Sunday Playbooks
Monitors on the day
Building the stage mixes on a Sunday — wedges and in-ears. The mechanics live in the Sends how-to; this is the game-day routine and the etiquette that keeps it smooth.
Start from last week
- Recall your ready scene — last week's monitor mixes come with it. You're adjusting, not building from scratch.
- Most weeks it's small tweaks for who's on the team that day.
Build one person at a time
The fast way is Sends on Fader:
- Press the SELECT on that performer's monitor bus with Sends on Fader active.
- The physical faders become that person's mix — each fader is one channel going into their ears.
- Set what they want and move to the next performer.
Thinking in "whose mix am I building right now" is faster than hopping channel by channel. Full mechanics →
Give them what they ask for
- Monitor levels are the performer's preference, not yours. If the drummer wants almost nothing but click and kick, that's correct — even if you'd never mix it that way.
- Ask specifically: "more of what?" beats guessing. "More vocal," "less guitar" — one change at a time.
- Your taste applies to the room. Their taste applies to their ears.
The rules that still apply
- Pre-fader. Monitor buses stay pre-fader so your house moves never disturb the stage. Why →
- Click and guide → ears only. They belong in the in-ears, never the mains. The rule →
- Watch wedges for feedback. A vocal wedge pointed at its own mic can ring — keep that mic's level in that wedge sensible. Feedback →
In-ear etiquette
- Self-mixers: if musicians run their own in-ear mixes from an app, set up the bus and signal, then hand it over. Most tweaks are theirs to make.
- Shared preamp: if someone adjusts gain from the stage app, that's the head amp you set for the room — it moves the house too. One person owns gain; the stage uses their own mix controls. Gain vs. trim →
Common day-of fixes
- "Can't hear myself" → their channel up in their mix, not the whole wedge.
- "It's too loud in my ears" → bring the whole mix down, keep the balance.
- Something missing entirely → check the send exists and the bus is pre-fader.