mike257

Just realised I've fully slacked off on our tour updates Matt! Managed to squeeze in a few bits this year. Spent a month in the US across January/February back in multitasking TM/tech/iPad monitors mode..... Squeezed in some TV action while we were out there..... And then since we got home, I've been doing various bits of dep cover for other bands, some TM, some FOH. Everything I've mixed this year has been some flavour of Allen & Heath, from SQ5 to the big S7000 (apart from a rogue M32 on Saturday) The best update to this thread though, is that @VTypeV4 and I might finally do a show together this week! I'm I'm Scarborough on Saturday mixing monitors for Hooky and Spear Of Destiny are on the bill, so I'm guessing that means you're there too Matt?

I wouldn't suggest anyone buy a loudness meter as some sort of gauge for your performance volume. It'll give you more bad info than good, and steer you in the wrong direction if you don't know how to interpret it. Cheap decibel meters aren't accurately calibrated, and they show a peak value. Proper loudness motoring takes in to account that music is a dynamic source and measures with averages over a particular timescale (often a 15 minute average, but usually no less than 5). If you stand at the back of a pub with a cheap meter you'll see all sorts of shocking big numbers pop up when the dynamics are up or the drummer throws a big hit in - if the untrained person holding it tells you "you got up to 112dB!" and then you're moderating what you do based on that, you're chasing your tail because that momentary peak means nothing in terms of genuine perceived loudness in the room.

I was coming here to suggest Dan too, this is right in his wheelhouse and I'd have the utmost confidence in his work, both in the design and the standard of construction. He's the real deal.

Air have just done a massive sellout tour last year celebrating the anniversary of the Moon Safari album - an awesome show by all accounts.

It's been typed in the "Condition Details" instead of the item description. Took me a minute to spot it too, not the usual place you'd look for this info.

I know, I was being facetious.

As far as I knew, they'd had him on an electric kit for some time now. Maybe he's just sick of that thumpy sound of sticks hitting rubber pads behind him 🤷

Been a while, but I was pretty confident you can route any output to them, and it looks like Mixing Station says yes.....

You can actually bodge this with the X32 Rack, now that I think about it. It has eight XLR outputs, but it also has six "Aux" outputs on jacks, and I'm pretty sure you can still route the mix bus outputs to them, giving you 14 outs total.

Very much talking about IEMs here. Stereo in FOH is something you have to be pretty careful with!

Yes, absolutely that. Even if every input to the desk is a mono source, having the ability to pan each source across the stereo field makes an enormous difference to the clarity of your mix - lots of it is down to psychoacoustics and how the brain perceives and prioritises sounds based on direction. Going from a mono mix to a stereo one can make an enormous difference in mix clarity. I'm a monitor engineer by trade, so plenty of first hand experience of the difference it makes - and don't even start me nerding out on 3D immersive processing for IEMs, that's a whole different level of game changing!

In that case, you'd fit in to the X32 Rack by itself. You'd also fit in to cheaper options like the XR18, with the caveat that they leave you no possibility for future expansion, whereas with the X32 Rack, you can at least add the stagebox in future should your needs change. I'd strongly suggest going stereo for your IEMs when you can, though. It really does make a significant difference.

Options are fairly limited for that amount of inputs/outputs on a low budget. The only thing I'd suggest in that price bracket would be the Behringer X32 Rack, with an additional Behringer S16 stagebox to give you 32 inputs, 16 outputs, which probably comes in at just under £1k. This gives you enough inputs for everything you need now, plus spare capacity for any changing requirements in future, and 16 XLR outputs. The mixer has a total of 16 buses to be used for monitor mixes, subgroups, effects sends, so you could use 12 buses for 6 stereo IEM mixes, and have four spare for effects sends. Not my first choice of system, but my recommended choice at sub £1k prices. It's a very common choice for touring bands who can't quite stretch to a monitor engineer yet and are carrying a self contained rig. I'm not sure there's anything else in that price bracket that you can get enough outputs from to run stereo IEMs - and you absolutely want to run them stereo wherever possible, it's a huge difference.

I'm 17 gigs deep in this year's schedule, and have about 80 in the diary between now and the end of November - which is a slow year compared to the last few! Unfortunately, none of them with a bass round my neck - all with my tour manager, sound engineer or guitar tech hats on - but some cracking stuff in the diary, a few bucket list things in there for me so very much looking forward to it all. Nice mix of touring and festivals, including lots of time in Europe and short stints in both the US and Aus/NZ. Bass playing in 2025 has so far been limited to annoying the dog playing along to Spotify in the living room!

Going from your current speakers to a pair of 8 inch Altos would be a significant downgrade that I wouldn't recommend.