Creating a correct mix bus on the x32 for the musicians fold backs

Intro

Creating a monitor mix for the musicians is a vitally important task for the monitor engineer to get right. In live sound, the monitor engineers job is to make sure that everyone on the stage and band box gets feedback on their playing or singing. Due to room acoustics and weird speaker placements being able to hear oneself over everything else if almost impossible. All of a sudden a musicians ability to play well and in time or in tune is hindered. This is where the foldback mix is important, performers need to be able to hear themselves and for vocalists to not hurt their vocal cords by trying to match the volume around them on stage. A monitor engineers job is to ensure good volume level is sent through the Fold-back mix is sent to them via a wedge or IEM (In ear monitor).

Application

The fold back mix allows the musicians to do the following;

• Allow the musicians to play well together rhythmically

• Tell the musicians where they are in the song

• Allow singer to sing in tune, for which they need to hear themselves and harmonize

• Allows string players to play well and in tune

• keep the drummer in time with the backing track or click track if necessary

Some of the artistic requirements;

• The band needs to feel that they are performing well

• the overall vibe of the band needs to feel good

• Spill from the audience shall not throw off the musicians concentration

(Mellor, 2005)

In the video below you can see how a mix is setup by Drew Brashler for his Church. The video link takes you directly to where he begins to explain setting up a mix level for a Mixbus that goes out to Monitor on stage.

Adjusting bus mix to monitors (Brashler, 2012)

Video link

Example

While I was working at the Phoenix Ensemble on a production called Witches of Eastwick. I had to create a monitor mix for the wedge located in the bandbox so that the players could hear the onstage vocalist and play to vocal cues during the show.

First I needed to route the vocals to a mixbus on the x32 and then make sure the mixbus is played through the designated output for wedge. By default the x32 Mixbus is routed one to one meaning that mixbus 1 is outputted to output 1, mixbus 2 is outputted to output 2 etc.

Setting wedge mix on the x32:

• First you must select the mixbus you want to use by pressing the select button above the bus (it should light up green), I selected mixbus 3 for this example.

• Then press sends on fader (located between the channel banks and mixbus banks

• The sends on fader button will flash red and you can move through the mix busses by pressing the select button above each mixbus channel

• I created a vocal mix by pushing the faders up on the vocal mix

• Finish off setup by pressing the sends on fader button and it should stop flashing red.

If these steps are followed correctly you can recall vocal levels being sent to the mixbus by pressing the select button on top of mixbus 3 and then pressing sends on fader. The faders on the channels should reflect the previous settings you send to the mix bus. After which you will need to adjust during sound test with the band when everything is playing at once so that they get the correct levels.

The video below shows the steps outlined above.

x32 Sending Channels to mixbus for band box wedge (Chan, 2019)

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References:

Brashler, D. (2012). Behringer X32 - Adjusting Monitors - NRCC [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOCERnbMccI

Mellor, D. (2005). Stage Monitoring & Monitor Mixing. Retrieved 3 August 2019, from https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/stage-monitoring-monitor-mixing

Chan, C. (2019). x32 Sending channels to mixbus [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LDiMirCgYQ&feature=youtu.be