Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

We also rely heavly on the vocal clues. Though some days I am cluless.
As my guitar parts frequently jump in or fade out of the songs I think I,d be lost without monitors. It sounds like the whole topic may come down to musical / arrangement styles, venues and personal preferences.

No backup singers here... They follow my cues and stay with the vocal. I watch for signals that something is wrong, else it's slow and steady.

If I drop somewhere in the middle, they will end up pausing for 1 measure and try to come in at the top of the next measure. Some of our worst foul ups have come from me getting lost. Some really weird and tasty stuff has also been as a result of me dropping it somewhere in the middle and us coming back together. (look out ad-lib coming your way)

(I never get a recording of that type of good stuff, though. Only the garbage that we didn't really want or need.)

How can you not use monitors?

I’ve been in bands off and on for 35 years and have found that a good monitor that’s mixed right is the way to go. I like JBL the best, but there are plenty of other good choices.

I think for the best stage sound in the local clubs, you play with lower watt tube amps for the tone, have enough bus channels to be able to mix each monitor to ‘taste’, EQ and enough clean power to get a good clean sound in your monitors; the same holds true for the mains.

I like the stage sound to sound as close as possible to the front of the house sound. It really sux when you are ‘feeling’ it on stage only to find out the house is hearing something different than what you are. The lower watt amps help with that as well, by cutting down on bleeding out into the house.

For those that like the ‘main’ sound over monitors, side-fill speakers with the mains out in front instead of behind you also sounds good when done right.

Slate1

I am suddenly feeling that. If the monitors are in the wrong position, you may as well not even have them.

Same I bet with the mains. If the mains are in where they should be, it might even be advantageous not to be using monitors.

Back to the drawing board.. lol

When I set up monitors and mains, I try to aim the center of the sonic cone to center body mass of the band and audience. Like patterning a shotgun. Although the last time we played outdoors we got complaints from several miles down the road.
I turned it up! I did not want them to miss out on my lead coming up.

I've played both ways. I prefer monitors, but if you haven't tried it without them, put the mains behind you, against the wall with the guitar/bass amps, aim them slightly toward center and you'll hear everything just fine. Surprisingly enough, feedback isn't as much of a problem as you may think, if you don't aim the mains too far toward center. Just make sure a mic is not pointed straight at them.

That said, I still like monitors better, and side fills are great but not many bands use them.

George, This is off topic but what kind of mixer are you guys using? I know you use some Carvin equipment and Im in the market for a powered mixer. That 12 channel Carvin might be the ticket for me. I was just wondering what you guys think of them. I noticed one model has a built in crossover with a sub out. Thats one of the best ideas Ive seen in a mixer. Anyway just curious.

Thanks in advance.

We are using the Carvin RX1200, and I love it. Its no bigger than the older Behringer we were using, Its in a Roadwarrior Case that seems bullet proof. Four amps 300watts each with seperate 7 band EQ. ah crap if I keep on I am going to sound like an add. But yes seems to be very versitile indeed. On hindsight as I purchased it as one of the packages, speakers, stands, cables, and mics. I should have purchased some of the higher end speakers. Looking forward to being able to afford to put a powered subwoofer (or two) on the system. Only drawback is it has too many adjustment options for an amiture like me but I am learning.

The main goals of any monitor or main PA speaker is to have a flat frequency response, high efficiency (plays louder with less power) and reliability.
Probably about 80% of all speaker/monitor/amplifier companies out there use Eminence speakers in their cabinets.
Eminence speakers have been around for over 40 years, handle more power then most and are very efficient (louder), not to mention are inexpensive and have decent frequency response.

Typically a company (Yamaha for example) specs out exactly what they want a speaker to do (power handling, frequency response etc.), they find that Eminence can meet all of the afore mentioned criteria and have them make as many units as they need with the final portion of the assembly being the attachment of the company brand sticker (Yamaha in this example) to the back of the magnet.
...Just to name a few that have Eminence speakers inside -SWR, some Peavey, Carvin, Bag End, Yamaha, Yorkville, some Marshall, Ampeg, Genz Benz, Klipsch, SWR, some EAW and on and on.

Basically there is not too much difference in overall tone and power handling from a typical Yamaha 12"/horn monitor to a Carvin cabinet of the same type, of course the price difference between these two is not too extreme however in some cases the price difference is vast,
for example when comparing a Yamaha cab to an EAW cab of the same type you'll find a large price difference but in reality both use plywood with speakers made by the same company-when you realize they are selling for different prices its easier to go for the cheaper item without feeling like the price difference reflects the difference in quality.

Weve found for our band using the DBX Rack Pack or whatever you call it that having a curve in out eq works better for our band. We tryed a few gigs setting everything flat down the middle and the mix and our monitors were just to harsh for our ears. Even audiences commented on the harshness. I know what happened is that we had the mids leveled out and then compensated the lows and highs by pushing them up. Mids can make or break your mix.


Weve gone to a Happy Face curve again and are happier than with the flat look.

I know this is an old thread but the best monitors Ive played on are EVs, they sounded even better than JBLs to my ears. My band owns 1x15 Peaveys and pushes them with a QSC 1450 amp, and they work good. They were cheap and the older ones we owned have held up well over the years.

I would think if different manufacturers demanded different specs from Eminence then there might be differences. The only way to know would be to open some speaker cabs and look at magnets and such. Doesnt matter much to me if they work.

Funny how much we vasilate. We have gone back to a fairly flat eq curve.
and it seems to sound cleaner that the smile I was using. Eric knows a lot about the different frequnces. He also can hear them, which at subtle changes is still a loss to my ears. But I am learning,
I now have the Yamaha monitors set up with the mains behind the band.
The left monitor has a feed to a wedge in front of Ray and Tony. The right monitor has a feed to Erics pole monitor. My amp is loud enough for my personal monitoring though I am going to add a sister cab in the near future.

I use all JBL for my sound reinforcing

I like the EV1502's but went to in ear wireless and I don't think I ever want to go back to a wedge (floor monitor).
I am using the Carvin PS 1000 in ear monitor system and Shure and Sinnhieser make great ones also with using these kind of monitors you have less vocal strain, they pick up every nuance of your voice so when you step up to the mike to sing in a four part vocal harmony there is no doubt which voice is yours, and the best thing about these systems is, are you ready for this? NO FEEDBACK in your monitor system none, zip, nada.
The one thing about these systems though is you want to concentrate on which earbuds you are using because you can pay as much for them as you do the entire system. I recomend multi-driver earbuds.