FOH Pros Share Tips to Get a Great In-ear Mix

If musicians can’t hear themselves (or each other) during a gig, it’s going to adversely affect their performance. Beyond that, they’ll feel disconnected from one another and from the audience. So what can you do about it? Sweetwater asked a group of seasoned front of house pros for some insider tips on how to best serve artists and players when dialing in their monitors. Here’s how to get a great in-ear mix.
Scott Cameron
Greta Van Fleet, Jason Bonham, The Black Angels, Taking Back Sunday
Listen to every detail of what your artist is asking for. Also make sure to walk out onstage to their position. Things usually sound much different onstage in front of guitar amps and wedges than they do behind the monitor desk. Be sure to put yourself in their shoes to get an even better understanding of what they’re actually hearing.
Brian Pomp
Macklemore, Macy Gray, Avenged Sevenfold
I mix both front of house and monitors depending on the gig. I often take the approach to mix ears the way I mix FOH, but sometimes it works perfectly and sometimes it’s the totally wrong approach. It depends on who is listening and what their role is in the band. I’ve had people ask me to make it sound like the record, and others ask to hear only what they need to make it through the show. Bus compression is important. Even if it’s just to keep some things from jumping out. It’s very important not to hurt anyone (except the drummer — then it’s OK). And it’s a lot easier to do than one would imagine. You’re there to give them what they want. Even if they don’t know what they want or how to articulate it, which is often the case. So you have to be good at translating very obscure concepts and turning them into what that person is imagining.
Josh Fisher
Jesus Culture
I play drums, so this answer will be from an artist’s point of view. When I’m checking drums, I use a lot of EQ on every drum. But the monitor engineer is controlling those EQs, so I have to tell him exactly what I want. It’s a delicate balance between volume and EQ. For instance, a flat kick drum sounds like someone’s knocking on the door. But I want it to sound like someone is kicking me in the face with an army boot. So I’ll tell him to add 50Hz until it’s bumping, then some 8k until it blends with a crashing cymbal. If the mids are still too prominent, I’ll get him to dip at 400Hz–500Hz. I can’t see the EQ, so it doesn’t matter to me what it looks like; it only matters what it sounds like. But I know where the sweet spots are for my kick EQ. So you really have to understand the EQ of your instrument and know how to get it to sound good in your ears and be able to relay that to your monitor engineer. It’s easier said than done. A monitor engineer needs to know how to do that for every instrument.
Jeff Sandstrom
Chris Tomlin, Steven Curtis Chapman, North Point Community Church
Friends don’t let friends mix monitors. Just kidding. Use panning to get separation among similar elements. Add audience mics and reverb for a more natural feel, ensuring that artists will keep both of their ears in. When they ask for more of something, ask yourself what it is that they could do with less of, to achieve the same net result. Start with a little of most instruments (and click!), and a little more of themselves in building a mix from scratch, rather than starting with channel 1 and adding every channel one by one. Otherwise, you’ll run out of space (and time) really quick!
Steve Wilson
The Kentucky Headhunters
I don’t mix them live, but in the studio, I run a full stereo mix to each headset at a low level. I’ll then add in “more me” as needed. I would probably do something similar live.
Rick Naqvi
PreSonus Electronics
I start with my channels and build a mix around them. I also realize that most of the musicians in my band are not actually sound engineers, so I use multitracks of the band’s performance to dial in their IEM mix before they even get to the venue (i.e., virtual soundcheck).

Peter Keppler
David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Bonnie Raitt, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj
The most consistent issue I’ve seen (as a FOH guy) is when the monitor engineer uses too much compression and stuff on the lead vocalist, and the artist forgets (or never learns) good mic technique. Let the singer HEAR what they’re doing. Don’t try and fix. Easier said than done, sometimes, but do your best — it will ultimately make everyone’s life easier.
Doug Gould
WorshipMD.com
Panning. Keep both ears in. Add ambient microphones to bleed some of the room into the mix.
Eddie Mapp
Paramore, Stone Temple Pilots, Papa Roach, Evanescence
Find musicians that actually listen to each other play without in-ears before each person runs to build their own perfect isolated mix in their head.
Jeff Barnett
Director of House of Worship Sales at Sweetwater, FOH Engineer
Most musicians initially are resistant to in-ear monitors because they feel isolated, acoustically cut off from the room and the rest of the band. A great in-ear mix is one that helps them feel the natural connection to the room, the audience, and each other. To that end, a little ambience can go a long way. A shotgun mic or two on the stage facing the house can pick up a lot of room and audience sound to feed into the musicians’ ears. Reverb can also make a huge difference in how happy musicians are with their in-ear mix.
We hope these tips help you build a solid, inspiring in-ear mix for your next gig. If you have any questions about live sound, give your Sweetwater Sales Engineer a call at (800) 222-4700.
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