I am a lighting person who for some reason has been spending more time behind a sound board lately than a lighting console, at least during performances. I've been critiqued in that I'm setting a bad precedent for the venue by using too many unique monitor mixes in the pit, so I was wondering what other people thought.
This is an all volunteer community venue. There will always be at least 1 keyboardist and 1 percussionist in the pit. The percussion is kept in an isolation booth. There are then 3 additional musicians which can include any of the following: more keyboards, guitar, bass, trumpet, trombone, sax, flute, clarinet, violin, or cello. It is impossible to use a real piano in this pit due to its location. I've done an acceptable enough job to date that I've generally managed to convince the electronic instrument players to leave their amps at home.
What I normally do is I do 1 unique monitor mix per non-acoustic instrument, a mix for percussion, and an additional mix for the acoustic instruments (reeds, brass, strings other than bass) so that the guitar/keys/bass players don't feel the need to bring in amps set to 11 to hear their own instrument. Is one mix per person excessive at the community level, and should I bring it down to just conductor/keyboard [HASHTAG]#1[/HASHTAG], electric instruments, and everyone else like older, wiser folks have suggested?
Below is a shot of the "pit" the night before the first tech rehearsal, with the conductor in the foreground, drums against back wall, and bass slightly behind and to the left. It is actually a choir loft left over from when the space used to be a Catholic church.
This is an all volunteer community venue. There will always be at least 1 keyboardist and 1 percussionist in the pit. The percussion is kept in an isolation booth. There are then 3 additional musicians which can include any of the following: more keyboards, guitar, bass, trumpet, trombone, sax, flute, clarinet, violin, or cello. It is impossible to use a real piano in this pit due to its location. I've done an acceptable enough job to date that I've generally managed to convince the electronic instrument players to leave their amps at home.
What I normally do is I do 1 unique monitor mix per non-acoustic instrument, a mix for percussion, and an additional mix for the acoustic instruments (reeds, brass, strings other than bass) so that the guitar/keys/bass players don't feel the need to bring in amps set to 11 to hear their own instrument. Is one mix per person excessive at the community level, and should I bring it down to just conductor/keyboard [HASHTAG]#1[/HASHTAG], electric instruments, and everyone else like older, wiser folks have suggested?
Below is a shot of the "pit" the night before the first tech rehearsal, with the conductor in the foreground, drums against back wall, and bass slightly behind and to the left. It is actually a choir loft left over from when the space used to be a Catholic church.