The objective in establishing
a good monitor mix is to provide the worship team with the necessary information
they need to maintain their vocal balance and keep time. Sometimes this
means giving them the entire band in their mix. Others only need to hear
their own vocals or maybe the guitar and keyboard. If the drums happen
to be behind shields you may add the hi hat or kick to keep time. All of
this should be accomplished while keeping stage levels to a bare minimum.

There are a few essential
items necessary to mixing stage monitors. There are also several ways to
arrive at a good mix depending on the equipment you have to work with.
Let's begin with the monitors themselves. Quantity and quality play a big
part in a successful stage mix. You will need at least one monitor for
every vocal position. That does not mean for each vocalist, but rather
for each piece of real estate occupied by a vocalist. Often the vocalists
can share a monitor while it is more difficult for the singing musicians
to occupy the same small space.  Since the goal here is to reduce
the ambient sound level from the stage, smaller monitors go a long way
towards keeping SPL in check. This means saying no to double 15"woofers
and yes to monitors which use 10" or 12" low frequency components. Look
for monitors, which use a real compression driver and horn rather than
a peizo tweeter. Remember you are trying to re-produce the vocal region
as faithfully as the budget will allow and full range fifteen-inch woofer
and simple tweeters are not designed for the task at hand.  Monitors
that use a passive crossover, minimize your need for extra equipment such
as electronic crossovers and multiple amplifiers. They also sound good
out of the box and need fewer technical adjustments once installed. Bi
amplified monitors can offer a higher degree of performance, but they come
at considerable additional cost. 

Now assuming we have an
acceptable monitor speaker, how do we go about "mixing" the sound? Depending
on the equipment or available budget to upgrade, there are three likely
scenarios. The first is to use a split snake, which allows you to take
the signal from the stage and send it to separate house and monitor mixing
consoles. This method can accommodate a larger number of mixes and more
control over "who" hears "what." Usually this monitor console would be
located on or near the stage permitting the engineer his own perception
of what the stage levels are. The drawback is that it requires another
person to operate the equipment and for some churches additional equipment
to setup and tear down.

Many church engineers mix
the monitors using the aux send(s) located on the front of house or F.O.H.
console. There are different ways to mix monitors using the FOH console.
I recommend using the aux sends which are pre-eq and pre fader. Using the
Pre eq aux sends because the selective equalization that you apply to a
channel using the main speakers as your reference would not translate well
to the monitors. Likewise, a little more "shine" in the drum monitor might
be too much in the house. Pre fader aux send(s) are unaffected by the changes
made by the house engineer to the channel faders of the house mix. I find
that this method is relatively easy for the novice to learn and makes it
more difficult for the engineer to get into trouble during the service.
By adjusting the aux send level control for each individual channel, you
can direct the vocal or instrument to as many separate mixes as you have
aux sends, amplifier channels and monitors. Usually at least the aux 1
and aux 2 send(s) can be used in this configuration. Most often you would
offer at least two mixes to the stage. I usually identify front stage monitors
as aux 2 and rear stage monitors as aux 1. This physical relationship on
the board is easy to remember as it correlates to the stage. While this
sounds more complicated than it really is, most console manufacturers give
you a play by play description of this method in their owners manual.

There is still another solution
with it's own unique benefits for church applications. Most modern consoles
offer ¼" insert jacks along side their XLR inputs. These inserts
can also function as a signal splitter. When a ¼" cable is inserted
partway into the insert jack, the signal is split off from the inputs following
the input trim. (See your owner's manual for this feature.) If your console
is capable of this function, you can connect individual sources from the
FOH console to another smaller and inexpensive mixer located adjacent to
the house console. By splitting only the signal from the channel you want,
and patching it into the adjacent monitor console, you can have complete
control over the stage mix including gain structure, channel equalization
and multiple mix outputs. This method can be used to expand your existing
control and improve the quality of the stage mix without the need for another
mix location or dedicated monitor engineer. 

By giving the worship team
the things that they need to hear clearly and controlling the stage level
of the monitors, you will find that the band will also control the level
of their instruments. Spend time mixing the worship team during practice
and experiment with different things in their mix to find the blend that
works best for them. Your efforts will be rewarded with lower stage volumes,
a cleaner house mix and ultimately a better worship experience.