Studio Mgr for Monitors Mix ?

JSFox

Active Member
Sometimes it's simply best if I go to bed...

My son plays in a praise band at his school every Thu morning. Style is pretty much coldplay/keane/mute math/athlete. I got them an LS9-32. We've duped all the channels so that 33-64 are effectively a dedicated mons board so we can EQ their ears seperate from FOH. It's kinda tough though for the kids mixing to do a good mons mix, they simply don't have the experience. It's been tough for my son and a couple of other musicians who are doing some pro stuff and used to good ear mixes. So...

What if I got a cheap laptop running studio mgr connected via ethernet/wi-fi to the LS9. This would let the musicians tweak their mixes from the stage and let the audio folks just focus on FOH. Aside from the LS9 itself, is anyone aware of a faderpack or inexpensive control surface that would work with studio mgr? I think that they could do it without faders, but the faders would make things easier.

I wasn't able to find sends-on-faders in studio mgr. Does anyone know if it's there? If not I think they could still use a mouse and knobs OK.

Am I nuts to think about doing this?
 
I think that it would be easier, and more cost effective, to get a set of EQ's for each monitor channel. If you spend a little time to dial in the space, the eq really won't change much at all. The live music venue that I work in has a graph that we start with for all vocal/front line monitors and one for the drum monitor. I don't think that I have had to change it in more than 6 months.

As long as the musicians on stage have microphone discipline, there shouldn't be a problem (no cupping the mic with your hand like a rapper, no dipping the mic into the monitor, etc...)

I have run a system like you are talking about, splitting the signal to multiple faders, and this is very handy and a good way to control both levels and basic eq's from one console.
 
From what I gathered the band is entirely on ears? What type? And What type of transmitter if they're wireless... Is this what the ones who were happy were using before?

I haven't heard of a set of faders like you're describing... There are certainly other ways of solving this problem though I would think.

Do the monitors have to change during the show for any reason? ie: drastic changes in gain. Has the band tried building their own ear mix during sound check and telling the engineer not to change them? Maybe it's a case of trying to help but making things worse unknowingly?

Maybe it's time to invest in a more competent engineer.....
 
I just tried this the other day for one of the shows im doing, have the stage mgr control moniters since im goinng to running around with enough other stuff since were changeing bands and everything constantly. I did it for about 3 groups and said screw this. Drove me nuts to not have the control, as well as noticing things being changed without me doing it. Also, the backstage mix overrode the board and wouldnt let me do anything else. If your going that route, id deffiantly do the old fashioned way of just haveing another mixer in the back taking the full force from the main mix and mixing it down from there.
 
Thanks all.

The ears are all hardwired. 2 are using Rolls (yeah, I know) ear pre's on their belts, the rest are using Behringer (yeah, I know again) mixers are ear pre's. My son has ES3's, drummer has ES2's, Bass has UE10's, and the rest use the E2's I bought for the school.

We have tried to recruit better quality sound engineer type students, but admissions keeps saying something about needing to be able to read and write everytime we bring a good one in... My goal is to teach the kids about production and a bit about business. I never touch equipment. They do everything. It's extremely painful sometimes to try to mix through a 15 year olds hands, but they're getting there.

I'm considering the laptop solution mainly because its cheap - well free actually. With the tight budgets we have that's key.
 
As a side note, and apologies if it's been said already, but I'm nodding off while typing this, I'd suggest using a tablet, it's easier to grab a control and adjust it in SM. Having used both, I much prefer the tablet. Then agian, on a tight budget, IDK. Look over at PSW, they have a years worth of reading on their forums about using wireless control and Studio Manager for mons mixing (FOH too for that matter).
 
i originally posted something that was almost irrelevant. so instead i am going to repost just saying.. even though it make be expensive look at aviom or related products
 
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I use Avioms in other places, but here I'd rather not spend the bucks (really tight annual budget and alot of other stuff we need) and Aviom audio quality is not that great. My son stopped playing at one well paying church because of them.
 
i know you already said this but im just echoing it again
well why don't you just connect studio manager to your ls9 and then get a laptop and remote desktop to the computer running studio manager... i know besides the political part if you trust the kids up on stage they are more than likely computer savvy enough to figure out how to dial up there own mix on a laptop if they need something changed they walk over and do it durning songs.. if something is too loud or distorting the ls9 can override what they do.
 
I would have to disagree on the Aviom quality not being great. From the little use I've had with them and the people I've talked to that used them, they loved them. You probably had a setting wrong somewhere along the line if the quality was bad.
 
I think the quality of the Aviom's is very relative. If you're using higher end ears like ES3's and/or you're used to higher quality audio you'll find them less than desirable. If you're using something like E3's you probably wouldn't notice the difference between Avioms and a feed coming from a good mons board. For many people Avioms work extremely well (and I am a fan of them for alot of situations) but no so for others.
 

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