Mixing from stage using IEM

[Pauly 6 String]

Saw a similar thread and didn't want to hijack it.

I have to mix my 4 piece cover band from the stage. I have a potential solution and wanted some feedback.


I plan to put my Olympus LS10 PCM recorder in FOH.

Using the record monitor feature I will run a line from the output to one channel of my Carvin IEM's.

What I hope is that I will get a true sense of what the sound is like to the audience and be able to mix based on that.

Does this sound feasible?

Big challenge, I use an Axe Fx through the mixer and other guitar uses a Soldano loud and un-mic'd. Band level is always going up to his level and is usually too loud for venue. Not much I'll be ale to do even if my FOH monitor plan works. (Thanks for the mini rant)


Your thoughts?

[Rbts]

I don't know anything about the equipment you are talking about - but I HAVE played with IEMs before - and my sense is - it is going to be very hard to "know" what the "room" sounds like - using IEMs. But it might work.

I also think it would be ahrd to "know" what the "room" sounds like - from the stage - but people mix from the stage every day of the week - and some with a very good result. My drummer mixes us from the stage - and we get reports that it sounds good in the room - although we don't really know - because - of course - we are on stage - and not "in the room".

I think you might be violating the "Keep It Simple" rule?

[ChiroVette]

What I tried for my initial wired IEM experimentation, and it worked quite nicely, was I bought headphone amps that could handle multiple signals.

I picked up the Rolls PM351 (a few of them actually). You have three signals you can work with using this unit and each has a corresponding easy-to-use volume knob: The first, and most obvious, is the aux send from your mixer, the second is a microphone pass-through you can use for "more me," and the third is an instrument pass through that you can use if you are a singing musician. I kind of changed things around a bit because I am mixing from stage.

The first signal (line in) I used the regular Aux send as expected. However, instead of passing my vocal mic through the XLR pass-through, I passed the mic from my guitar cabinet through it. So I am effectively using the more me function for my guitar. Now obviously, since I am mixing from stage, I can turn my vocals up any time I want with the corresponding aux send on my vocal mic channel. Now, for YOUR needs and mine as well, the tech support guy from Rolls told me that I can use the simple headphone output from my mixer and go into the instrument input of the Rolls PM351. He did caution me, however, that the headphone signal is amplified at the board and that if I am going to go this route that I should start the headphone volume knob on the board VERY LOW because it will have a propensity to distort since there is a headphone amp built into the board AND that is then going into another headphone amp for the IEM.

I will confess that I did not try this option yet. I passed my guitar through last gig as well as sending the aux into my headphone amp, but we were running a little late so I didn't get to the headphone output step. I will say that even if you don't want to mess around with three signals (the third being your mixer's headphone output) that if you use a post fade aux send that you will at least have a slightly better idea about what the FOH sounds like. However, it has been my experience that even if you take tons of elaborate steps, you can only ever approximate what the FOH sounds like, which is what makes mixing from stage a bit of a challenge. Better to just do it by feel and then ask people in the audience you trust how it sounds, or walk out into the crowd while the band is playing, minus you, and listen for balance. I have a 25 foot guitar cable, so as long as I am not singing, I sometimes will walk out into the audience a little while playing and listen to the balance, then make any necessary adjustments.

The point is that mixing from stage is not going to be perfect by any stretch.

[aj_guitarist]

sadly i don't think you will ever hear it how the rooms does, unless you move around the room while playing and then tweek based on that (like a soundman would).