Even though he has the wonderful CQ4You app in his pocket, we cannot train our keyboard player to stop turning up his keys all night. Pepper spray, shock collar, shame, nothing helps. We have decided we will have to handle it at the board (CQ18T). I am not seeing a way to use a limiter on just the keys, so I am thinking of using the compressor with the ratio set to infinity. Am I missing any better ways to do this?
I assume he is turning up his keyboard gain and not the gain of an acoustic speaker he has as a monitor. The latter would mean you should get him on an IEM. Not trying to be insulting, just looking for clarity.
Jeff
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Correct, he is increasing the gain on his keys. The worst part is, he does use an IEM. I know, I know.
Sounds like you may need to play to his ego and perhaps use the rest of the band, assuming there is one, to have him hold it down. āHey, youāre making all of us sound bad!ā āPeople are coming up and asking why the keys are so loud.ā Report audience responses such as, āWe canāt hear the rest of the band. Not enjoying the show and wonāt be back!ā
Iām assuming you canāt bypass the gain control on the keyboard with a well placed soldered jumper wire and resistor or an internal pot he canāt get to. Iām assuming this keyboard has its own speakers but if not, put some pads in line with his outputs and crank his level all the way up but control him via the mixer. Medication is probably the next step otherwise. Or replacing the musician.
Iād love to hear what your solution ends up being and also hearing other ideas from the rest of the community. Tough problem.
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Offer a couple of solutions:
- Tape down the gain control on the keyboard.
- Turn the gain on the keyboard all the way up and then turn down the gain on the soundboard
- Turn up the keyboard in his IEM so that his ears bleed, not really, from the keys.
Is his IEM controlled by him or the soundboard?
I have also been known to turn up an offender in the worship leaders ears and let him/her deal with the musician.
Good luck -
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Yeah, the medication approach might be the winner. Shaming him has no effect. He seems to think that when he cannot hear his keys, it is just easier to turn up the gain on his keyboard rather than use the CQ4You app. No, brain surgery and rocket science are not in his future. Replacing him would be my preference, but his son in law is the drummer, who is quite good, so booting him would make family gatherings awkward I imagine. I would not be able to get away with anything, well, that he knows about, which is why I am hoping there is something on the CQ we can do. He controls his own IEM with the CQ4You app . . . sorta. Thanks for your suggestions.
A compressor with the ratio set to infinity is a limiter.
I always ask musicians to set their output level as high as it will go, and work from there.
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Have him set the keyboard output to full before checking for levels?
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I am thinking that is what I need to do, since there does not seem to a limiter to use on input channels.
Every single time we set his gain, we tell him to play as loud as he will play all night. He never does.
We do, but he āpretends,ā I guess so he can turn it up when he feels unappreciated. 
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Could it just be that his hearing tires too quick? The brain adjust quick to volume so too keep it as interresting as in the beginning, he increases the volume?
If so, let him increase his IEM, not the FoH.
Definitely some hearing deficiencies. I know, that is the problemāhe will not adjust his IEM via the CQ4You app. He just grabs the volume knobs on his keys and cranks away. That is why I am trying to find a solution that is outside of his grasp.
Does he own the keyboard?
Jeff Wachtel
Oh yeah. Otherwise there would be some rewiring.
The solution to the problem of setting the keyboard controls to maximum has already been mentioned several times.
Another musician or even you yourself can easily check this during soundcheck.
Otherwise, there are the options of reducing the fee or - perhaps even more effective - the beer quota.
I understand that, but this is one obstinate, obstreperous, and oblivious dude. It is a bit confrontational to shove him out of the way to check and/or adjust the settings on his keys (though I would derive a fair amount of enjoyment from it), which is why we are wanting to use the admittedly passive-aggressive approach of capping him at the CQ. Excellent idea on the fee reduction, but unfortunately, he generally is the one who doles out the money . . . which is a story for another forum.
OK, I want to take one more whack at this. Is it possible heās somewhat technophobic? IF he is and wants to turn a knob rather than dealing with the app, and IF heās getting only, or mostly his keys in his IEM, perhaps give him his feed via a headphone amp instead and tape over his gain control. Lose the app. I use these: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PowerPlay2ābehringer-p2-ultra-compact-personal-in-ear-monitor-amplifier. Itās got a single gain control on it. Simple. And you can feed him a hot level so he can blast it if he wants.
I hope something will save you from this maddening frustration of essentially having one musician ācontrolā the mix. Very self-indulgent. After all, bands are supposed to work together to a common end, arenāt they? Well, in an ideal world. Crawling back into my hole now.
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I definitely appreciate any suggestions. He most definitely is technology, um, ādelayedā I will say. He has an easily accessible gain control on his IEM receiver, but when he wants more keys without wanting more guitar, vox, etc., right to the knob on the keys he goes. The last gig it just got ridiculous, which is why we are trying to see if we can limit it at the board. Yeah, self-indulgent is way more polite than the terms I have been using. Everyone else . . . no problems at all.
Usually itās guitar players with this problem, but in any case, it must be addressed swiftly and confidently. Passive-aggressive isnāt going to work.
Give him an ultimatum: stop this behaviour immediately or pack up and leave.
Iād wager thereās a 99% chance heāll be gone. If the drummer goes too, then youāve headed off a potential future problem as well. Two for one! 
One solution Iāve used in the past is to wind the volume on the keyboard all the way before the gig, then trim it back on the desk/di, and then he canāt turn it up during the performance.
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