Midiglitch
Member
We've got a behringer xr18 with individual monitor mixes and me, the vocalist and the keyboard player are on in-ears. The guitarist and bassist are still using wedges and guitarist uses a 4x12 Marshall, bassist a 4x10, so stage is not 'quiet'.
Hearing my drums clearly yet quietly is a revelation, utterly brilliant. I've got a D112 on a Kelly shu in the bass drum.
For my own monitor mix I would be happy with a single omni or overhead so I can hear what I'm playing and continue to self-balance the kit. On the other hand close-mics are much better for the mains due to the bleed from bass and guitar. One gig (fairly big room - main room at a rugby club) I had close mic'd the snare and floor tom and the feedback was that you couldn't hear enough hats or ride. I know this is unusual but the only open mic on the stage is the one singer as neither I nor anyone else sings backup, hence there's not a lot to pick up the bronze.
If I close mic everything I need to set up a load more mics, which is fine, but it also means that my monitor mix reflects the position of the faders, rather than how well I am balancing my playing. It would also be a lot of work given that in some rooms none of those mics will be in the mains at all.
I could have an overhead that I just use for my monitor mix, and close mics for FOH, but that's obviously more setup time and more stuff to cart around.
So currently I've got a mic on the left aimed at the snare, about a foot out, which picks up snare and hats, and one on the right aimed at the floor tom, which gets tom and ride and I can balance them by moving them and pointing them differently. This works pretty well, and I am happy with what I'm hearing in the monitor mix, but it's not perfect: on the snare/hat mic I'm getting proportionally more snare buzz due to the mic being more to the side of the snare than facing down onto it. On the floor tom mic I'd like to add some gentle compression because I use it both muffled with a towel to ride on in the song 'over my head' and wide open for fills and double stops, and that's some serious dynamic range, but the mic being a foot out means I will bring up the stage noise/bleed if I do that, whereas if I was close mic'ing I would get proportionally less and get away with it. Any closer than where I am now and I'm losing the ride.
So What works for you? (Value input from folks that actually run in ears and have experience with it, rather than speculative / nay sayers.)
Cheers!
Hearing my drums clearly yet quietly is a revelation, utterly brilliant. I've got a D112 on a Kelly shu in the bass drum.
For my own monitor mix I would be happy with a single omni or overhead so I can hear what I'm playing and continue to self-balance the kit. On the other hand close-mics are much better for the mains due to the bleed from bass and guitar. One gig (fairly big room - main room at a rugby club) I had close mic'd the snare and floor tom and the feedback was that you couldn't hear enough hats or ride. I know this is unusual but the only open mic on the stage is the one singer as neither I nor anyone else sings backup, hence there's not a lot to pick up the bronze.
If I close mic everything I need to set up a load more mics, which is fine, but it also means that my monitor mix reflects the position of the faders, rather than how well I am balancing my playing. It would also be a lot of work given that in some rooms none of those mics will be in the mains at all.
I could have an overhead that I just use for my monitor mix, and close mics for FOH, but that's obviously more setup time and more stuff to cart around.
So currently I've got a mic on the left aimed at the snare, about a foot out, which picks up snare and hats, and one on the right aimed at the floor tom, which gets tom and ride and I can balance them by moving them and pointing them differently. This works pretty well, and I am happy with what I'm hearing in the monitor mix, but it's not perfect: on the snare/hat mic I'm getting proportionally more snare buzz due to the mic being more to the side of the snare than facing down onto it. On the floor tom mic I'd like to add some gentle compression because I use it both muffled with a towel to ride on in the song 'over my head' and wide open for fills and double stops, and that's some serious dynamic range, but the mic being a foot out means I will bring up the stage noise/bleed if I do that, whereas if I was close mic'ing I would get proportionally less and get away with it. Any closer than where I am now and I'm losing the ride.
So What works for you? (Value input from folks that actually run in ears and have experience with it, rather than speculative / nay sayers.)
Cheers!