To monitor or not to monitor

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DJKLEEN

DJKLEEN

DJ Extraordinaire
Mar 31, 2016
652
708
Lafayette la
what is the general consensus on bringing 1 or two extra speakers to the gig. For dj monitoring! Do you use them or not! I know all that I need is two Small speakers for midrange and highs,,,,most of us between or behind the cabinets get most of the spl from low end of the spectrum.

I have not been using them lately, but this last show I did. I used my audioengine A5's and I enjoyed the show much more with the imaging from the monitors! It is only an extra 5 minutes to set up,,,power,,,,patch,,,,and setup. Added on top of lights and sound and all of the other stuff that I bring along, sometimes that is 5 minutes too much.

So what say you,,,, Monitor or not,,,,if so what do you use?
 
I find that at most mobile gigs, I don't need a monitor. In a club or an environment where you can't hear the mains very clearly, or there is delay from the mains to my ears, the monitor is very important.
 
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For me it depends on how far from my booth my speakers are. If each speaker is more than 15 feet away, I like to use my Alto TX-8's for monitors. Like Taso, I place them on their sides on the floor, facing at an upward angle.


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I think if you are creating music (creative mixing), you need something to help you hear the mix .. some like headphones, some prefer monitors. But fundamentally, neither tell you what is coming out of the mains, so walking around when one can, is still needed. I only bring monitors if there are singers (including karaoke).
 
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Monitors are for singers and I've been known to belt out a song once in a while. When DJing I use headphones because it conveys that I'm a "real DJ" and it's the way I learned to mix. I have had those jobs where the mains are kind of far off and a monitor wouldn't hurt. I use an old Eon 10 on the floor when a monitor is needed.
 
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Why would you use a monitor instead of headphones? Back in the days Cavemen walked the earth when I was in the clubs occasionally I had a monitor in the booth but I found it more an annoyance than help
 
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For cueing, phones are fine. For mixing, phones can work as well - the issue becomes when you are performing where you have sounds bouncing around - or there is a lag from when it leaves the driver til it gets to your ear, your mix can be off - the monitor fixes that because you hear what's coming out of the speakers as it's coming out.
 
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Jeff Romard said:
Why would you use a monitor instead of headphones? Back in the days Cavemen walked the earth when I was in the clubs occasionally I had a monitor in the booth but I found it more an annoyance than help
Click to expand...

I use headphones most of the time, but they make my ears hot.[emoji1] The monitors, while not sounding exactly like what the audience hears, give me a pretty good indication as to what my system is sounding like to the audience when I can't walk out onto the dance floor to listen. If the track isn't loud enough or too loud, I can determine it better by listening to the monitors than I can through the headphones. Everything sounds loud through the headphones[emoji1], but also the monitors don't require a cord to be attached to my head, so I can move about freely.[emoji4]


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Phones, and the more they block outside noise, the better. The dancers never hear what I'm listening to - searching, queuing, synching, etc.. I do have to drop them around my neck constantly to hear the main output - none of it is in my phones. There are DJ's who can have some of the main mix in their phones, or just one ear, I'm not one of them. I can't chew gum and solve world hunger at the same time, what can I say!!
 
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There are times where a monitor is helpful. I've had gigs where I was using a house system that was flown in the middle of the room. Caused a funky delay at the booth so in that (rare) case, a nearfield monitor was very helpful. In the vast majority of the cases however, I don't see the need to justify the effort to event hook an extra speaker up.
 
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Jeff Romard said:
Why would you use a monitor instead of headphones? Back in the days Cavemen walked the earth when I was in the clubs occasionally I had a monitor in the booth but I found it more an annoyance than help
Click to expand...

I listen to my cue in my headphone, and try to listen to the main mix in the monitor. Even when I can control the Master/Cue mixture, I have a hard time bringing in a song if I can't hear the main mix clearly from one ear.
 
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If you are particular about the mixing you present at your events a monitor really does help. That monitor allows me to hear the levels of the two tracks when they're overlapped and so that it sounds right... especially if you're taking out lows or mids from one song and bringing them in from another track, or having a 8-16 beat loop playing over the vocals of a track. It's very hard to tell those little details while mixing unless the mains are directly behind you. Can you get away without one... perhaps... but if you're looking to showcase the best product possible to your clients, taking 2 minutes to run a audio and power wire shouldn't even be a question.
 
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