[Ardour-Users] Ardour 2.8.5 released

[John Rigg]

On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 10:24:19AM -0800, Mark Knecht wrote:
> While I think the conversation that ensued me mentioning the previous
> product from SAW was very interesting I wanted to point out that it
> didn't really go in the direction of what I think that product is.
> It's not as I read it specifically for mixing the audience mix. It
> seemed to me to be for mixing the on-stage monitor mix.
> 
> While no one wants a crash of any type at any time when running
> computers, and crashes in front of an audience would be miserable for
> everyone - technology providers right through to the musicians and the
> audience, it's my personal experience when playing live was that
> on-stage monitors systems are pretty much set and forget. They are the
> type of thing where (IMO) an Ardour template and some digital outboard
> equipment *might* be a great solution as it keeps my on-stage mix
> pretty much independent of what's happening in the house.

Mark, onstage monitors are almost always independent of the front-of-house
mix anyway. On big gigs there is usually a separate monitor desk and engineer.
On gigs that are too small for a separate monitor mixer the FOH engineer
gets to do it using aux sends from the house desk. Personally I don't enjoy
this, but it can't be avoided on a lot of smaller gigs. IME most bands
wouldn't be happy with a monitor mix that couldn't be adjusted during the
gig.

A set-and-forget monitor system might be useful for a band doing small
gigs and carrying their own PA without a sound engineer (in which case
the FOH mix will also be set-and-forget). In this situation they are
unlikely to want the complexity of a separate monitor mixer though;
they would use aux sends from the main mixer.

John