In-Ear Monitors: Salvation from an Age-Old Problem?

Have you ever encountered a situation where you're mixing sound and you begin to notice that the changes you are making to your house mix don't seem to be making a difference? In fact, you can take your house volume all the way down and you still have a high amount of volume?

Well, you're experiencing something I call "monitor terrorism." Your monitors are so loud that your house mix is being drowned out. This has been a bane for mixers everywhere and usually requires the house volume to be raised so high that it can be painful for the audience. The same thing can happen with a drum kit without a shield.

There have been a couple different solutions in recent years, but by the far the most popular solution is in-ear monitors. These amazing devices have saved many a mixer's sanity by providing a monitor mix directly into the musician's ears, thus eliminating floor monitors completely. The musician is in control of their volume, and most units have built-in limiters to help protect their ears.

Most solutions are also wireless, which equals freedom of movement for the wearer. There are a plethora of other options and features that I won't get into here, but most of the popular wireless microphone manufacturers also provide IEM (in-ear monitor) options, so check out Shure, Sennheiser, Audio-Technica and others.

Along with IEM technology has come the personal mixer, which has revolutionized monitor mixing. It used to be that there were three or more audio mixers present in a given environment; a FOH (front of house) mixer that provided the mix for the live audience, the monitor mixer that provided a mix for the musicians/talent, and a broadcast mixer that mixed for the TV/Internet audience. This doesn't account for any live translation mixes. With personal mixers, the monitor mix position is eliminated.

A personal mixing system usually will piggyback on a digital snake system and will allow for up to 16 channels (or groups) to be sent from the FOH mix position up to the stage. From there, the signal is either split or daisy-chained from personal mixer to personal mixer. The individual musician is then in charge of setting their own mix, which then feeds a floor wedge, a pair of headphones, or an IEM. Most units will also give 3-band EQ, pan, and one system even allows for recording of not only a local input (a guitar player's guitar, for instance), but also their mix (the MyMix solution).

What this does is take the monitor mix load off of the FOH mix position and thus he/she can focus on mixing for the house, and allow the musicians to do their own personal mixes.

So, no more "monitor terrorism." We'll talk about personal monitors next week.

Podcasting: How do I start?

First, if you're serious about podcasting (audio and/or video), there are TONS of online resources to help you navigate the murky waters of hosting, RSS feeds, iTunes, etc. What I aim to do here is simply help you understand what you will need in order to start and maintain a podcast.

First, it may seem obvious, but you'll need some way of recording and archiving your audio and/or video so you can then upload the file to the Internet. Along with this, it's imperative that you also have a workflow established that will allow your church to consistently upload new content (weekly is the minimum).

Second, you'll need to choose a podcast host. This is an online company that will "host," or store, your media files.

Third, you'll need some way of creating an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication, among the many acronyms to choose from). You can either create a text file with all the information in it (kind of tedious, but people do it), or you can use iWeb if you're on a Mac to create, update, and publish your RSS feed. For a more detailed explanation of what RSS is and how it works, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS

Once you have an RSS feed (usually just a URL or what might look like a web address), you can then open iTunes, go to the iTunes Store, select Podcasts from the category options, then on the right side there should be an option for "Submit a Podcast." This will take you to a page that will ask you for your URL of the podcast. Copy and paste or type in the URL, click Submit. It will ask you to log in (you'll need an iTunes Store login and password) and within two weeks, you should have an email confirmation that your podcast is available on iTunes.

There are many other places online to subscribe to RSS feeds and/or podcasts, so you'll want to Google those so you can publish your content to those places, as well.

Of course, any of you out there that have more knowledge in this area, please feel free to chime in!