Daniel Gonzales on Mixing In-Ear Monitors for Beyoncé

Monitor engineer Daniel Gonzales (Beyoncé, Gungor, Frank Ocean) shares which Waves Plugins he uses to bring Beyoncé’s sound to the stage.
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[@zion2.056]

See her a few times, out of all the concerts I’ve seen she always seems to have the best sound over all.

[@jernav8939]

me: has no idea what he’s saying me: also watches the whole thing bc Beyoncé

[@metalinyourhead3604]

Usually at a small show a musician hears themselves through a set of monitors on stage. This guy basically programs a set of wireless ear buds so Beyoncé can hear herself and the music.

[@je-freenorman7787]

Beyonce is a scam artist

[@theaustinsdarlin]

He gave no levels of his mix in her ears… basically all about his equipment 🤷‍♀️

[@aaronjohnson8159]

This guy basically has a whole studio on the side of that stage.

[@jmc8342]

you basically have a whole studio on your laptop.

[@producer_ben]

As does every monitor engineer in the professional world

[@TempoDrift1480]

Can't imagine why, there's not a single instrument being played or heard. It's all computer generated and all of her lyrics are recorded. This seems like a total sham. I can't imagine Balogna needing Neve preamps and compressors for her to rap.

[@je-freenorman7787]

Its a console, not a studio. sorry

[@Btvstudio]

@@TempoDrift1480 very wrong, she plays with a band live. learn something.

[@gregorybell705]

Never mixed a Bey show. But mixing 4 Prince was a pleasure. He knew what he wanted because he could run the desk also... i'm talking FOH

[@andym7333]

didhe use compression on vocals on iem mix

[@andym7333]

???????

[@kbmadethatshit6364]

@@andym7333 obviously lol

[@am1992sxe]

No way, I have a long way to go.

[@minime567]

Wow this is awesome to read; you know maybe because he knew what he wanted he knew that he maybe needed to know a little bit about it so he could get the most out of his sound. Respect!

[@jillieg543]

I’ve never understood a set of words less but for some reason I watched the whole video...

[@rethabilejelele1903]

Saame😭😂 but i just kept watching cos it's Beyoncé!😂

[@jillieg543]

@@rethabilejelele1903 amen to that!! 😂

[@woo9194]

To the unsung heroes!

[@TempoDrift1480]

Ha... For what???

[@wizardmix]

It always amazes me just how cushy it can get at the top and just how bad it can be in the trenches. I've been fortunate enough to be in both situations but mostly in the trenches. What a luxury to have studio level mic-pres, compressors, EQs, filters and effects units just for personal monitoring that the audience never hears.

[@wizardmix]

Nobby You know what, I'm sorry I snapped at you, that wasn't right. I'm in a shit mood right now because (believe it or not) I just came off of a gig with bad sound and I took it out on your comment. What you might not understand is that I'm not a sound engineer, I'm a performer who has mostly suffered though endlessly bad wedge mixes for two decades. The fact that you're lecturing me on how important it is for 'the artists' to hear themselves makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time because most of the sound teams I've worked with have done more to damage my ears and make it near impossible to do what I do than I've ever encountered one who would be so focused to make the snare tone just right for me. I value good sound engineers more than anything which is why I watch these videos. So you're right, I'm not a sound engineer, I'm on the receiving end. The gigs I've gotten on with professional crews (big but it was a 42 channel layout with one FOH and two different teams running the monitors -- one for wedges, another for IEMs). I've had maybe 20 or so shows like that. The rest? The trenches, one way or another, but you can't have the highs without the lows so...

[@TheWitchOvAgnesi]

After 20+ years of dealing with shithead local Chicago sound men, I went out and bought what I needed to make a closed IEM system for myself. Although it isn't perfect, I can always hear who I need to, where I need to. It's just an extra box to carry (I'm a drummer, so it's an extra box that sits out back with me). No plug-ins, just a 12 channel board and I mic the guitars myself and "Y" the vocal mic at the snake. No more dealing with douchebag pretend sound guys.

[@jumpenjack1]

@@TheWitchOvAgnesi this is the best so petty

[@TheWitchOvAgnesi]

@@jumpenjack1 petty?

[@TheSkooterbords]

Underrated Video. Deserves more views.

[@manny_f]

100% definitely NOT a sponsored endorsement.

[@cedricpsy5067]

Imagine being able to afford two technicians dedicated only to the IEM

[@snapascrew]

U2 has 3 lol

[@mickeymiguel2726]

Waves, the future of pro audio From the studio to the concert

[@robertdelgado8230]

Wow finding out I have all these plug-ins was amazing

[@LindsayC33]

Where’s the subtitles? I feel like he’s speaking a super foreign language & I don’t understand!!!! 😂 skills

[@clarkewi]

Amazing. Giving the people their money's worth.

[@HandsUpDK]

Probably not but 96 inputs and one of the biggest artists in the world!

[@MakesiJosephRiddimRider]

yip... close to 96 they came to my country on tour and had 2 full drum kits bass guitar 8 channels of keys 3 brass 3 background vocals and a million loops lol

[@lukeluthor6290]

Right. Some people in some songs want to hear more guitar or more drums. I used to have in ears. They were fun and really helped because of the echo from the stage.

[@TheBBQify]

interesting that he uses reverb and delay for the in ears. seems counterintuitive to me, but ive also never mixed live sound like this

[@danielboyle2554]

I find I like a bit of reverb on my in-ears when I'm singing as I'm used to hearing my voice in the room vs. flat up in my face

[@martinvannostrand8488]

It’s really distracting to hear your voice very dry and very close. It can make a vocalist feel removed from the music. Singers usually perform better when they hear themselves as a part of the full mix. Beyoncé’s engineer is using the highest quality stuff here, but even on a lower lever gig, adding some reverb and some stereo audience mics makes your in-ear mix sound much more pleasing and natural for the performers.

[@MattLGreer]

Using Waves plugins live... what kind of latency are we talking about? Or are these on pre-recorded tracks that are being played back?

[@jumpenjack1]

if it was pre recorded why not just pre record with the plugins

[@morsikpl]

Latency of Waves SoundGrid is about 2ms of less… basically you can't hear it.

[@jeremyljonesjr]

I had no idea all of this was necessary. Nothing but the best for King Bey. Great work!

[@smendoza76]

you need to go audio school for this if you doint understand it then u won't get it.

[@downriverprod]

This is not uncommon on large shows. With 12+ instrumentalists, half a dozen singers, plus tech mixes, 1 person is not going to be able to handle that workload. Madonna, U2, Pink, Metallica, plenty of acts use 2 Mon engis.

[@theandiller]

Josh Hana absolutely not cool to say Mon engis

[@vchervil]

It's a lot of work.wow

[@gabrielgomer]

Damn, I need some in ears...

[@RealCullen]

8 years later… did you get some?

[@jermainetrott611]

It looks like something I would do. The venue, by itself, doesn't have a warm color for vocals (very noticeable) and thats why I think your adding the CLA-2A. It's either the CLA or Cranesong pheonix plugins (Phoenix (tape sat + compression) for me on those consoles. It's all said and done for me at that point. On monitors, the C6 for vocalist who are all over the place and I want to even it out. But that is an interesting chain, I will have to try it. Now on DigiCo which sounds so sterile .. clean, I'm reaching for some crayons. The pre/saturation on Scheps Omni channel warms the vocals right up. Would you give that a whirl whirl and drop me a note? Anyways.. thanks for sharing.

[@syahidanarrizaldysidik4226]

Holy shhhh 96 inputs :')

[@careluisillo]

you love waves, dont you? I also have used Venue consoles as well as Digico. they are just amazing!

[@dannymagee8202]

This is a Waves Audio video

[@philippeghost4902]

Good promotion for waves plugin......

[@nightw4tchman]

4:59 "Waves is my go to processing effects rack" yeah think I gathered that by the constant talk about how you use Waves plug ins...

[@tahmeed1202]

which buttton is for lip sync?

[@sqprxs]

+Tahmeed Ash haha, nice

[@TheIoaaanes]

The play button

[@brandivosmith]

Wrong artist

[@ivanestrada7993]

KINGGG Beyoncé lip syncs a lot actually. It's not that she can't sing it's that she can't sing on the level that she does while dancing to those crazy choreographs.

[@LouiseDK]

Iván Estrada lets agree on the fact that she does not lipsync. She might, for dance heavy performances use a backing track - but that is definitely NOT lipsync. And backing tracks is something she rarely uses anyways.

[@miju2228]

Papacito

[@SNAPS90291]

Thanks bro love in info..

[@halmain4468]

Great video

[@metalinyourhead3604]

Boy oh boy that’s a large crew.

[@VWGTI2013]

Does Waves Audio offer a plugin to help with feedback?

[@VidaMusica]

Very cool.

[@mightymikerocks]

very nice

[@princeaves694]

Awesome toys!

[@deetgeluid]

BTW nothing is excessive when doing IEM. Join the club.

[@theaustinsdarlin]

Soo?? How does he mix her in-ear monitor????? 🤷‍♀️ where is the room sound? The front of house mix? How does he mix that in her ears?

[@vocalbooth8585]

Headphones

[@hive-ki8dr]

You are very lucky Daniel 😏

[@donnellnicholas8375]

I really like Raz Klinghoffer's mixes I heard so far Check'm out

[@JurassicPaul-]

Nice

[@baska-]

IEMs for lip syncing?

[@hillmiss1736]

She sings live 90% of the time during her concerts, sir. Demanding an entertainer to sing from start to end would result unavoidable sound imperfections, especially during the execution of heavy choreography. If she gets the chance to tone things down and interact without much movement, she sings her ass off and produces vocals thay define skill and talent. You might not get that but what you are doing is severely unecessary.

[@chilllbro8782]

@@hillmiss1736 well said 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@Wyrdrock]

What Iem's does she use?

[@marcelcortleven7845]

like Nikolay Orel says: what about the latency she has in her in ears?

[@itsdaviaquino]

It's a "live" system, there won't be any latency.

[@marcelcortleven7845]

***** , there is latency....even with waves rack you have it. they even tell you how much the latency is!

[@davi2011]

Marcel Cortleven There will always be latency! What I meant was that the latency is not long enough to be perceived by us. This will become standard pretty soon (real time processing), Universal Audio released the Apollo and you can record with the plugin processing the sound in "real time".

[@marcelcortleven7845]

davi2011 are u mixing in ears?

[@NoOne-ye5jf]

If the latency were of any significance they wouldn't use that, there's nothing harder than trying to play/sing/dance with a delayed monitoring system.

[@BriaandMatt10]

Why are these so many effects for the IEM? Wouldn’t they want it raw

[@vocalbooth8585]

Hell no! You want it to sound as good as possible. If you can get it sounding like it does on the record then all the better. Also, If the vocal was completely dry it would be harder to hear it in the mix

[@mitchhifi9192]

But what monitors does she use A12t's?

[@maxlarsen]

he doesnt even mention what monitors he uses

[@mariojarque3466]

sarasa

[@lintonlupahla1347]

Sweeeeeeeeeeet

[@prvphetzay4445]

Why do you run the monitors on a separate mixing board??

[@sambalarezo7497]

zayuhk2000 because the. The FOH guy doesn't have to worry about mixing monitors

[@stevezimmerman2653]

@@sambalarezo7497 FOH guy is living in a dream world laughing all the way to the bank. What a life it would be to not have to run the monitors

[@wienerstein2817]

@@stevezimmerman2653 It's not a dream. It's how professional productions run. Even mid level productions.

[@ChrisThomasBone]

I guess you need really high-quality monitoring for lip syncing

[@chilllbro8782]

you’re at home recording cover videos on a potato bro, stay in your lane.

[@wienerstein2817]

@@chilllbro8782 Hahah. Thank you. The haters are always the bedroom producers.

[@vocalbooth8585]

Beyoncé does not typically lip sync.

[@mahendrakushwah1496]

Hindi

[@AndrewZeleno1]

TransX wide lowers transient????? wtf????

[@rmirabelle]

+Andrew Zeleno You can use it either way. With positive value, you'll get emphasized transients. With negative value, the transients are de-emphasized.

[@ojreal925]

+Robert Mirabelle interesting will definitely try it on Percussion instruments like drums and snares after its been processed through compression

[@CyrilViXP]

2 monitor mixing engineers? Oh my God, is it really so necessary?

[@wizardmix]

You try riding 96 channels solo sometime HA! I've seen two working far smaller shows.

[@EddieLlamas]

Cyril ViXP After the artists/musicians themselves, the monitor engineers and instrument techs are the most important people at a concert. If the artists aren't happy with what they hear in their monitors, that's a surefire way to get a crappy performance--at best you'll get a grumpy artist.

[@theandiller]

Do you really think that Beyoncé cares about that money part?

[@deetgeluid]

Doing FOH and four groups of wedges. I'm getting old.

[@ara5823]

See, that’s where everybody goes wrong especially for house guys these days they think they’re out there putting sounds into the system or changing the sounds of the band for what they want to hear you’re not there to change the sound of the band or make the sound for the band the band should already have the sounds together and all you’re doing is reinforcing it You’re there to mix for the people in the audience. You’re not there to mix for yourself you’re there to reinforce the sounds of the band that have already been produced and if they have not been produced then you’re not responsible for making these sounds this is what happens when studio guys left the studio and start becoming fucking front of house guys

[@janellesadler]

Would you marry me?

[@jaimiest]

This seems excessive.

[@hadesoao2092]

jaimiest pretty much

[@HamsterDude5150]

yeah and is sad when you lip sing and have that much gear

[@codysampson8937]

jaimiest probably more than everyones rent here in the comment section combined

[@jaysmith2597]

Alberto5150 the reason for the gear is because she doesn't lipsync

[@TheWitchOvAgnesi]

When you have money to burn...

[@lumpyfishgravy]

Moir engineer? Why do so many Americans slur like they're drunk?

[@grunions9648]

I just commented that on another channel. You are so right.

[@Jeremy-wp4yh]

The guy who knows about all the lip syncing 😂

[@melanjj7425]

I wondered that does he can be the whom getting fired 😅😂

[@TacoSt8]

lol its a turd covered in 24k gold smfh

[@kabelo2]

Omar St that’s not a nice thing to say about a man you don’t know

[@TacoSt8]

@@kabelo2 i was talking about a Beyonce song

[@stanesposito2664]

A bit overkill! This is insane for lip syncing. This isn't rock 'n roll, it's a circus.

[@Bxyxox]

Stan Esposito she barely lips synchs, educate yourself

[@lt0295]

MrFirefire1 she lip syncs and the proof is ample. She also lies about it. Which is insulting.

[@elijahdelp2893]

Lol. How do you think she dances that way and sings consistently? Very difficult. Lip syncs most of the time.

[@officialWWM]

That's a lot of monitoring gear for someone who is known to lip sync a lot!

[@joshuabardon9992]

Music Islife not really

[@stevezimmerman2653]

So you're telling me he is 1 of the 2 people hired only to run in-ears? Talk about splitting the work-load. I could do that job with my eyes closed!

[@wienerstein2817]

Uh could you? You have to keep your eyes open to pay attention to the artist.

[@marcospintor1333]

Why do you need monitors for someone who lip syncs

[@joshuabardon9992]

Marcos Pintor so they know how to properly lip sync

[@snapascrew]

Let me explain this in the nicest way I can possible explain it. A lot of people who you think are lip syncing have no idea that they are doing so. What they hear in the IEMs is not the same thing the crowd hears. If the management decides to turn the track vocal up and the live vocal down that is not lip syncing that is the audio mixing of the front of house.

[@wwemj213]

there are maybe 3 tracks she liped the entire show calm down,there are compilations of her ridicules vocal runs all over youtube from that exact tour

[@klauskarlkraus]

what does she needs in ears for? she doesnt even sing live

[@94mac]

klauskarlkraus if she didn't she would still need to be able to her the lip sync or track to be in time lol it's not rocket science

[@lt0295]

Carl Clark then put it in your ears and blast the studio version of your song. God you can do that with a pair of apple earphones.

[@hillmiss1736]

You have never seen her live and obviously, you have been deaf all your life. How can you say such thing? She never sings live? Why wouldn't she? Beyoncé isn't as untalented as you are! She is a full-blown entertainer and a star-rated vocalist all at once. Your claims are disgusting and laughable.

[@1992Razvy]

huh!? why is this thing needed? she just have to sing with her mouth. if you don't want that just plug an USB and done, no need for that huge thing with tons of things on it!

[@TheRevWillNotBeTelevised]

Beyonce obviously has far too much money and not much sense. Two monitor engineers? Jeebus.

[@EddieLlamas]

koopification Metallica has 2 for 4 dudes! Beyonce also has her band, back-up singers, and dancers that all have to hear what's going on onstage. And not everyone requires the same mix, different band members may need to hear some instruments and/or vocals differently. So having 2 engineers lightens the workload.

[@ryanrajagopal2930]

someone's jealous

[@bigpoppa1]

koopification she needs a big team. And besides shes hiring and paying her team very well.

[@jasonsandler6951]

I respect this guy , but Beyoncé ????? That would be a slap in the face I would never want to work with such an untalented "artist"

[@rochbramwell]

jason sandler if people like Micheal jackson, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Prince, Tina Turner Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder all have said she good I'm pretty sure she's not untalented

[@terrell9589]

jason sandler untalented shes the best in this generation hello

[@EmThePenguin]

Jason, I would encourage you to watch some videos of Beyoncé working during show prep, planning tours etc, and also really listen to her sing, without bias. I appreciate your opinion, and it can be hard to detatch from the idea that all pop music is bullshit/ formulaic, however, as a vocalist and someone who's whole world revolves around music, I think she's a fantastic vocalist (check out something like the scat solo in 'Deja Vu live). It's not Ella but the woman can most definitely sing. She's absolutely dedicated to perfection of her sound and product (of course it's a product, but that doesn't really lessen the artistic merit of it imho). There's some interviews with her band speaking about her, and footage of her on tour. One of her backing vocalists mentions something like 'she's here an hour before, and an hour after everybody else, (sic). Every single facet of the production, sound, lights, pyro, choreography goes through her in some way or another. Of course, her team/crew are also fantastic, and do a huge amount of work, but the woman is undeniably dilligent, hardworking and very skilled as an entertainer. The music might not be to your taste, but I find it hard to see how this is a slap in the face to this guy. It might not be cool to you, or be the most artsy, complex music in the world, but career-wise, doing sound for someone as successful this is pretty much on the top tier. Anyway, all that being said I think you sound snobby as hell and you'd probably want to check yourself. Edit for grammar

[@DeBlauweOlifant]

its not even an opinion, You might not be a fan, you might be the typical todays music sucks auto tune bla bla led zeppelin is real music etc etc kind of man , but to say that she cant sing is just straight up stupid. Everyone can her that shes a great vocalist.

[@bigpoppa1]

“Untalented “she can sing and dance at extreme levels.

[@hadesoao2092]

i hate digital................................... and all those digital filters are really unneeded what ever happened to a analog board with a couple digital filters

[@ryanrajagopal2930]

you mean the super expensive, very difficult to move gear hmm wonder what happened to it?? use your brain man! digital is far more efficient in so many ways, and sounds very very similar to the point in which I bet you couldn't even tell the difference, so get off your high horse and learn to adapt

[@hadesoao2092]

Ryan, even though digital is far more efficient than analog, I still prefer physical buttons over trusting a computer to work 24/7. I agree with you,digital is more practical but it's honestly just self preference 😀

[@ryanrajagopal2930]

OAO Hades fair enough, real buttons are more fun, but it's just not that practical, if it was, that's what we would be doing XD

[@hadesoao2092]

yeah man, digital is alot more practical i just like the old style alot. when it comes down to it, i prefer digital cuz of the visibility of the faders, lol

[@ryanrajagopal2930]

OAO Hades lol tbh if I could afford analog gear I would prefer it too 😂