Monitor Sends

Your band has to hear what they need — that’s the monitor mix, and it works just like an effects send, only the destination is a wedge or in-ear instead of a reverb.

Each aux send is a whole new mix

You route a mix/aux send to a particular monitor. Think of it this way: the house mix is the left-right output everyone in the room hears. An aux send is like having another left-right output — a complete, separate mix built for one person or one shared wedge. Press “sends on fader” for, say, mix 7 (a floor wedge) and the board goes empty — now you rebuild a mix for that person with exactly what they need (the drummer wants more drums and click, less BGVs; a vocalist needs to hear themselves).

Keep only what they need

With floor wedges there’s already a lot of stage energy, so don’t pile everything in — if the drummer is right next to you, you don’t need drums in your wedge; if the bass rig is behind you, you can already hear it. Put in what you need and keep it minimal — this also helps prevent feedback (next lesson). Players are isolated enough that each ends up with a little mini-mix of their own.

Let musicians mix their own in-ears

Most modern consoles have a phone/iPad app so musicians control their own in-ear mix — in essence they’re remote-controlling aux sends without realizing it. Great to enable (check your manual). But because it’s the same aux send, you can jump in and fix it when someone’s mix is bad and they can’t figure out why (“it just sounds weird” — often the audience mics got cranked, making it washy). You hear it, spot it, and help them out.

Application

• Set up “sends on fader” and build one clean wedge/in-ear mix from scratch for a single player.
• Strip each monitor down to only what that person can’t already hear acoustically.
• Turn on your console’s personal-monitor app for the band, and learn how to drop in and troubleshoot a player’s mix.