Reverb. Helpful to singers, reverb contributes to their ability to hear their own pitch correctly at lower volumes.

Monitoring at lower volume further contributes singing on pitch.

Individual dedicated reverbs ensure that each singer can focus on their own voice without having to listen to others sharing their reverb.

Reverb sounds better in stereo than in mono. When short of console aux buses, dedicated reverbs can be driven by input channel direct outs.

Pre-built. Many performers don’t have patience for creating monitor mixes from scratch, adding and adjusting one input at a time.

Providing personal monitor mixes that are already assembled, with gain, high-pass filtering, EQ, compression and reverb adjusted for each input greatly improves confidence in both equipment and engineer.

Communication. In-ear monitors create on-stage communication challenges. Adding vocal mics to the input list that are dedicated to band and crew communication greatly improves the experience.

Whether it’s just a single spare mic that is muted at the house console and everyone on stage can hear, multiple stage mics, or even mics for backline crew to talk back to their performers, the ability to easily communicate on stage improves sound checks and shows.

An Optogate PB-05 can be used to hands-free mute these communication mics when not being used by performers.

Reference. Wireless analog stereo transmissions are subject to reduced separation and frequency response. Monitoring a wireless pack instead of cuing directly from the console provides a better representation of what performers are hearing, especially when using the same model of earphones.

Employing a spare pack for every mix isn’t practical, but using a wireless cue mix that can serve as a spare in a pinch solves two problems. The Shure PSM 1000 allows engineers to step through up to 20 mixes in the same frequency group from a single pack using its unique CueMode.

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Mark Frink is an independent engineer and free-lance tech writer.

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