Super Newbie Question about Mixing and Monitors

[steve.battisti]

Hi all, complete newbie here. I've been scouring the Internet looking for places where I might be able to ask a super basic question. Apologies if this isn't a good place to ask. Feel free to redirect me.

I'm a drummer in a cover band. We play very basic gigs with a simple mixer. I have never mic'ed my drums, and I've never used in-ear monitors or anything, we just have a wedge (which is awful for me). We never have a sound person, so sound is often an adventure. We are looking to up our sound game a bit, and have invested in a better board, an Allen and Heath QU-16.

I am trying out a set of in-ear monitors as well, and this is where my question comes in. To make the in-ear monitors work, I have a little Mackie Mix 5 board. So, I am getting an XLR out from the QU-16 that goes into the Mackie Mix 5. The out is unique for me, so in theory I can ask for more vocals in my monitor and we can accommodate that without impacting anything else. My in-ears get an out from the Mackie Mix 5 board, so I can control the volume level myself using the Mackie.

We had tried a simple version of this setup the week before with our old board and just vocals, and it worked fine. I could hear the vocals very well in the in-ear monitors. So I'm confident that my in-ears work, the Mackie board works, and the concept works.

Last night we were playing around with the new board for the first time, and it . . . wasn't successful. This time we had a guitar and several mics running through the board. But for some reason, in my in-ears, all I could hear was the guitar. It's not that the guitar was overpowering the vocals; none of the three vocal mics came through at all.

As I mentioned, I'm a total newbie to things sound-related, but this situation is confusing to me. As I understand it, I'm getting a single line out from the QU-16 that should contain the entire mix, which included 3 vocal mics plus the one guitar. So, it doesn't make sense to me why/how I could be getting the guitar, but not any of the vocal mics, and I'm a bit stumped as to what to try. It doesn't seem like it could be a cable issue, because if the cable were bad I just wouldn't get anything, not that I would get guitar but not mics.

Any thoughts on how we could troubleshoot this, or if this is not a good place for something like this, any thoughts on where I could go ask?

Any advice gratefully welcomed. We don't practice again until Thursday, but I'd love to have some ideas in mind when I go next time.

Thanks so much!

[Drew Stephenson]

It sounds like maybe the wrong aux was being sent to your mixer.
Apologies if I'm teaching a bit of egg sucking here:
I'm not familiar with that desk but the principle applies across most digital mixers.
Each input channel can be sent to any of the aux channels and those aux channels can then be routed to any of the physical outputs. So it might be that either your mixer was plugged into the wrong physical output, or the wrong aux channel was sent to that output.
You've got various busses and mix outputs on that desk so I'd start by checking exactly what's been set up and how it's routed.

[Mike Stranks]

Welcome!

You may find this helpful...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PKH5j4 ... el=marlonv

[steve.battisti]

You may find this helpful...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PKH5j4 ... el=marlonv

Ooh, awesome, I'll check it out, thanks!

[steve.battisti]

It sounds like maybe the wrong aux was being sent to your mixer.
Apologies if I'm teaching a bit of egg sucking here:
I'm not familiar with that desk but the principle applies across most digital mixers.
Each input channel can be sent to any of the aux channels and those aux channels can then be routed to any of the physical outputs. So it might be that either your mixer was plugged into the wrong physical output, or the wrong aux channel was sent to that output.
You've got various busses and mix outputs on that desk so I'd start by checking exactly what's been set up and how it's routed.

Thanks, I will try to give this a closer look on Thursday! Going to try to get to practice early so we can mess around with it more.

[Wonks]

The QU-16 calls what would normally be called aux outputs as ‘mix’ outputs, which can be slightly confusing terminology (though of course the mix outputs don’t have to be used as auxes and could be used to create different mixes for say FOH sound and a live stream).

[steve.battisti]

The QU-16 calls what would normally be called aux outputs as ‘mix’ outputs, which can be slightly confusing terminology (though of course the mix outputs don’t have to be used as auxes and could be used to create different mixes for say FOH sound and a live stream).

Thanks. I don't have the setup in front of me now, but in looking at the manual and remembering from last night, it feels like it was set up correctly. The output my board was receiving came from "Mix Output 2". So, I'm still scratching my head a bit.

[Wonks]

It sounds rather like the other channels weren’t enabled to send to the Mix 2 output.

[steve.battisti]

It sounds rather like the other channels weren’t enabled to send to the Mix 2 output.

Thanks very much for your feedback. So, if that is a "thing" then perhaps you are right! Are you aware, with this board, is there something in particular that needs to be done to enable a channel to send to the Mix 2 output?

I'm not asking you to solve the problem. Just curious if you're speaking from specific knowledge, or just theorizing?

[Wonks]

Just a brief skim through the manual earlier. But I must say that the manual isn’t that clear on the process and you really need some previous experience on mixing desks and the terminology used, and the desk in front of you to play with.

[steve.battisti]

Just a brief skim through the manual earlier. But I must say that the manual isn’t that clear on the process and you really need some previous experience on mixing desks and the terminology used, and the desk in front of you to play with.

OK, thanks very much. Hopefully I'll get some more time to play around with it on Thursday. Thanks for the lead.

[sonics]

With the QU series, the two things I find new engineers making mistakes with are:

1) Always be aware of the current mix destination - ie which of the Mix Select buttons (or LR) is active. You need to keep track of this at all times so you know which output mix you're adjusting with the faders. I think A&H should have added some sort of master color LED to indicate; colour-lit faders would have been perfect.

2) All signals can be deselected from any destination. This is a major "gotcha", but also very useful.
You can access this facility from the touchscreen, or more conveniently by using the Select button.
From the manual:
Assign mix routing – Hold down the ‘Assign’ key and press Sel keys to
assign channels to the mix currently selected in the Master Strip. The Sel
keys light green to show channels assigned to the selected mix.

I hope that helps. (I have had a few hundred hours on the Qu series; excellent boards.)

[AlecSp]

Sounds like you have the double challenge of being inexperienced in live audio, and that the new mixer feels overwhelming.

One of the things Allen & Heath do very well is their series of Tutorial videos. It really is well worth watching all of these from start to finish - maybe more than once. Things may start to make more sense.

[Dave Rowles]

Do you have an iPad? Do you have a space wifi router?

If so, I highly recommend connecting the wifi router to the network socket on the back, connecting an iPad, downloading the QU-Pad app and connecting that up. I find it far easier to see what's going on through the app sometimes, plus it gives you wireless control of your mix from the drums without having to go back to the mixer all the time.

When you go into the mix send on the app you can see the "on" button clearly so that will tell you if the channel is activated on that mix or not. Then also check that the "pre" button is illuminated.

[The Elf]

I'm ignorant of this family of mixer. Does it have any personal mixer option?

[Wonks]

Do you have an iPad? Do you have a spare wifi router?

If so, I highly recommend connecting the wifi router to the network socket on the back, connecting an iPad, downloading the QU-Pad app and connecting that up.

There's also a less comprehensive phone option for adjusting your personal mix levels. You'll need to set up the feed groups on the QU-16, but once that's done then it should allow you to adjust the balance between you and the band as necessary.

https://www.allen-heath.com/ahproducts/qu-you/

Saves carrying a tablet around as well as your phone; though the tablet version is probably best to help with your initial desk set-up.

[AlecSp]

I'm ignorant of this family of mixer. Does it have any personal mixer option?

It would hardly have been that difficult to look it up...

But yes, ME-1 and ME500 personal monitor mixers - starting at GBP 450 per unit, mind.

[The Elf]

I'm ignorant of this family of mixer. Does it have any personal mixer option?

It would hardly have been that difficult to look it up...

But yes, ME-1 and ME500 personal monitor mixers - starting at GBP 450 per unit, mind.

So the answer is 'yes' . I'd then suggest the OP takes a look at that option.

[steve.battisti]

A disappointing update: Band practice canceled tonight, so I won't get to try this stuff until Monday. Will report back next week!

[Drew Stephenson]

Plenty of time to study the manual then.