What are monitors?

[drummerdoug86]

I am looking into getting a pair of speakers for performing live gigs. First I need to purchase a power amplifier, and then a good pair of speakers. I don't really know a lot about monitors, like whats the differerence between them and just regular stereo speakers. I was also looking through my microphone manual and it said that you have the microphone facing the sound source, then you would have a stage monitor facing you, and finally two loudspeakers facing the audience. Can anyone explain the stage monitor thing? Thanks.

 

[Sennheiser]

The stage monitor thing is used so you can hear yourself over the rest of the band while you are performing. If you couldn't hear yourself you might not know if you're singing on pitch or how loud you are.

Not many home speakers are up to the task of stage monitor duty. They can't handle the high wattage, SPL, or transients well.

EV, JBL, and others make good stage monitors.

 

[TexRoadkill]

The JBL Eons are a great starter PA system. They are powered speakers and you can link as many of them up as you need to. They offer a lot of flexibility for different types of gigs.

 

[Evildick]

Like Senn said, it helps let you hear what you are doing doing a live gig. The "sound source" that your mic manual is probably referring to is a vocalist/guitarist/drummer or whatever is being mic'ed. This signal is then split into the PA (what the crowd hears) and the monitors (what you hear).

How many times have you been practicing with a drummer and he's keeps screaming that he can't hear what's going on with the rest of the band? In comes the monitor, essentially a small loudspeaker aimed at the drummer that has the vocals/guits/bass run through it so he can hear what the rest of the band is doing.

From my experience, monitors don't have to have great sound qualities since your playing over noise anyways and you just need a point reference to the rest of the band. I've often used a couple cheap guitar amps as monitors for a quick fix.