matt osgood
From St. Stephen's
Hi all,
We've recently gone to in-ears for monitoring to reduce deafening stage volumes - it's worked really well and improved the FOH sound massively.
However, setting up mixes is a time-consuming pain, so I'm wondering about investing in a personal mixing system, possibly the new MyMix system http://www.mymixaudio.com/
I've used Aviom's in the past and really liked them, but MyMix seems to do more for slightly less money, and it's more musician friendly. I've heard bad things about Behringer's Aviom copy so not going to touch that, we need something that is 100% reliable and doesn't mash the sound up.
Does anyone have good/bad experience of using personal monitoring? Is it a valuable addition to musical productivity or just an expensive toy?
Specifically (and unlikely as it's very new), has anyone used MyMix or know anyone who has?
Any comments or ideas welcome!
"I've heard bad things about Behringer's Aviom copy so not going to touch that, we need something that is 100% reliable and doesn't mash the sound up."
I'd be interested to know where you've heard this. I can't find any reviews for the life of me anywhere...
The main PA guy in our church works for Yamaha ProAudio - an industry friend of his had listened to the Behringer units at a trade show and reported the sound quality was poor with clicks, drop-outs and generally reduced sound quality. So it's not a formal review - I haven't found any of those either - or even something I've tried out myself, but it doesn't hugely surprise me.
To be fair, our current bodge in-ear system uses 6 x Behringer mini mixers (Xenyx 502 I think) basically as headphone amps and they're OK, a bit noisy, but they do the job and they are ultra cheap (of course). The Aviom rip off system is vastly more complex than that, however, and as soon as audio's gone digital then it has a tendency to either work or not, rather than work-but-be-a-bit-hissy. I've compared the two systems and the Behringer really is just the Aviom in every-so-slightly different packaging - but a quarter of the price. Now the Aviom system may be over-priced from too long as the only personal monitoring option available, but even with Behringer's mass production facilities, some quality corners have to have been cut somewhere.
I'm going to the PLASA exhibition in Earl's Court in a couple of weeks and I know MyMix is going to be demo'd there, but it seems that neither Behringer or any of their distributors have a stand :(
Thanks Matt,
Interesting to hear. We've got some ordered up for my Church and so I'm hoping that we won't face some of those problems you've mentioned!
I'll make sure I do a full review of the product as soon as I can.
Ah, right!! :) I hope you won't have any problems either! Will be very interested to hear if it works as described - even if there aren't any major audio artifacts, whether the actual sound quality is good - not all A-D convertors are equal, and the Behringer ones are obviously at the cheaper end. We might reconsider it as an alternative to MyMix if all goes well with you guys.
What's your monitoring setup at the moment? Are you running in-ears/any other form of personal mixing at the moment?
No IEM at the moment. We used to run a 2 channel Sennheiser IEM G2 wireless system with radio packs for the musicians. Currently we're running floor monitors until the Behringer system arrives.
Why the switch back to wedges? And when you say 2 channel, that's as in '2 different foldback mixes shared between all the band'? Let us know when the Behringer system arrives, I suspect there's a number of churches will be very interested in the results...
Unfortunately the person who bought the system as a gift to the Church decided to take it when he left the Church recently. Very frustrating!
It was a stereo wireless transmiter and the belt packs could either receive L & R or L to both ears or R to both ears.
I will definitely do an in-depth review of the Behringer system when it arrives. Need to start running some CAT5e cable soon!
I don't know a lot about these systems but I would be patient and wait till some people try the Behringer system and see what they think. They will be reivews out on it almost immediately after its released. I play in a wedding band and we use a Behringer desk and its great. I think the way their stuff goes is usually its great quality but perhaps doesn't have the longevity of other systems/makes. But then you got to ask is the other system going to last 4 times as long to make it worth while?
As for the price - I believe these things can often be made considerably cheaper than standard pricing, especially if theres no competition in the market!! I bought myself a set of IEMs a couple of years ago (mainly for my band work though have used them in church) but didn't really fancy paying the top price. So I thought I would take a risk and go on the advice of a music shop and try LD MEI 1000 - which was about half the price of the cheapest 'Sure" system at £200ish (the price has gone up a bit now though) They are excellent! I have trouble at one gig once and thought here we go, its times up, this is why it was cheap - turns out in the rush to set up I forgot to put the ariel on the transmitter!! oops! Apart from that its excellent, don't notice any hiss, sound quality is great, very simple to use! so... I wouldn't let the cheaper price put you off.
Ben - has the Behringer system arrived yet? I heard recently it still wasn't available even though it's been advertised for ages, not sure whether that's true or not.
Picking this up again... We auditioned the MyMix system on Monday and have another rehearsal with it tonight before trying it for real in services on Sunday.
Cons:
- the setup wasn't as smooth as it could have been, turned out a couple of the network switches hadn't been configured correctly so that's a one-off
- build quality for the input expanders doesn't seem to be amazing, the D-Sub cables required do not look particularly stable plugged in the back
- the headphone amps in the individual units are not particularly powerful - they're great for earphones but for the drummers cans (which are only 80 Ohm, pretty low for headphones) it's just not pokey enough. We ended up having to take the stereo line out into another mini-mixer and use that to boost the level to get the kick to a satisfactory level.
Pros:
- sound quality is great.
- monitoring in stereo makes all the difference. We've been on mono with our previous system (see above) and now never want to go back. Suddenly keys, drum overheads etc are all spaced out and leaving space for other instruments
- it's incredibly easy to use and you get good visual feedback on all the different levels
- we all had a great monitor mix sorted out within about half a song - the process normally takes 30-40 minutes in a regular rehearsal. All of a sudden it was fun to play again, which it hasn't been for all the time we've been on our current IEM system.
So... all going well over the weekend, I'm hoping we're going to be able to go ahead with the purchase... I'll update this post with how it goes!
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The only thing I've touched briefly on this is the hearback system - it's simple and seemed to do the job well enough for the one time I used it, but I can't comment on long term reliability!
I did find it beneficial though - no-one seemed to struggle to use it and no-one complained, which in my books puts it down as a good thing rather than an expensive toy. Then again, all the band members in this instance were technically competent and knew what they were doing; so I don't know if this wasn't the case whether some would've struggled, or taken a long time to setup what they wanted. There's also the potential argument that it gives you more things to focus on in rehearsal at once, and the temptation to constantly be listening out and trying to get the perfect mix rather than focus on the music may be an issue for some.
If you're seriously thinking about them then you could potentially hire some for a service or two and see how they work out - if they're great then brilliant, but if not then you've learnt something and haven't wasted huge amounts!