The document describes the monitor mix needs of the band The Swinging Otters. Each band member has different requirements for what they want to hear in their monitors. The sound engineer Loud Loudon will use aux sends and separate monitor mixes on buses to give each performer their own customized mix without interfering with the front of house mix for the audience. This will allow Loudon to satisfy the individual monitor needs of each band member while also mixing the show for the audience.

1. The Swinging Otters’ Monitor Mixes:
A case study
Pablo Cordero
COURSERA Introduction to Music Production
Professor: Loudon Stearns

2. The Swinging Otters, the hottest band in
town, have a gig tonight!
The Swinging Otters
Live at Yo Mama’s
Sunday, April 1st
9:00 p.m.
All ages

3. Meet Joey Adonis. He’s the lead singer.
He wants the lead guitar to be very loud in his monitor
so he can follow it during improvised sections. He also wants
to hear the keyboard chords clearly to stay in tune.

4. This is Fred “Shred” Frankowski. He’s the lead guitarist.
He’s pretty sure he’s the most important member of the band so he
wants his guitar to be the loudest thing in his monitor. He wants to
hear the bass drum to keep time, and a bit of the keyboard to make
sure everyone else is playing the right section. He sure as heck doesn’t
want that attention-grabbing jerk of a singer in his monitors.

5. These are PaulieLambwool and Ludwig van Bendover. They
play drums and keyboard, respectively
They are the heart of the band and they want to get a balanced
mix of all the instruments on their monitors. Paulie also wants
the bass drum to be a bit louder, so he can lock in with the
rhythm section.

6. This is Big Bubba Boudreaux, the drummer.
He doesn’t really “get” chords and melodies. He just likes to bang on
things real loud. He wants the bass to be loud on his monitor because
he likes Paulie and the low rumbling notes give him a funny feeling
“down there”.

7. How will “Loud” Loudon Langley, their long-suffering soundman,
make everyone happy????
With the power of Aux Sends!!!

8. An Aux Send reroutes your signal to a different fader, so you
can set a specific level in a sub-mix, while the main track
output continues to sound at a different level.
In other words, this sends your signal to two different
places, where you can mix them in different ways.
This way, Loudon can give each band member a separate
monitor mix!

9. There are two kinds of Aux sends: Pre-Fader and Post-Fader
In a Post-Fader send, the levels of the audio will change when
you move the faders in real time. In a Pre-Fader send, the
levels are fixed and will not change even if the sound engineer
is doing adjustments during the gig.
For monitor mixes, it is customary to set the levels during
soundcheck and put them in a Pre-Fader send so they
will not change at all during the gig.

10. How will Loud Loudon the engineer do this? First, he needs
to make a separate Bus for each monitor mix.
A Bus is a routing system which
allows you to put different
signals into one sub-group and
mix them all together.
You may send the same signal
to different Busses, and mix it
in different ways.

11. Loudon will also be making a Front-of-House mix which is what
the audience is actually listening to. He will use Post-Fader sends
for this so he can adjust it in real time, without altering the
performers’ monitor mixes!
This way, he can drive the audience wild with his amazing
live mix, while keeping the musicians happy and catering to
their specific needs!

12. And this is how the Swinging Otters rocked the house!
Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed this!
Pablo Cordero
Mexico City