Audience Mics into IEM System

[audiomediaforce]

:cool: :cool:

Hello.

Just stumbled in here and had to register.

At the concerts in my local arena the big touring groups have audience mic for the performers to hear them using In Ears Systems and they are placed on the PA Subs pointed out at the audience.

I need to do this for my personal 8pc hard rock band, all IEM's.

As their FOH guy I need to do this for them but don't understand exactly how.

I did it at the last gig (outdoors...golf course) and the performers didn't dig it at all. I had to mute n unmute....bummer!!

Are their any tricks?

My thought was a compressor set to really squash it so they can't really hear those mics in their IEM mixes but when the song stops the compressor will open back up and let the audience mics pass....or am I really saying Gate them.... or duck them.....

Any advice???

Thnx. Be Safe.

-----------------------------
The Theory of Relativity of Sound
E=MC2 +/- 3dB

[GZsound]

You should simply route the ambience mics to the monitor mix and not to the FOH mix at all.

And I don't think setting them in front of the PA speakers is such a good idea.

I normally set a single LD condenser on one side of the stage facing the audience that isn't routed to the mains at all and just acts as a crowd mic.

[Audiodude]

If you are wanting the ambient mic to cut out when the band starts playing, you could use a compressor on it sidechained to an output on the FOH mixer.

[sabianq]

just mix minus the microphones from the mix you dont want them to go to.
no need to compress them.

[sabianq]

i have a question, why are you even mixing the audience microphones to the main mix or even the monitor mix in the first place?
if these microphones are placed to pick up the audience and a part of the mix for recording purposes, then there is no need to even include the microphones in any live mix. they should be included in the recording mix only.
just like the monitor mix should not be included in the recording mix.

I like to add a talk back microphone to the monitor mix so i can talk to the talent on stage. and sometimes if i am set up a long way aways from the band, i like to set up a standing microphone that leads to an engineer mix (only the engineer can hear) that way the talent can talk to the engineer to communicate the need for more or less SPL on the monitor without the entire house hearing.

that is the magic of the mix-minus.
and why mixers were designed with AUX sends and busses

[sabianq]

WARNING!!!
this can be dangerous unless you know what you are doing!

if you want to use the mix minus technique to add the audience microphones to the in ear monitor mix, you would go about it like this:

first, i would suggest using a single channel (y 2 microphones into one channel)
Dont place the microphones in front of the main drivers
if you can, place them up higher than the rest of the equipment, preferably on the lighting poles away from the stage pointing away from the main drivers

then just mix that channel into the aux send of the the monitor mix.
as simple as that. you can pre fade the channel to give it a nice flat response.

I am assuming that your monitor mix is an aux send to the in ear monitors.
the singers should not need to hear anybody but themselves.


my set up for a 10 piece band is:

the vocals get their own dedicated mix to their monitors via aux send 1
the drummer gets a dedicated mix with the horns and the vocals via aux send 2
if i need to add any other microphone to either the drummer monitor mix or the vocal mix i just turn up the aux send of that microphone that monitor channel.

then the monitors can have their own mix through the aux sends. (i like to use the pre fader button on the aux sends to bypass the eq on the channel strip as the EQing i do on the strip is just for the main mix to compensate for room acoustics and microphone response curves


I use the Mackie SR24 mixer and it has a total of 6 aux sends and 4 buss's and 1 main mix with a right and left.

this gives me maximum flexibility for a very small venue. my monitor mix is limited to 10 seperate channels with 2 main channels or 6 monitor channels with 6 main channels and a mono. i am only limited to channels (up to 12) by the number of amplifier channels i have on hand.

I am currently running 3 dual channel QSC power amps to run my monitor and main channels.

i hope this helps

[sabianq]

WARNING!!!
this can be dangerous unless you know what you are doing!


just be super careful!
when you open microphones to the main mix to an in ear channel, you open that channel to feedback which can cause hearing damage to the people wearing the in ear set.

I would strongly suggest that you don't do this unless you have a lot of experience with monitor mixing.

[audiomediaforce]

Thnx everyone.

I am trying again tonight. I do not assign these mics to FOH. Its only for the band in their ears. No recording of these mics. I do however record every show off the FOH console.

Their only complaint was the slap/delay getting into their ears.

The mics go directly to the IEM console so what I am gathering here is placement is the key.

A compressor or a limiter will help control them as well.

I thank you all for the insights.

I have attached a photo of my group "Bloodline"

Dave
theaudioman@hotmail.com

The Theory of Relativity of Sound
E=MC2 +/- 3dB