In this guide: What monitors are for · Wedges · Placement and angle · How many mixes · Building a mix · Stage volume · In-ears instead · Personal mixers · Ringing out and limiters · Soundcheck order · Common mistakes · FAQ

What a monitor system is actually for

A monitor system exists so each performer can hear the things they cannot hear well enough acoustically. It is not a scaled-down front-of-house mix, and treating it as one is why so many stages sound like a fight. Front of house balances everything for an audience metres away. A monitor mix is a reference for one person standing inside the band, already hearing the drums, the backline and their own instrument at close range.

Most of the mix is already in the room, so the wedge only supplies what is missing: usually a voice, a pitch reference or a timing reference. The best monitor mix is usually the emptiest one that works. Anything you add masks what matters and raises the level on stage, which costs gain before feedback on every open microphone.

Wedges: why a monitor is not a PA box on its side

A floor wedge is a purpose-built object. The sloped baffle lets it sit low and out of sightlines while firing up at a standing performer’s head, and manufacturers publish the angle: Martin Audio quote 27° for the 12″ LE100 and 30° for the 15″ LE200. It decides where the coverage lands, which is why a PA cabinet tipped onto its back rarely works as well as it should.

Coaxial or conventional two-way

In a conventional two-way box the LF driver and HF horn sit apart, so the crossover region shifts as you move. At front-of-house distances that barely matters, but on a wedge the listener is a metre or two away and moves around while performing, which turns driver separation into a wandering tonal balance. A coaxial monitor puts the HF unit on the same axis as the LF cone, so the sound leaves from one point and the balance holds. NEXO’s P+ Series wedges are built on exactly this idea — see our P+ Series guide.

Better designs also shape the coverage. The LE100 is quoted at 110° narrowing to 60° horizontally with 60° vertical, widest directly above the monitor and narrowing further back, so level and balance hold as the singer steps away. That gives a stable sound in a small area and less energy everywhere else, and everywhere else is where the microphones are.

Why a monitor is voiced differently

• It is a near-field box. Heard at head height by one or two people, so it needs none of the throw a room box needs.
• Intelligibility beats impact. Excess low end muddles the kit and leaks into every vocal microphone, making the stage feel louder without making anything clearer.
• Smooth beats flattering. Feedback starts at the highest peak in the loop, so every response peak is a note you will notch out later, and coverage that stays where you aimed it keeps energy out of the microphones beside it. See our guide to stopping feedback.

Passive wedges take one amplifier channel and an internal crossover. Some switch: the LE200 runs passive on an internal 1.6 kHz crossover, or bi-amp with separate amplifier channels and external processing. Powered wedges put amplifier, DSP and preset in the box, at the cost of mains at every position (our active versus passive guide covers that, with drive processing in system processors). A point-source cabinet can do monitor duty when it is built for it: Martin Audio describe the Blackline XP12 as a “symmetrical multi-angle enclosure for PA or stage monitor use” with a rotatable 80° by 50° horn. Check the data first, because plenty of cabinets have no usable monitor angle. Stock sits in stage monitors and active point source.

Angle, distance and the microphone’s dead side

Where the wedge goes matters more than what you do to it afterwards. One to one and a half metres in front of the performer, angled up at their head rather than their knees, is the working range. Closer and small movements cause big level changes, so they keep asking for more; further and you need more level for the same result. Aiming at the chest is the classic error: the performer hears boomy mush, asks for more top, and you get a bright wedge pointed at nobody’s ears.

The microphone pattern then decides where the wedge is allowed to be, because putting the loudspeaker in a microphone’s angle of least sensitivity is free rejection.

So a supercardioid with one wedge dead centre rings before a cardioid in the same position: the pattern that rejects the sides better rejects straight behind worse. Moving a wedge half a metre often beats three notch filters. Pattern choice is covered in our live microphone guide.

How many monitor mixes does a band actually need?

Count conflicting requirements, not musicians. A singer needs their own voice above everything; a drummer needs bass and kick for time. Those cannot share a mix, so that band needs two. Add a player on a click and you need three.

Each independent mix consumes a mix bus, and a stereo mix consumes two or one linked stereo bus. The current Allen & Heath Qu range gives 38 inputs to mix and 12 mixes, SQ has 12 configurable stereo mix buses, and Avantis has 42 configurable buses as standard or 56 with dPack. The same pool also feeds matrix outs, fills, in-ear transmitters and a recording feed. Our Qu versus SQ versus Avantis comparison has the detail, and desks are in digital mixing consoles.

A shared mix is a legitimate decision: one well-kept mix for three singers standing together beats three mixes nobody has time to look after. Split a mix when needs genuinely conflict, not because the desk has spare buses.

Building a monitor mix in practice

Start from silence, not from a copy of the front-of-house mix. Ask the performer what they cannot hear, put that in on its own until it is comfortable, then let them play. Most monitor mixes are finished there. When you do add more, add one thing at a time and say what you changed.

• Vocals. Their own voice first, clearly above everything, then a pitch reference such as keys or acoustic guitar, then a little kick for time if asked. Keep electric guitars out of the vocal wedge: they sit in the voice’s midrange, and a masked singer just pushes harder.
• Drummer. Bass first for pitch and time, then kick if the kit is quiet, screened or on mesh heads, then lead vocal for cues. A drummer who can hear the bass player locks the band together.
• Bass and guitars. Kick drum for the bass player, and their own instrument only if they stand away from their cabinet. Guitarists need vocals and a little kick, almost never more guitar.
• Keys and tracks. Their own instrument, the lead vocal, and the click if there is one, isolated so it never leaks into an open microphone.

Why “more me” spirals

Push one fader for each performer in turn and every mix ends up 6 dB hotter with an identical internal balance: the stage is louder, every microphone has less gain before feedback, and nobody got the change they asked for. The answer is subtractive. When someone wants more of themselves, turn down whatever is masking them.

Touch the master send only when a whole mix is too quiet. Two habits help: high-pass the monitor sends so wedges are not pushing sub energy into the drum microphones, and leave reverb out unless a singer asks, because it blurs the cues they are listening for. Correct input gain makes all of it easier, which is our gain staging guide.

Most monitor problems are stage volume problems

If the backline is louder than the wedges, every mix has to climb over it and the loudest thing on stage sets the level of everything else. Engineers spend hours on monitor EQ for a problem solved by moving one guitar amplifier.

• Right-sized amplification. A big valve head kept at a whisper sounds worse than a smaller amplifier working properly.
• Modelling and direct feeds. Replacing a loud cabinet with a modeller or DI removes the loudest item on many stages and makes in-ear monitoring far easier.
• Cabinet placement. Cabinets on the floor fire at knees, so the player hears little and turns up. Tilt them up, raise them on a riser or angle them across the stage, and they hear themselves at head height at a lower level.
• Quieter drums and layout. Shields, mesh heads and lighter sticks buy headroom, though a fully enclosed kit means the drummer needs monitoring of their own. Keep loud sources off-axis from open microphones.

In-ears instead of wedges: what changes

In-ear monitoring is not a different sort of speaker, it changes the physics of the stage. The monitor loudspeaker leaves the feedback loop entirely, so the gain you were protecting comes back. The stage goes quiet, front of house hears the band rather than the band plus six wedges, and the mix travels from a club to a large hall unchanged. Sealed earphones also attenuate the stage: Sennheiser quote up to 26 dB of passive attenuation for the IE 100 PRO with the medium foam adapters, and Shure quote up to 37 dB of isolation for the SE215.

The honest downsides. That isolation cuts performers off from the room, so you need ambience microphones or they feel like they are playing in a cupboard. Cost scales per person, wireless brings UK licensing into it, and a bad mix going straight into a sealed ear canal is worse than a bad wedge mix. Our in-ear monitor systems guide covers systems, earphones and licensing, with hardware in IEMs and wireless monitoring systems.

Personal monitor mixers: let performers do it themselves

The other way out of the monitor argument is to stop being the person who makes every adjustment. A personal monitor mixer sends the same channels to every stage position and lets each performer build their own balance: you send channels once and get your mix buses back.

Allen & Heath’s ME system is the common example on the desks most UK bands and churches own. The ME-500 is a 16-channel personal mixer with level and pan per channel, powered over PoE or mains. The ME-1 handles up to 40 sources with 16 assignable backlit keys, 16 user presets, an OLED screen, a built-in ambient microphone and a master three-band EQ and limiter, and it picks up channel names from SQ and Avantis. The ME-U hub powers and feeds up to ten mixers over PoE and takes a Dante or MADI card so it can run from other consoles. Stock is in personal mixers and IP controllers.

This is where a stage needs network cabling rather than audio cabling: a Cat5e or Cat6 run to each monitor position, a PoE hub or switch in the rack, locking connectors on stage, and the network treated as show-critical. Our audio networking guide covers Dante, switches and where a network earns its place over an analogue multicore. Performers with control can build a bad mix, so leave sensible presets and a limiter in place.

Ringing out wedges safely and setting a limiter

Every wedge and microphone combination is its own loop with its own peaks, so ring out each mix separately, with the microphone that will actually be used, in the position it will be in, and with nobody holding it.

1. Set input gain properly, then bring the monitor send up slowly until the mix just begins to ring.
2. Identify the note and apply a narrow cut on the monitor mix EQ, not the input channel, so front of house keeps the full microphone.
3. Recover the lost level, push the send again and repeat. Three or four notches is healthy; on your eighth, the wedge is in the wrong place or the wrong microphone is in front of it.
4. Stop while it still sounds good, then pull the send back 3 dB to 6 dB, which absorbs a singer cupping the microphone or a room filling with people.
5. Do not move the wedge or the stand afterwards, because the tuning belongs to that geometry. Our feedback guide covers filter widths and what suppressors can and cannot do.

A soundcheck order that actually works

1. Line check every input quietly on your own: signal, phantom power where needed, gain set.
2. Set backline and drum levels before touching a monitor, at the volume the band intends to perform at, and get a rough front-of-house balance from a full song.
3. Ring out the wedges, or check in-ear feeds and limiters, before anyone has asked for anything.
4. Build monitor mixes one performer at a time, starting with drums and bass, then guitars and keys.
5. Do vocal wedges last, with the singer on the microphone and in the position they will use.
6. Play a whole song and change nothing unless asked, then make one change at a time.
7. Save the scene or show file, and tape the wedge positions so tomorrow starts here.

Common mistakes

• The front-of-house mix in the wedges. It holds what the performer can already hear and buries the one thing they cannot.
• A wedge aimed into the live side of the microphone. Worst with supercardioid and hypercardioid vocal microphones, where the null is not at 180°.
• Everyone louder than everyone else. Answer “more me” by turning something down, or the stage climbs 6 dB an hour for no change in balance.
• No monitor limiter. Cheap insurance against the one moment nobody can react to, and essential on in-ear feeds.
• Moving wedges after ringing out. The notches were tuned for a geometry that no longer exists.
• Fixing the monitors instead of the stage. If the guitar amplifier is the loudest thing in the room, no monitor EQ will help.

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Frequently asked questions

How many monitor mixes does a band need?

Count the conflicting requirements. A four-piece usually needs two, one for the vocal front line and one for the drummer. Five or six players with keys, horns or a click need three or four, and a band on stereo in-ears needs two buses each.

Where should I place a stage monitor wedge?

One to one and a half metres in front of the performer, angled up at their head, and sitting in the microphone’s angle of least sensitivity: directly in front of the singer for a cardioid, or two wedges either side of centre for a supercardioid, whose nulls are around 126° off-axis.

Wedges or in-ears: which should we buy?

In-ears take the monitor loudspeaker out of the feedback loop, quieten the stage and give the same mix in every venue, but they cost more per person, need ambience microphones and bring licensing in if they are wireless. Many bands settle on in-ears for the singers and a wedge for the drummer.

What should be in a drummer’s monitor mix?

Bass first for pitch and time, then kick if the kit is quiet or screened, then lead vocal for cues. Keep it short: a drummer already hears the loudest instrument on stage acoustically.

Do I need a limiter on my monitor mixes?

Yes, and it is essential on in-ear feeds. A limiter on each monitor output, at a ceiling you have chosen, protects performers from a dropped microphone, a patch error or a feedback squeal. A wedge’s internal limiter protects the driver, not the person.