For those that use monitors (wedges or IEM) - what do you do about your mix ? In the past, I've just had my own, taken off one of the aux-sends going to a floor wedge, but I found that was a right pain as invariably the mix you setup at the soundcheck is useless once everyone gets the adrenaline going and all the bloody levels change. Trying to step past everyone else to get to the mixer to tweak it is inadvisable as I'm bound to knock something over or trip!, and on the rare occasions we had a 'sound guy', trying to give him hand signals as to what to adjust is just as risky, not least because it's usually someone who doesn't even know what an aux send is ! Plus - if you go anywhere near the bloody mixer, you're instantly bombarded with tweak requests !
I had this idea of having control of my own monitor mix using a mini mixer near me. Take a split off my mic, amp and keyboard outputs - send them to a mini mixer into a set of earbuds, and take a 'rest of the band' mix off the main mixer back into the fourth channel. That way, I would have complete control over my monitor mix.
What do you do re monitoring ?
Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
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There are little boxes you can clip on a mic stand so that you plug your mic through and the 'general' vocal send from the desk and blend to taste before going to the powered wedge, this can help in simple setups to get 'more me' but once everyone gets one the temptation to have volume wars again is too great for the knob heads.
Volume discipline is the best way every time. I could always tell the pros from the pub bands when I did stage festivals, the pros are just nice and balanced before you put a mic on and they need simple monitor mixes.
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Chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them
Donald Trump needs kicking out of a helicopter
I'm personally responsible for all global warming
If someone is too loud or quiet I say so - usually there is a bit of compromise but putting anything other than vocals in the monitors leads to more hassle than I need at a gig.