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Get quick tips and tricks for achieving the best sound
Intro to Personal Wireless Monitor Mixing
By Kent Margraves, Sennheiser
Professional wireless personal monitors for stage monitoring are designed to seal the ear, acoustically isolating
the user from nearby sounds. When people with normal hearing close off the opening to the ear canal, the loudness of
low-pitched sounds (presented by bone conduction) increases. In audiological terms, this phenomenon is called
"occlusion." In Part I of this series about wireless personal monitoring tips and tricks, our worship leader
experienced a pronounced increase in low and mid-range sounds when he inserted his earphones for the first time. He
didn't hear much of his voice through air conduction any longer, and most of what he heard was the remaining
bassy/muffly sounds of his voice conducted through the bones in his head. For this reason, vocalists often have the
toughest time adjusting to wireless personal monitors—that is, they mostly hear their own voice via bone conduction.
So a vocalist using wireless personal monitors is certainly going to need to hear others on the stage (such as the
band or orchestra) in their monitor mix, but usually needs a lot more of their own vocal. If they do not hear
sufficient level of their own voice, the bone-conducted, "muddy" tone of their voice is predominant and they are
uncomfortable. Ever heard a vocalist trying wireless personal monitors for the first time say, "I sound really
weird!"? This is probably why. Instrumentalists using wireless personal monitors do not have the issue of
bone-conducted voice in their head, but they do experience the same isolation.
So now we know that wireless personal monitor users are isolated by these ear plugs—err… earphones!—and we must pay
very careful attention to exactly what elements are in their mix. They will no longer hear sounds naturally, as they
do with wedges. If there is something they want to hear, it must be routed to their monitor mix. So it becomes
critical that the sound tech auditions the monitor mix frequently with earphones of preferably the same type. And
mix adjustments that required four or five "clicks" with a wedge might need only two or three "clicks" in a wireless
personal monitor. Sonic details are simply much more obvious. Consider a worship leader with a choir behind him: in
a wedge application, he may hear plenty of the choir without any choir being folded back. But with "ears," he will
certainly want the choir mixed into his ears! So the acoustic isolation offers wonderful control but requires
increased attention and effort from the sound tech.
Full vs. partial mixes
A full wireless personal monitor mix might sound much like the front-of-house mix, a commercial CD mix or similar.
It will have every element mixed at the proper "finished product" balance. A partial wireless personal monitor mix
intentionally omits non-essential elements (for that particular user!) so that the remaining/critical elements may
be monitored clearly, without unnecessary clouding from a "busy" mix. For instance, a bass player's wireless
personal monitor will certainly have his bass, the kick drum, the basics of the rhythm section, the lead vocal, and
maybe a few other things he may request. But it might eliminate the choir mics, orchestra sounds, background
singers, or other elements that are not really essential in helping him get the PITCH and TIME cues he requires. It
is often helpful to remind each other (musicians and techs alike) to contrast the terms "listening" and
"monitoring," and remember the purpose of stage monitoring. This can sometimes become a race for the perfect full
mix in a user's wireless personal monitor, when oftentimes on the worship platform that's really not the point at
all!
Downward mixing
"Downward" or "subtractive" mixing describes the idea of "less is more" in monitoring mixing, and this is one
technique that applies well to both wedges and earphones. So when we have an artist continually asking for more and
more level from various sources in their ears, we should instead turn other things down. The artist still gets the
balance adjustment they desire, but without an overall volume increase. And this is also a better approach when it
comes to the science of proper gain staging in our mixing consoles and personal monitor products (wired or wireless).
Mono vs. stereo mixes
Mono wireless personal monitor mixes can be made to work successfully. But those that use their systems in stereo
eventually discover that there is a world of increased monitoring flexibility available to them. A mono wireless
personal monitor mix means that everything is heard "dead center." That is, above the head in the virtual center of
the sound image. A stereo wireless personal monitor mix allows the placement of sources to be panned across the
stereo space "in" the head.
Stagger panning
Here, various sources are intentionally panned in different places across the image for the purpose of "un-mixing"
them. It is interesting to watch and see that musicians can certainly (whether consciously or not) train themselves
to "point" their listening to different directions in their head, depending on what sound they want to focus on at
any moment. It is important that the user's "me" signal stays in the center/top of their head. Say a musician has
his acoustic guitar and the worship leader vocal both placed center in his head (good), and the electric guitar is
panned to 11:00 in his ears, the keyboards might be panned to 1:00, and some other sources might be panned to 10:00,
or 2:00, and so on. While we would usually not do this for a "full mix" for the audience, this "un-mixing" by
stagger panning can be very effective for monitoring.
One very good worship musician once stated:
"When running an IEM system in mono, I hear the mix dead center. That is a problem when I need to hear kick, snare,
overhead drum mics, bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitars, click, percussion, back-ground vocals, the worship
leader, a choir, loops, etc... I have to choose three to five things to monitor and everything else takes the back
seat..."
(He just described clouding from a full mix)
"...when I use IEMs in stereo, I have a much larger sound field to use. I'll pan background vocals slightly left,
the worship leader slightly right, acoustic around 30% right, piano around 30% left, kick and bass dead center,
overhead drum mics around 50% right, and so on..."
(And there was his idea of stagger panning)
"With a stereo mix, things don't compete as much… In mono, the only way to get more room is to increase the gain,
which takes my mix louder, whereas a stereo mix allows me to take my mix wider. In fact, I am able to use 25-35%
less volume with a stereo mix!"
-Andrew Catron, Associate of Worship, Lee Park Baptist Church
And here is a quote on this topic from a full-time worship monitor mixer:
"...I've found that creating a stereo mix with slight spread of sources with the artist's own voice or instrument
dead center allows me to keep levels under control. I also get a lot less of the 'more me' requests with this
approach."
-Scott Fahy, Lead Audio Engineer, Living Word Christian Center
While Catron has a good working audio knowledge, he is a musician first, and it is interesting that he sorted out
the above thoughts on his own while transitioning from a mono to a stereo wireless personal monitor mix. He was
mixing his own ears at this time with an Aviom A16II personal mixer. Fahy is at the other end of the spectrum—he is
not a worship musician but a veteran audio engineer, and usually mixes many wireless personal monitors (on a
dedicated console) in a complex worship environment. Both of these men, from opposite ends of the spectrum in very
different worship environments, seem convinced that stereo wireless personal monitors using stagger panning makes
for easier monitoring, happier users and lower volume.
Read more from this series about wireless personal monitor mixing:
Other Tips & Tricks Topics:
More Information
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Testimonials
What worship ministries are saying about Sennheiser...
"I also would like to thank you and Sennheiser for not only your assistance with the whole TVBD fiasco, but your support of the H.O.W. market in general. It is truly remarkable these days to have a manufacturer of the size of Sennheiser that allows its personnel to interact with the end-user not only through outlets such as CSC, but the rapid personal response to crazy tech guys like me! It is why I can recommend using your products so readily."
"I also would like to thank you and Sennheiser for not only your assistance with the whole TVBD fiasco, but your support of the H.O.W. market in general. It is truly remarkable these days to have a manufacturer of the size of Sennheiser that allows its personnel to interact with the end-user not only through outlets such as CSC, but the rapid personal response to crazy tech guys like me! It is why I can recommend using your products so readily."
Jay Ballard, Director of Technical Ministries, First Baptist Church of Plant City, Florida