Fender Series 3000 Owners Manual - Page 34

• your on-stage Monitor mix or even increase the possibility of feedback and yet, in your position as the sound system operator, you would not be able to hear these changes. Using the Monitor Mixes Using both Monitor 1 and Monitor 2 mixes is very similar to using the Program Left and Program Right mixes. Even the Monitor 1 and 2 (graphic) Equalizers function in the same way as the Program Equalizers. (The 3106 and 3206 have no Monitor graphic Equalizers.) The primary purpose of the Monitors is to give you the ability to send a separate mix, independent of the main Program mixes, to a set of monitor amplifiers and loudspeakers. Those monitor loudspeakers may be on stage to give the performers the ability to hear themselves and the other performers better. The monitor loudspeakers may also be in your "control room" if you are, not located in a place where you can hear the performance directly. The idea, in any case, is that the Program mix may not be ideal for these monitor loudspeakers. On stage, for example, a drummer may want a "mix" that emphasizes the vocals and de-emphasizes the drums. A vocalist may want a "mix" that deemphasizes the instruments but emphasizes the vocals and has just enough drums to help the vocalist keep on time. In a control room, your monitor mix will bring up electric instruments more than you would bring them up in the audience area (since the electric instruments will carry much of their own sound to the audience but this sound will not reach you in the control room). In some cases, your 3000 Mixer may be used exclusively for monitors. That is, the Program Left output will feed one set of monitors, the Program Right will feed another set and the Monitor 1 and 2 outputs will feed a third and fourth set of monitors! This kind of diversity in monitor mixing is especially common in large entertainment systems and it illustrated in one of the Example Systems later in this manual. Actually, the Monitor 1 and 2 mixes are unique mixes which can be used for just about any purpose. In a night-club system, for example, you might set up a separate mix, using Monitor 1, to feed a set of amplifiers and loudspeakers in a separate room of the club. By using a separate mix you could balance the system properly for both the main room and the separate room. Because the Monitor 1 and 2 mixes are pre-fader, they are truly independent of the Program mixes. The Effect mix (discussed next) could be used as a post-fader monitor mix if you wanted to be able to set the monitors just once and then have the monitors automatically "mixed" along with the Program mixes, Another way to get a post-fader monitor mix would be to have a qualified service technician perform a post-fader modification on the Input Channel Monitor 1 and 2 controls (the modification affects both Monitor controls and must be performed by a qualified service technician.) One minor precaution about the Monitor 1 and 2 mixes. At the end of a performance, or during a break, you will probably bring down the Program Left and Right faders to keep stage noises from reaching the audience. Remember to bring down the Monitor 1 and 2 (master) faders, too! Since the Monitor mixes are entirely independent of the Program mixes, they will keep operating normally, even when the Input Channel faders and the Program Left and Right (master) faders are all the way down! This means, for example, that the audience near enough to the stage to hear the stage monitors could still hear stage noises or even feedback if a technician moves a microphone to the wrong position. If you are using wireless microphones and a performer walking off stage forgets to turn off their transmitter, their off-stage conversations will continue to come through the monitors, too! Remember that the primary reason you have to think about these potential problems because you; as sound system operator, are normally unable to hear the on-stage monitor loudspeakers. One way, of course, to avoid having to remember to turn down the Monitor mixes is to have a qualified service technician perform the Monitor "post-fader" modification to your 3000 Mixer. That way, when you turn down the Input Channel faders, the Input Channel Monitor controls (because they are now "post -fader") are also effectively turned down. This modification is probably undesirable for experienced operators who like the idea of a totally independent Monitor mix. It could be desirable, however, if your 3000 Mixer will be operated by inexperienced personnel or if it will be used as the "house" mixer in a nightclub, for example, where a different operator may be present for each new performing act. 32