Personal Monitors

Ok, so I'm a week behind, but you'll forgive me, right?

So, last time we talked about in-ear monitors (IEMs); this week we'll look at another potential solution for "monitor terrorism," personal monitors.

These units often sit atop a mic stand and will reside somewhere in a 2-5 ft. radius around a musician. They offer a small speaker that emits a highly focused, narrow dispersion angle beam of audio energy that can really pack a wallop if you're not careful. The specific units I have experience with are the Mackie SRM150s. These are powered unit (no amp needed) that include a 3-channel mixer on-board for local inputs and mixing. They are very powerful and rarely need to be turned up much past halfway on the master volume knob, and offers a 3-channel master EQ, as well as 48V phantom power for the two XLR inputs (these also have a 1/4" input on the same connector), as well as an RCA stereo input on channel 3. Loop through capability allows for daisy-chaining multiple units together.

When we first got these units, we had been struggling with stage volume from the floor wedges for weeks as the musicians gradually kept asking for more and more volume. When we got these all hooked up and functioning, I took the house volume all the way down so I could listen to the difference. Believe me when I tell you, I was shocked as the sound reaching my ears was little more than what I would hear if the musicians were performing without any amplification at all. It was awesome!

Ok, now, to be realistic, we still occasionally have issues with these personal monitors still being too loud, but it's still light-years better than what we had with the floor wedges. This is why keeping an open line of communication with your musicians is so important. Just letting them know that the monitor volume is becoming an issue can let them know they need to dial their volumes back a little bit.

There are other options besides the Mackie unit, but I'll let you have the fun of doing that research. I would advise, however, that before committing to purchasing a particular unit of any kind, do your research on reviews, what kind of support does the company offer behind their products? Make sure you're buying from a reputable vendor-too many people have purchased hundreds, even thousands of dollars of merchandise and never saw what they bought because the company took their money and ran. So, spending a little bit more on a piece of equipment from a reputable company is worth it in the long run.