sound equipment. Often the sales staff in these stores know very little about Southern Gospel, and thus tend to sell us equipment that either does not work well for our application, or is inadvertently used incorrectly for the situation. When your group is in the market for sound equipment, try to buy from a dealer who knows the business of Southern Gospel. Our needs are quite different than those of a rock group or a country act. There are a handful of good suppliers of the equipment we use. Seek them out, for not only will you be helping yourself and your group, but you will likely be helping a fellow Christian, just like yourself.
Until next time,
Ben Harris
http://www.southernsoundquartet.com
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Author: Ben Harris
| Author's Website: www.southernsoundquartet.com
Written: 10/02/2009
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Category: Sound Advice
Comments: 4
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