Latency in a club environment

**Tigris** · 05-23-2009, 07:37 PM

How do you guys (rsp. girls) deal with latency in the sound-system of a club? Here I've got an extreme example where there are 3 different latencies; a) for the monitor speakers, b) for the front of the club and the subwoofer and c) for the back of the club. As it is pretty cramped you'll hear the sub and the back-speakers when turning off the monitors.
Do you either crank up the monitor speakers up so loud that you're not irritated by the others and use earplugs, so that you're not going to be deaf after one evening or do you mix using your headphones, which disconnects you quite a bit from the crowd as well.

**Karlos Santos** · 05-24-2009, 07:25 AM

Yeah its hard. I just turn the monitor up really loud. My hearing damage is done so ...

I hate mixing in my headphones im old school like that. Give me a big monitor and im happy. But yeah i cant have my headphones on all the time. I get the mix in, drop the heaphones down, carry on with the mix and then when the transition is done i take the phones off completely and leap about a bit..!

**RufusWhite** · 05-24-2009, 08:13 AM

I always have a small amount of the master output in the headphones, then I don't have to worry about the monitor setup too much. I've never been able to mix using my right ear for some reason, so having headphone mixing is a godsend for me!

Fus

**minimal** · 05-24-2009, 07:44 PM

Monitors cranked bcause all I hear is the bass from the subs.

I will definitely get musician grade ear plugs very soon, the ear fatigue is exhausting & I don't want to be like an old man with an ear horn at 50.(speak up sonny boy!)

I do alot of my mixing using earphones (esp. eqing), I love my monster headphones!

**JAC** · 05-24-2009, 08:47 PM

I always mix in my headphones, for some reason I find it easier. Probably as the sound is isolated from other noises in the club and it's just much clearer to my ears. Even when I'm not mixing I sometimes leave my headphones on, just to protect my ears that teenchy bit. Every little helps I guess....

**DJ_Animus** · 05-25-2009, 12:38 AM

mixing in the headphones for the win

**miyuru** · 05-25-2009, 12:47 AM

Until you get used to that particular club, just try mixing in your headphones. The first transition is always the scariest to me because in my headphones it'll sound in sync but it'll sound sort of off too, but I'll blend it in and apparently everything was fine. After that I just get used to the sound.

**Monika.mhz** · 05-25-2009, 06:04 AM

Every 1ft you're away from the source of sound ads 1ms of delay to the audio.

Everywhere you're at has latency. It just depends on how you adjust. If you're simply unable to adjust to latency (which is unfortunate because even pipe organ players adjust to 50ms+ latencies) then headphones are the only option.

Also. get earplugs anyway. Lifesaver!