Monitor Madness

Ever been to a concert where the band is playing off-beat, singing in the wrong key, and taking all their solos out of tune — yet they just stand there smiling as if they were giving the best performance of their careers? This kind of situation happens with the best of bands from time to time; they�ll play their way through a set with a total consistency about their errors, and then wonder what�s wrong with the audience.

The problem isn�t too much dope or a total loss of motor control, but that the monitoring facilities at the job aren�t working properly. With the high volume levels, the caverns that have to be filled with sound, and the distance between musicians and their equipment, monitoring has become a crucial factor in live performances. If you�re, say, the bass player and the lead guitarist is playing so loud that you can�t hear the drummer it will be totally impossible for you to keep good time and come in on. the right key with your harmony parts unless there is some way for you to monitor the total sound as it is being projected towards the audience. The same goes for every other member, of the group and this has led to the development of monitoring equipment which is just as sophisticated as the more primary electronics being used to get the sound out into the hall.

The ideal monitor set-up is a small speaker, pointed back at each musician, which feeds him or her the total signal being played by the group in a balanced fashion. Thus he or she can hear what the audience is hearing and make any adjustments needed to make sure that voice and instrument are in-tune and on the beat. Usually the monitor set-up only approaches this ideal — one or two speakers are used to supply the entire group with a sound sample. This is fine and will work well if you understand the basic principles involved in the monitoring procedure.

Once you have set-up your equipment — amps and pa system — you need to install your monitor. The first consideration is where the sound from the mpnitor is coming from. Most groups usually take the signal out of the audio mixer (they have outputs especially designed for this) and then run it into a special monitor amp and then on to the monitor speakers. This is fine if you�re miking the amps and drums as well as the voices so that you get a total mix. If the pa is only carrying the voices the monitor will be less effective since it will only give you an indication of the vocals and you may still have problems hearing the rhythms being laid down by the instruments. If your pa is voice only, you may want to install a small mixer to your monitor amp and take the voice signals from the pa but also mike such crucial rhythm sources as the bass drum, snare, and bass guitar so those signals can be included in the total monitor sound sample.

Another major problem that most bands experience when using monitors is the potential for feedback in the monitor system. Because the monitor speakers are pointing back towards the group there is every possibility that sound coming back out of the monitors will then be picked up by the mikes and re-amplified, the end result of which is a howling noise created by this continuous loop of speaker-amp-mike-ampspeaker. To counter this it is necessary to turn down the volume on the monitors, which often makes them inaudible and defeats the purpose of having them onstage in the first place. The only real way to eliminate this problem is to use highly directional mikes (known as uni-directional mikes) which have a high degree of rejection from the sides and rear — meaning that only when you�re speaking directly into the front end will your voice be picked up.

The Peavey Monitor System — an ideal monitor set-up for hearing what you�re doing onstage.

One of the several musical instrument companies which has begun to concentrate on the problem of high quality monitors for rock is Peavey Electronics (P.O. Box 5315, Meridian, Mississippi, 39301). They have developed their professional Monitor System which has 130 watts of power to provide enough force to drive the monitor to adequate-levels. In addition the monitor amp head on the Peavey unit has both high and low equalization controls plus a �sweep filter� both which allow you to control and thus eliminate feedback to a great degree or completely — depending on how much care goes into setting up the rest of your system.

Peavey includes two monitor speakers with their system, each with a heavy duty 12 inch speaker and a hyperpolic horn to deal with the treble end. Each of the speaker cabinets are constructed with legs which allow the user to tilt the speakers to obtain the best possible angle of projection (this is more important than it seems since monitors must be tilted up at the players from floor level).

Often the monitor is the last thing a band will think about and invest money in. This really is a serious mistake and you should consider your monitoring system on the same level as your pa system — if you don�t you�re going to run into problems. Also, you should avoid trying to cope by building a home-made monitor. The speaker cabinets of monitors and the speakers they contain must be tailored to the job they have to do and home-made units will probably present more problems than the time and labor is worth. If you�re stuck for a monitor and haven�t got the bread to immediately invest in a system such as Peavey is making, the only real solution is to use guitar amp speakers (medium sized, one or two 12 inch speakers per cabinet) until you can get the right equipment to do the job properly, jp

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