How to send FX to monitors?

[adamlutley]

I'm a little confused about sending FX to monitors..
Do I just turn up the same AUX(that is sending DRY SIGNAL) on the FX return channel?
How do I maintain the Wet/Dry in monitors so it's the same as FOH,. Also how can I set it up so the Wet/Dry mix is different in monitors compared to FOH..
Any guidance is appreciated.
Regards
Adam

[apoczen211]

As for what Im use to for FX send and return you just turn up the master send to the FX unit to unity, then turn up the returns on each channel that you want the FX on. As for sending the Wet/Dry to the monitors, I really could not say being I dont know what board your using, so the procedure may be the same in theory but different in how its set up, and how they name each section. Hope this helped

[87PRS]

Adam, are you running your monitors through an aux channel or threw the monitor out? there are usually two different ways to go with monitor set ups. if you are simply running out of a monitor channel which sends output to an amp you have very little control over signals. if you want fx's you will need to run the monitors out of an aux channel and control via return, sometimes I use two or three aux for monitors, it depends on the music. what is your mixer and how are you doing it?

[GZsound]

The only way I have found to get efx into the monitor system on most mixers is to run the efx return through a channel.

On powered mixers, there is typically a control that allows fx to monitors and fx to mains.. but on most standard mixers, there is no way to route the efx return to the monitor channel unless you use a channel as a return.

[jmail]

... and if you're in a "live" situation, usually speaking, fx on the monitors can lead to feedback all too easily...

[GZsound]

... and if you're in a "live" situation, usually speaking, fx on the monitors can lead to feedback all too easily...

That can be true, but I have been running my FX through a channel and into the monitors for years without problem. You just need to be careful that the addition of the FX does not increase the volume in the monitors.

A few of the newer powered mixers also have an "FX to Monitor" control that allows routing the FX into the monitor system.

[jmail]

True... I don't suppose "usually" was a good choice of words. "Sometimes" would have fit better... lol tic :wink

[TimmyP1955]

Reverb in the monitors hides subtle pitch problems from vocalists and those on violin, etc. They can't get it right if they don't know it's wrong. Avoid reverb in the monitors.

Flange and chorus introduce - in effect (no pun intended) - slightly pitch-shifted duplicates of the signal. This can hide or cause pitch problems. As such, avoid them in the monitors.

Delay in the monitors can both hide musicians' timing problems, and cause them. Avoid delay in the monitors.

[GZsound]

Reverb in the monitors hides subtle pitch problems from vocalists and those on violin, etc. They can't get it right if they don't know it's wrong. Avoid reverb in the monitors.

Flange and chorus introduce - in effect (no pun intended) - slightly pitch-shifted duplicates of the signal. This can hide or cause pitch problems. As such, avoid them in the monitors.

Delay in the monitors can both hide musicians' timing problems, and cause them. Avoid delay in the monitors.

Well, as I said, I have been running efx into my monitors for years and years and years..

I would suggest that if reverb, flange, chorus, or delay in the monitors causes problems with musicians... Get better musicians.

I seriously doubt putting any efx in the monitors has had a detrimental effect on any of the musicians I have played with for well over thirty years.

[87PRS]

As a rule, I don't like effects on vocal channels...maybe a touch of verb on a ballad, this goes for mains and monitors. In the ol' days, and I am talking 40 years ago, reverbs tended to suck volume, and cause feedback and this caused me to stop using it period. Most rooms encountered for live play have a built in verb unless your outdoors. In the studio I give the client what ever they want. If they want to drown their crappy vocal in delay and reverb, can do. : )

[GZsound]

As a rule, I don't like effects on vocal channels...maybe a touch of verb on a ballad, this goes for mains and monitors. In the ol' days, and I am talking 40 years ago, reverbs tended to suck volume, and cause feedback and this caused me to stop using it period. Most rooms encountered for live play have a built in verb unless your outdoors. In the studio I give the client what ever they want. If they want to drown their crappy vocal in delay and reverb, can do. : )

Well...be careful here. If you go too far back you end up in an era where there was no such thing as monitors...

We opened for Sonny & Cher and The Dave Clark Five in 1965 and 66 and had NO monitors... No reverb or fancy effects either.. 8 t0 10,000 folks.. I remember it was like playing sax into a pillow onstage. I don't think we used monitors at all until the very late 60's or early 70's..which I can't remember.

But in my six piece Holliday Inn show band days from 75 to 80 I actually used a guitar stomp box reverb..an Electro Harmonix I think.. and our lead singer would actually stop singing and tell me to "hit the button" if I forgot to put reverb in the mains and monitors.

And interestingly enough, I only have one studio client that insists on reverb in his headphones when he sings. Everyone else is dry..

[87PRS]

guess I can go back that far GZ...and actually we used side fills instead of the common wdgies nowadays, I can remember two of those tuck 'roll Kustom cabs on each side of the stage...and oh yeah lotsa times with no monitors at all. The first time I remember using floor monitors was in 70' when our group opened for Alice Cooper, 18,000 plus and a large PA. I was talking to a band member last night about how far, and technical all the PA gear has gotten, especially with the digtal Fx's section...also the power amp wattage involved in putting a show band together then compared to now.

[GZsound]

My band had a PA system made by Norm and Conn Sundholm out of their garage. They lived a mile or so away from me.

Norm was the bass player for the Kingsmen and they went on to form Sunn Amp company in my little hometown. The first PA they built was for the Kingsmen and we got set number two.

When we opened for Sonny and Cher for a crowd of about 8,000, we had two fifteen inch cabinets on each side of the stage and no monitors. If memory serves me correctly, the cabinets were something like 400 watts each.

I remember how great that PA system sounded. Prior to that, in the early
60's we used a hundred watt Bogen amp and two University horns, you know, like the race track PA horns?...aargh.. Can you imagine what a sax sounded like through those?

I was gone from the American music scene from 67 to 71 courtesy of uncle sam, but we started using monitors around 1972. In my 70's six piece show band, we used Mitchell "hot spot" type mic stand mounted monitors. They worked great.

I still am a proponent of small monitors and use a small eight inch cabinet mounted on my keyboard stand for a monitor now. My band uses a couple of ten inch boxes. We believe in keeping the stage volume way down and letting the PA handle the load.

Ain't getting old grand?

[87PRS]

Wow I remember the Sunn amps, that must of been amzing picking up a #2 unit firect from the guys who were making them, especially during that time frame. We used the 2 (gigantic) horn set ups at one time also we'd stand them on end and they were like 5 feet, man the things we did to have a PA, mostly used those big arse Altec wood cabs that weighed a ton, the gray ones, and 400 watts was a lot of power. I've never used hotspots, usually the bigger the better in theory haha...right now we are using 12" floor monitors and they cut through nice. I would imagine your sax sounded like starting day at the races hehe, cool stuff GZ...pass me the geratol and foot balm, please.

[GZsound]

Boy no kidding.. Geratol and foot balm and Aleve for the back...

It was cool having Sunn right down the street. I knew several engineers and got a ton of equipment out the back door for really cheap.

In my six piece show band in the 70's I had a really nice Sunn PA system that served us well..

And the Mitchell monitors were cool. We drilled mic stand size holes in the two wings of our B3 and had two of those monitors mounted in the holes like rear view mirrors. Our keyboard player (he had been with the Cascades "listen to the rythem of the falling rain" guys) also played trumpet and he needed a ton of monitor...those Mitchells really worked neat.

I think they had Bose speakers in them that were used in the Bose 902 (or was it 802?) multi speaker boxes..

Aaah...the good old days. The kids now that pick up a cheap computer and start recording have no idea how hard it was to get a professional sound out of a four track cassette recorder or a stereo reel to reel.