In a rehearsal room? Monitors

[kubastarr]

Simple question.

How do you hear yourself in a rehearsal room?

I'm interested to find out how do keyboard players in bands approach this subject. I recently joined a band and we started working on our material. Importantly, we are learning to listen to each other and play as a band and not try to be the loudest person in the room individually as it often happen in new bands when people don't know how to play. I've been playing for couple of months now, own a mono and poly synth. Mono synth gets loud when I need it but poly will be used for cool and subtle pad parts, not to overpower the sound of the band. I ran them through a mixer and pa system and I place myself just below guitar levels and vocals. Unfortunately I rarely get to have my own monitor so I only really hear myself through the pa which always stands behind the guitar amps. It can get quite difficult at times. I'm trying to find a solution to this for myself. Could I simply plug in headphones to a mixer and that would work? And use this as on ear monitors? I'd love to hear your opinions.

 

[Eric Barker]

Unfortunately, this is a life-long struggle with keyboardists. Unlike guitars, which are naturally compressed into minimal dynamics by distortion, keyboards are extremely dynamic, and expected to take on a number of different roles at hugely different volumes and frequency ranges. I too, mostly run through the PA for rehearsal and live, which means I'm at the mercy of the sound man, if any. For live, I also run into an amp for monitoring, pointed directly at my right ear. One of my first suggestions is to get an amp. Even if you don't always use it, every electro-acoustic musician should have one around in case you get a weird gig without a PA. I've had the PA mains fail, and I can just spin my amp toward the audience and turn it up... so it's a good thing to have. It also allows for more personal control over your own monitoring. If you're going to be performing in wide enough stages to not be behind someone else, I would recommend setting up just like a guitar: have an amp behind you pointing at the audience, and DI out to the PA for reinforcement. Guitarists these days often do the same thing using cab cloners, or go the traditional route of miking the amp. If you're behind a guitar or bass, though, you're going to want to turn your amp sideways and rely on the PA for most of your house sound.

In-ear monitors are really great, though I haven't had the opportunity to try them (my band has some, but we're too lazy and set in our ways to set them up). That definitely eliminates problems with on-stage volume, which is always a struggle to keep low. I wouldn't use traditional headphones, though, as you won't be able to use them live, and it's always good practice to keep your rehearsals as close to live as possible.

Also, you mention being behind guitar levels and vocals... this is a little concerning, as the guitar shouldn't commonly be anywhere as near as loud as the vocals, except during solos. The volume of a part should fit the role, not the instruments. Guitar Leads, Keyboard Leads, and Vocals should all be around the same level (vocals maybe just a little bit higher to understand words). But in rock, drums and bass are king. Drums will likely always be loudest (though if you can get your drummer to play soft on cymbals, that is the holy grail), and bass can pretty much be as loud as they want, within reason, they define the groove, and are out of the way, anyway. Rhythm guitar and rhythm keys should be lower. If they're punchy, they can get out of the way fast and be a little louder, if they're paddy, they should be at the bottom of the mix, period, filling in the spaces between notes. Counter-melodies, which is a fairly common role for keyboards, are touchy and somewhat subjective. I LOVE countermelodies, and probably make them more present than most would recommend. But depending on the style and sound, they probably should sit somewhere between rhythm and lead levels.

 

[CowboyNQ]

I rarely get to have my own monitor so I only really hear myself through the pa which always stands behind the guitar amps.

For your own sanity, this is something you need to look at changing.

I have a small mixer I use just for rehearsal. It has a line out which I can plug into a PA and an aux send which I can send to a personal monitor or headphones. That way I can control my volume so I can hear myself clearly without obliterating the rest of the band.

 

[kubastarr]

For your own sanity, this is something you need to look at changing.

I have a small mixer I use just for rehearsal. It has a line out which I can plug into a PA and an aux send which I can send to a personal monitor or headphones. That way I can control my volume so I can hear myself clearly without obliterating the rest of the band.

That sounds very interesting - what is that small mixer if I may ask? What make and model?

 

[CowboyNQ]

I basically bought the smallest and cheapest one I could find that had the features I needed, as it never leaves the rehearsal room. It's a little Behringer Xenyx 502. Handles two keyboards running in stereo and has an aux out.

For gigging I use something quite a bit nicer with more capacity as I use up to five stereo lines depending on the band/gig. But the principle is the same. I really believe you need to be in control of your own monitoring if you want to enjoy yourself when playing keys in a band.

 

[Eric Barker]

I would really recommend getting a mixer with a pre-fade aux out. Many of these small mixers target using auxes to run into effects units, which you want post-fader, but that's not a good option for using mixers.

Cowboy, I'm not seeing any aux outs on the 502, are you sure it's that model?

I finally went with an Allen & Heath ZED-10 (NOT FX version, that's post-fader only), which is a little more pricey, but it has all the features I need. I think you could probably bring it down to $150 with a few cheaper options, but I liked the fact that it had no channel faders, which makes it smaller and more easy to "set and forget" over many gigs. I couldn't really find any with pre-fader auxes for under $150. The number of channels is complete overkill, but as I said, you just can't find pre-fader outs on really small units.

 

[CowboyNQ]

Cowboy, I'm not seeing any aux outs on the 502, are you sure it's that model?

Yes. Q502 to be precise. But I think they're more or less similar.