Ok, so I'm a solo musician, and I play with a laptop. So having a monitor is pretty essential for me.
A few of the gigs I've played at recently didn't have monitors with their PA. These are small venues, to be fair. So up to now I've had to make do with the old 'turn the PA speaker so it's kinda facing you' trick, or wearing headphones, which restricts movement somewhat and also looks a little bit silly with two cans stuck to my head.
So i was thinking about what my next major musical investment would be (as you do) and I was thinking of maybe getting a single small monitor, just so I can have one to bring to my own gig and so I know exactly how to set up my sound how I like it.
There's the pros. The cons, however, are multiple:
1) cost
2) extra things to carry / convince friends to carry (i'm a solo musician, I also don't have a car at the moment)
but finally, and this is what I wanted your opinion on
3) do I really need a monitor? Is my experience of turning up to a gig without a monitor in site common? Or would this be a waste of time?
Any advice/random anecdotes would be most appreciated.
Cheers,
RB
use a shitty 15 watt guitar amp
.....
Good point. Hmm....
As someone who plays in a noisy rock band..
monitors are essential to us, as if we can't hear harmonies we're fucked. We've done it either without them or with shit stage mixing many times though.
A small monitor wouldn't cost you much, and they are about the size of a small amp. There's a possibility you could use one to your side or something like that. As yoblonski said, either that or try it with an amp, or bag a cheap second hand one locally.
any self respecting sound man
should supply monitors?
really.
you'd think
but some of the venues I've played at haven't really been 'venues' as such - its just some guy who turned up with a PA and is putting on a gig.
But there are venues, which promote themselves as such, which don't have monitors. I've been dogging the manager for ages to invest in some.
In anycase, if i want to play any more gigs, I'll have to figure out a monitoring system that works. I'll have a go with the guitar amp, I expect it'll make lots of noise since there'll be a laptop running through it, but I'll see what I can muster.
Cheers, folks xx
yeah it is surprising
how many 'decent' venues have little to no monitoring, our violin player struggles to hear herself all the time! but as someone said above; using a guitar amp would probably suffice.
yeah, guitar amp
sounds like good quick fix then, in the long term just get really good/big?
;)
Just get
some in the ear headphones and a long 3.5mm wire and sort out some way of making sure it does not get in the way like something crazy taping it to your back. Much cheaper and a lot less of a pain to carry around.
this sounds
most sensible - for the price of a bad monitor you could get some really good quality in-ear headphones.
that's not a bad idea, to be honest.
I'll have to look into that.
Gawd, you guys are the greatest! *hugs*