So first gig Saturday night with the Yamaha. We hadn't had a chance to set it up with the full band before the show so we were kind of winging it a bit. Drummer labeled channels and did some minimal prep so we at least knew what we were plugging in to each input and output. Ran about 10 inputs and then 2 mains and 4 monitor mixes.
Holy freakin' cow!
We showed up 1.5 hours early so we'd have time to set it up and dial things in. Honestly, it took longer to run all the friggin' cables than it did to get an initial mix set up. It is so freaking nice to be able to FOH with an iPad and my guitar and set the rough mix up and be able to play as well (I had my wireless on the guitar).
Having 3 monitors across the front of the stage and one behind the drummer meant we could fine tune our monitor mixes. We weren't "silent stage" but I did my best to convince everyone to turn down. The drummer, of course, being the wild card here. And the bass player -- who wasn't running into the PA at all.
I turned the singers 2x12 Friedman FRFR completely off at the back of the stage. That thing is a beast even at 1 on the output dial. Right there, that ended a ton of the "volume war" problems we've had.
I did keep my Xitone behind me but it was barely on. Basically there to give a little me behind me next to our other guitar player's ODS-100 setup. He did run it in 50W mode and kept it low as he could on stage with a mic dangling off the cab and into the mixer.
The MM app did a great job giving everyone mix control.
We had a friend of the drummer run the "board" from FOH for the first set but honestly I think he just say there and drank for free. He was barely standing come set break.
Feedback from people in the crowd was it was all super clear without being deafeningly loud. Which is all I ever want to achieve.
Question for those running rack mount digital mixers like the Yamaha: do you use a stage snake or a TRS panel on your racks to bring all the connections around to the front of the unit?
I was going to buy a snake. We have enough cables to reach from the rack to the spots on the stage though. So then I started thinking about building a 2U panel with the inputs and outputs on it -- much pricier.
