Hey guys,

When I was studying in the US, I had the opportunity to play (the elec gtr) in the band with a large church. They have a stage reference system consisting of the below:
1) stage floor monitors (for overall reference, the ochestra, & the back-up singers)
2) headphones (for each band member, ranging from 8 to 10 of us)

Each time when the rehearsals are going on, the sound engineer will ask me if I could hear what I wanted to hear on my headphones. He was able to adjust the output to my headphones on my volume (of course) and the levels for hi-hats, bass drum, acoustic guitar, bass gtr, lead singer, etc individualy... so that the end result is the reference I needed for throughout the church service.
The sound engineer goes thru this process with each of the band member... so each one has a 'customized' output for their headphones.

So, what kind of hardware enables this kind of flexible reference?
Thanks.

The "secret" lie on the "sound Mixer console" .. on the Mixer unit .. there is a "choice " of Control the "output"
volume for headphone ...

Your answer seems far too simple for the question.
1 mixer can only have 1 combination of levels to all the headphones hooked up to it. (i.e. everybody hears the same thing) So are you saying that it requires 9 different consoles to cater for 9 different band members?

This post has been edited by erictham: Jul 10 2009, 01:37 PM

most probably:

9 band members = 9 channels + 9 channels on mixer, then 9 channels of headphone amp. so the first 9 channels will have the input then output sent to master out, but the remaining 9 channels will be sent to headphone out too. enginner have to duplicate the input signal to 2 channels, one for master out, one for headphone, but i'm not sure how to do it, can be cables, can be the advanced routing of the mixer itself.

however, for drums it'll require more, probably few channels for few mics on drums, but will only require 2 channels submix of the drums to the headphones for drummer. this probably needed advanced routing within the mixer.

you might want to check out if the engineer is using digital mixer or analog mixer. digital mixers are far more easy and flexible for the advanced routing, while analog you gotta spend a lot more for that.

This is a very expensive professional mixing configuration, mostly the mixing board is digital.. They will have individual digital feeds running to separate mixing modules for each musician, so they can adjust each instruments level individually for every module... So everyone can hear everyone clearly without having to blast any instrument's volume up..

This setup is more commonly used for studio live recording or gigs that favours in-ear monitors... This system is of course easier to tune and feedback/phase problems can be eliminated compared to the normal mixing boards..

Watch the newer Dream Theater Live DVDs for a similar sound setup...

hmmm

Check out RLC church , in PJ ..
their system are even more canggih than what you had just mentioned..

oh ya , that is where Jose Thomas and John Thomas etc goes.

No specialized hardware required except for the mixer, headphone amp/distribution system.

You do it through multiple auxiliary sends for each input channel on the mixer...

Simplified, each input channel on the mixer can have its signal copied and sent to an individual output independent of the master output.

And it can be achieved with cheap-ass boards as long there is enough aux channels to go around, not necessarily expensive digital consoles.

Digital consoles can be a b**** to route if you are not familiar with the board


p/s digital boards tend to cost significantly more than analog boards.

I'd love to have this kind of setup la, would be really great to jam in. Note to self, save sum money for ref system rig and sound engineer.

Hmm... so it seems like no one here has experienced this before...

I forgot to mention that a Korg Triton also sends metronome clicks to everyone so that all can play in perfect timing... the click volume is also adjustable. (Some of the band members find it annoying at first, but got used to it after a practices)

I will keep watching out for more feasible ways of achieving this setup, will share with you guys if I can find any.