Setup routine - third newbie question in a week!

uncledick

So, for a number of reasons, we've moved to the digital age and now have an X18 with powered cabs for FOH and monitors and no backline.  In the absence of a decent sub we're thinking of using the effects return input of our bassist's now redundant amp to fill in a bit of bottom end.  We have drums (miced kick and snare), two guitars, bass, and 3 singers out front.

My question for you ever-knowledgeable types is what would be the correct order to set up the rig?  At practice we can sort out the inputs for level/gates/eq etc. but I'm guessing there's a right and wrong way to go from there.  Do we set up monitors first and FOH after or vice-versa?  Do we do all the vocals first and instruments after? etc. etc.  I've Googled around but have only found articles which deal with individual instruments or settings - nothing which deals with the whole picture.

FWIW, we don't have a soundman/woman so once we've started playing will have to rely on mates in the crowd to give feedback (pun not intended) on how we sound.

PolarityMan

Are you looking for the traditional order for balancing the instruments? In which case Id prob got for bass drum, snare, rest of kit, bass guitar, other guitars, vocals. 

I guess the problem you might hit there is that you have limited headroom so if you go too hot on one of the early instruments you might run out of juice, in which case you might want to get the vocal to sit with the un-mic'ed drum sound first, then bring everything else in and finally add the minimum bass drum and snare as reinforcement.

uncledick

Interesting experience this evening.  With my wifi issues sorted we turned up ready for a major practice (gig this Saturday) only to find a funeral wake in progress.  This is normally a very quiet social club on a Tuesday evening with a couple guys at the bar and one or two playing pool.  This evening ended with a dance floor full of people in black suits and dresses.  Slightly bizarre but they loved it

Loving the X-Air 18.  Slill at the bottom of the learning curve but the whole band are keen to see it work and are slowly realising what it can actually do for them.

Musicwolf

uncledick said:

 Do we set up monitors first and FOH after or vice-versa? 

I'm like you in that we have to mix from the stage.  In our case it's a Mackie DL mixer, but the principals are the same.

It depends upon the size and layout of the stage / venue.  In an ideal world you would be set up with the band well behind the PA so most of what you hear on stage would be coming from the backline and monitors.  In this case my preference would be to do monitors / backline first.  In a small to medium venue a significant amount of what you hear out front is coming from the backline & monitors so you are using the FOH to 'top up'.

A lot of the times we are playing in such cramped conditions that we're hearing a lot of what's coming through the PA on stage so it makes sense to work the other way.  Balance the backline and FOH then use the monitors to fill in the gaps.

The  process is iterative, it's just a case of where to start.