Dynamic by Design: The Temporary Nature of Monitors

The question for today: “Space Bear, can you make my ears sound like a record?”

One phrase I hear a lot when it comes to monitor mixing is, “Can you make it sound like the record, but with myself on top?” While I understand the intention behind the message, I think it creates unrealistic expectations for both the player and the monitor mixer.

The first assumption is that they have the same tools available as record producers and mix engineers. Yes, as technology improves, monitor engineers have more and more tools like Waves plugins that are useful as a resource. However, often it may not be practical to provide monitors with these tools because of budget or scale.

Second, making it sound like a record is heavily dependent on the input source. A sloppy performance will result in a sloppy mix. Furthermore, as many engineers have pointed out, the capturing of the source itself matters even more than the processing.

Third, and what, I think, is most important, is that modern records have very little dynamic range. From a monitor perspective, this has a considerable impact on how the mix feels for the musician.

So what do I do?

People will look at my showfile and think, “Wow, there is not much compression on anything.” I typically say the phrase “embrace the transient.” Compression is an incredible tool. However, if used improperly, it can do far more damage than good. From a monitor mix perspective, I think the “feeling” of no compression is typically more valuable to the player than the sonic characteristics of shaping the transient to create a certain tone.

I may step on some toes here, but this is akin to the modelers versus amps conversation. At a certain point, the guitarist is fighting tooth and nail to keep real amps because it feels better. Not because they can 100% blind tell you which one is the amp and which one is the sim.

When I started playing bass guitar around the age of 11, I had no idea what bass frequencies even were. My bass teacher told me to get in the car on the way home and turn the bass knob down on the car radio. I still remember the amazement of sitting shotgun in the red Toyota Sienna and hearing what bass was, or at least the lack thereof. This started my path of listening sonically instead of musically. When I began to study audio, I realized that my brain started to pay attention to different things if I was playing versus if I was mixing. If you have been mixing for any amount of time, hopefully you have experienced this same thing. We start to focus on the quality of the sound and the timbre. We are focused on balance, clarity, depth, and all the other adjectives that define sonic quality. It is quite difficult for me to focus on sonic quality and musicality at the same time. This is similar to why a producer and mix engineer are sometimes different people in the record making process. Of course, there is a lot of overlap, but the respective roles are probably way more honed in at listening for one or the other.

My goal as a monitor engineer is to take care of the sonic quality of the IEM mix so that the artists and the musicians have one less thing to worry about. It does not have to be sonically perfect, like a record. What it should be accomplishing is being distraction-free. It should be balanced so that they can hear what they need to hear and what they want to hear. Your goal should be less about creating a record, and more about creating a suitable environment amidst the challenges of live audio.

All this being said, I do find it difficult to progress as a monitor engineer because we rarely get to hear other engineer’s approach. If you are a monitor engineer or a performer, I would love to hear your thoughts!