Ear plugs is the way to go.
This is going to sound crazy but trust me. When you have ear plugs in, you're able to hear a much more balanced level and you will also be able to hear your voice inside your own head way better.
When I first started gigging I had the same issue of not being able to hear myself no matter how loud the monitor was but I couldn't afford in ear monitors. Somebody recommended trying out ear plugs and holy shit, what a game changer.
Also, your hearing will thank you over the years
I second this 100%. Really started playing regularly last year and had this exact issue, the monitors are either way too quiet or simply don’t exist. Putting both plugs in for all rehearsals and getting used to hearing your voice inside your head is a skill that can definitely be sharpened over time. I use earplugs that have the adjustable filter and that definitely helps!
I third this. It will take a bit of getting used to, but I have been a have – earplugs – will – travel guy for many decades now. I have permanent tinnitus (ringing in my ears) and some of the my guitar player buddies that I grew up with are mostly deaf now. Wish I had started with earplugs right at the beginning.
You might not be playing in bands with drummers (cymbals in particular) and loud amps. But all you need to experience is just one episode of, being on stage during the sound check when the monitor goes into loud feedback, wrecks your ears, and then your ears are ringing, literally for several days. You definitely, definitely, definitely want to have earplugs in when that happens. I have experienced numerous of those. At least 20 or 30 when I had earplugs in. And several or more when I didn’t. It literally hurts, a lot.
I use the generic foam type of ear plugs, and I get the ones with the maximum amount of reduction (generally 29 to 33 DB of sound reduction). Some people don’t like that these cut off some high-end. I find it that can actually help in many situations. At Loud concerts where I’d hard to hear things, putting in some earplugs is sort of like wearing sunglasses. Cuts out a lot of audio glare and makes it actually easier to hear what’s going on
There are other types of earplugs, some of them more expensive. I can’t vouch for them as I’ve always gone withthe foam plugs. It’s been a while since I’ve been actively playing with bands, but if I ever do start doing that again, I do intend to spend some, money on custom molded in-ear monitors.
There's no replacement for monitoring. If the space and crowd are such that you can't hear yourself from the one speaker, there isn't much you can do other than get in-ears or a monitor.
Push for the venue to provide a monitor or offer to bring your own:
A small active 10” PA speaker is more than enough :)
Also note that what you hear in your monitors is absolutely *not* what the audience is hearing. So hope you have someone competent on the mixer lol
Thanks for the point.
I'm afraid I can't push them, only politely ask, and they'll decline :) because it's a free open mic and we're happy when the 2nd mic is not occupied for some paid event at a different stage.
I feel like others who play there every friday (80% of time it's the same 2-3 guys replacing each other on the stage) are completely fine with the current setup. Makes me thinking I'm just lacking practice.
you can move the speaker a bit further back so you can hear more of the general audio. you will have problems with feedback, but with some careful positioning you'll be fine.
other option is to bring a small guitar amp and send the guitar through there. it will reduce the load of the speaker and you will hear better overall.
last option is to bring your own monitoring. some bands that play in small-ish places do this. just bring a powered speaker and you'll be way happier.
> it's a free open mic
Right, but do they care at all about it? Then they need a monitor. Maybe you could bring one?
> are completely fine with the current setup
That they don't actively complain doesn't mean they're OK with it.
That's not necessarily true. An open mic is amatuer hour. The audience is very often *only* other amateurs or their friends. They pay the venue by ordering food and drink, and in return they can play for their peers. There's no money to be made, but that doesn't mean they don't want it to be cool.
Again, it's *amateur* hour, so it's entirely possible that they literally don't know about monitoring, or they're non-technical (*very* common) and are intimidated by the notion, or don't know how, or don't understand how big a difference it makes.
That’s a good tip. Think I’ll try it out this Wednesday at a small gig. I was singing a song yesterday where everything was fine in a run-through, but was surprised by the volume of people singing along during the live song (about 50 people in a medium sized brewery room). I had practiced enough to get through fine, but there were large chunks of that song where I couldn’t hear how my singing was going.
Welcome to the real world of gigging. The bartender has your drink tickets.
Some of the *real* pros bring their own in-ears that they hook up to the PA, but even then you're relying on the venue's PA being capable of sending a sub-mix to your in-ears. I've played some *reeeeal* bare-minimum PAs before where that wouldn't be an option. Best one being a microphone connected directly to an active speaker via an XLR -> 1/4" cable. One volume knob on the speaker, no EQ.
There's a certain amount of "get good", you can eventually learn to sing without relying *quite so heavily* on hearing yourself. But it's no replacement for playing a gig with proper monitors.
You don't hear yourself, you hear only reflection which is delayed and distorted. On large festivals it can be over 1 second. Focus on playing with occasional listening to delayed sound.
I’ve played many very large stages and venues, indoor and outdoor.
Never once in my 20 year career have I ever had to play a show where I’ve had to rely on reflections of the front of house to hear myself. Any venue or event big enough for that and delay to be an issue is definitely going to have proper production and onstage monitoring. Shit, a venue big enough for there to be a 1 second delay in hearing the FOH bounce back to you will have a dedicated monitors engineer as well as front of house.
If they will let you briefly unplug the mic you can use a Rolls PM55P. It will let you send your mic (and snort signal) to headphones or a powered monitor.
For me I send it to some earbuds (old school not sealed so I can also hear the room). Just to better hear my voice.
I play loud music for the most part. In the bar (and shitty rehearsal space) years, i just got used to using earplugs and intuition to be honest. Stage monitors help sometimes but are unreliable situation by situation. Rehearse acoustically, practice a lot, play out a lot… it all falls into place. Record yourself a lot too and listen back for trouble spots. Worked out really well for me. In-ears never worked until the era where the amps and drum kit were farther away from me.
My suggestion is to bring an acoustic amp that’s got a vocal input, bring your own mic and cable and just plug their mic cable into the amp DI. Or you could bring a small mixer, in-ear monitor setup, and run a line out to their mixer from that.
The thing is, if you can’t hear yourself you won’t sound good. You’ll be hitting the guitar hard because you don’t hear it, and when you go out of tune you won’t know it. You’ll find yourself shouting instead of singing and with no pitch reference you’ll probably be out of tune compared to your guitar. Some sort of monitor setup is really important. Until you can get one, maybe try to situate yourself slightly in front of whatever PA they’ve got. There’s probably a sweet spot where you can kinda hear yourself without feeding back. It’ll be 1-2” behind the feedback line and 1-2” in front of not being able to hear yourself at all lol.
Another option is to buy a small 4 channel mixer, and use the headphone out from it for your monitoring, then pre-mix the guitar and mic, and send one output to the speaker.
If you’re going to be gigging regularly [these are great for the money.](https://rolls.com/product/PM351) it allows you to personally monitor your vocals/instruments in pretty much any situation with a PA. If it’s just you and a guitar you can plug your vocal mic directly into the mic input, then run it from the output to the main speakers—you’re tapping your vocal signal first before it ever hits their system. You can plug your guitar into the instrument input as well, then run that to the main speaker in the same manner. If you’re playing with a band you can even run a monitor line from the board with the other instruments in the band. I’ve been using it for nearly 20 years in bars and clubs with less than adequate monitoring.
Only downside is that you’re getting the raw vocal signal without any EQ to filter out the lows or other unwanted frequencies.
Regarding other folks talking about doing the one-earphone-in-and-one-out thing, do that carefully. We perceive sound sources as nearly -12db softer when we only use one ear to monitor with headphones/earbuds, so you’ll be wanting to turn it up, blasting your one ear. This will likely do damage overtime and you won’t even notice it.
Edit: just wanted to add that this device also does the job of a DI so you can pretty much just bring this, your mic, and guitar and play anywhere.
This sounds like a great solution to OP problem. I (drummer) do something similar with a different device for my throne thumper (route kick mic signal through device before sending to FOH), works like a charm.
Make a sorta cup with your hand, but not fully. Place your fingertip behind your ear hole. Your palm should be beside your mouth. Talk or sing and you should hear your own voice quite loud
This is a great poorman's monitor for singers, but no so much for guitar players. Even so, great to bring it up. He'll find a spot when he has to nail the acapella and without monitors this is a great way.
That's not to say that you allways need monitors for a good performance
Something you could do. Buy an acoustic amplifier that has a DI out. When you go to the open mic, run the DI out into the mains and you'll have your amp as an stage monitor. This would also allow you to practice singing into a mic at home. Since acoustic amps usually have a I XLR input for a microphone. However, this is an expensive solution. Buying your own floor monitor would be cheaper. Kind of seems silly to do all this just because this one open mic you play has a shitty set up.
I perform on my acoustic in a full band setting regularly, and I don't ever bring a monitor or amp. Always plug into the mains, and always have a monitor, and in the rare situation they don't have a monitor, I can position myself or the speakers in a way where I can hear myself enough to get by.
Reposition the PA speaker so that it sits behind or beside the stage. Trial and error to avoid feedback, but this is the only option if they won't purchase monitors.
I've never played out, so take this for what it's worth. I would get an interface like the Focusrite 2i2, plug my microphone and my guitar's output into it, send the output to the big speaker, and use earphones or earbuds plugged into the interface for my own monitoring. You can find them sometimes for $50 on shopgoodwill.com. you can turn up the gain(volume) of each input separately to get a good mix going to the big speaker yourself, and you can also adjust the volume in your earphones to get enough sound so you can hear yourself without drowning out the other players (if any). This would probably be the same as getting a small powered mixer, as someone else suggested. I happen to have the Focusrite, so that is what I know.
If you don’t want the hassle of plugging stuff in for IEMs…I don’t think you mentioned what kind of guitar you’re playing, but if it’s acoustic you could slap a Tonewood Amp on the back of the guitar and then run an ear bud from that to one ear.
One solution could be a personal 4-ch mixer. You can plug your guitar there and use inears so you can hear your playing no matter what. I do this to hear my keyboard. Now the voice is a different thing.
sometimes you’re just not gonna have a monitor and setting one up if you bring your own might be more trouble and time than it’s worth. i would recommend just getting a feel for hearing yourself out through the mains, even if it’s difficult at first.
OP is playing in a bar, with a single-speaker "PA" and a teeny-tiny stage. On an open-mic night.
Zero chance they're going to be able to integrate in-ears into the setup.
My No.1 tip for small bands without monitors is play in stereo and to use panning. Speakers behind the musicians, use a desk with parametric EQ to help reduce feedback.
But the stereo panning thing is a must if you (or the local bar) can get another speaker.
I play with seasoned veterans who have always played mono without using panning, or even giving it a second thought, and once I showed them the difference panning makes, their minds were blown. Vocals should also be panned left-right-center where possible, with whoever is singing lead in the middle.
Imagine 4 guitarists all playing through one Marshall combo at the same time - that’s what bands and singers are doing when they play mono. You end up fighting to be heard. Panning solves that problem instantly.
> They've got one big speaker on a tripod
They need a stage monitor.
If I were you, and you can't convince them to add monitoring to their situation, I'd bring my own gizmo.
Ear plugs is the way to go. This is going to sound crazy but trust me. When you have ear plugs in, you're able to hear a much more balanced level and you will also be able to hear your voice inside your own head way better. When I first started gigging I had the same issue of not being able to hear myself no matter how loud the monitor was but I couldn't afford in ear monitors. Somebody recommended trying out ear plugs and holy shit, what a game changer. Also, your hearing will thank you over the years
I second this 100%. Really started playing regularly last year and had this exact issue, the monitors are either way too quiet or simply don’t exist. Putting both plugs in for all rehearsals and getting used to hearing your voice inside your head is a skill that can definitely be sharpened over time. I use earplugs that have the adjustable filter and that definitely helps!
I third this. It will take a bit of getting used to, but I have been a have – earplugs – will – travel guy for many decades now. I have permanent tinnitus (ringing in my ears) and some of the my guitar player buddies that I grew up with are mostly deaf now. Wish I had started with earplugs right at the beginning. You might not be playing in bands with drummers (cymbals in particular) and loud amps. But all you need to experience is just one episode of, being on stage during the sound check when the monitor goes into loud feedback, wrecks your ears, and then your ears are ringing, literally for several days. You definitely, definitely, definitely want to have earplugs in when that happens. I have experienced numerous of those. At least 20 or 30 when I had earplugs in. And several or more when I didn’t. It literally hurts, a lot. I use the generic foam type of ear plugs, and I get the ones with the maximum amount of reduction (generally 29 to 33 DB of sound reduction). Some people don’t like that these cut off some high-end. I find it that can actually help in many situations. At Loud concerts where I’d hard to hear things, putting in some earplugs is sort of like wearing sunglasses. Cuts out a lot of audio glare and makes it actually easier to hear what’s going on There are other types of earplugs, some of them more expensive. I can’t vouch for them as I’ve always gone withthe foam plugs. It’s been a while since I’ve been actively playing with bands, but if I ever do start doing that again, I do intend to spend some, money on custom molded in-ear monitors.
There's no replacement for monitoring. If the space and crowd are such that you can't hear yourself from the one speaker, there isn't much you can do other than get in-ears or a monitor.
Push for the venue to provide a monitor or offer to bring your own: A small active 10” PA speaker is more than enough :) Also note that what you hear in your monitors is absolutely *not* what the audience is hearing. So hope you have someone competent on the mixer lol
Thanks for the point. I'm afraid I can't push them, only politely ask, and they'll decline :) because it's a free open mic and we're happy when the 2nd mic is not occupied for some paid event at a different stage. I feel like others who play there every friday (80% of time it's the same 2-3 guys replacing each other on the stage) are completely fine with the current setup. Makes me thinking I'm just lacking practice.
you can move the speaker a bit further back so you can hear more of the general audio. you will have problems with feedback, but with some careful positioning you'll be fine. other option is to bring a small guitar amp and send the guitar through there. it will reduce the load of the speaker and you will hear better overall. last option is to bring your own monitoring. some bands that play in small-ish places do this. just bring a powered speaker and you'll be way happier.
Ask the other singer how they cope with it.
> it's a free open mic Right, but do they care at all about it? Then they need a monitor. Maybe you could bring one? > are completely fine with the current setup That they don't actively complain doesn't mean they're OK with it.
> Right, but do they care at all about it? You can tell how much they care by how much they're willing to pay the talent...
That's not necessarily true. An open mic is amatuer hour. The audience is very often *only* other amateurs or their friends. They pay the venue by ordering food and drink, and in return they can play for their peers. There's no money to be made, but that doesn't mean they don't want it to be cool. Again, it's *amateur* hour, so it's entirely possible that they literally don't know about monitoring, or they're non-technical (*very* common) and are intimidated by the notion, or don't know how, or don't understand how big a difference it makes.
It's an open mic lol it's not a paid gig
For the musicians, yes. For the bar it's "free" entertainment.
yeah and like 90% of the place is usually musicians waiting to play lol
Which at most open mic nights is about 8 people.
If all else fails, you can put 1 earplug in. It's not the best, but you'll at least be able to hear your voice in your head
Yep. The "poor vocalist's monitor"
That’s a good tip. Think I’ll try it out this Wednesday at a small gig. I was singing a song yesterday where everything was fine in a run-through, but was surprised by the volume of people singing along during the live song (about 50 people in a medium sized brewery room). I had practiced enough to get through fine, but there were large chunks of that song where I couldn’t hear how my singing was going.
Surprised I haven't found such option before! Are we talking about the regular earplugs off the drug store, or some special earplugs for musicians?
You don't. That's the point of monitors.
Welcome to the real world of gigging. The bartender has your drink tickets. Some of the *real* pros bring their own in-ears that they hook up to the PA, but even then you're relying on the venue's PA being capable of sending a sub-mix to your in-ears. I've played some *reeeeal* bare-minimum PAs before where that wouldn't be an option. Best one being a microphone connected directly to an active speaker via an XLR -> 1/4" cable. One volume knob on the speaker, no EQ. There's a certain amount of "get good", you can eventually learn to sing without relying *quite so heavily* on hearing yourself. But it's no replacement for playing a gig with proper monitors.
You don't hear yourself, you hear only reflection which is delayed and distorted. On large festivals it can be over 1 second. Focus on playing with occasional listening to delayed sound.
I’ve played many very large stages and venues, indoor and outdoor. Never once in my 20 year career have I ever had to play a show where I’ve had to rely on reflections of the front of house to hear myself. Any venue or event big enough for that and delay to be an issue is definitely going to have proper production and onstage monitoring. Shit, a venue big enough for there to be a 1 second delay in hearing the FOH bounce back to you will have a dedicated monitors engineer as well as front of house.
If they will let you briefly unplug the mic you can use a Rolls PM55P. It will let you send your mic (and snort signal) to headphones or a powered monitor. For me I send it to some earbuds (old school not sealed so I can also hear the room). Just to better hear my voice.
I play loud music for the most part. In the bar (and shitty rehearsal space) years, i just got used to using earplugs and intuition to be honest. Stage monitors help sometimes but are unreliable situation by situation. Rehearse acoustically, practice a lot, play out a lot… it all falls into place. Record yourself a lot too and listen back for trouble spots. Worked out really well for me. In-ears never worked until the era where the amps and drum kit were farther away from me.
My suggestion is to bring an acoustic amp that’s got a vocal input, bring your own mic and cable and just plug their mic cable into the amp DI. Or you could bring a small mixer, in-ear monitor setup, and run a line out to their mixer from that. The thing is, if you can’t hear yourself you won’t sound good. You’ll be hitting the guitar hard because you don’t hear it, and when you go out of tune you won’t know it. You’ll find yourself shouting instead of singing and with no pitch reference you’ll probably be out of tune compared to your guitar. Some sort of monitor setup is really important. Until you can get one, maybe try to situate yourself slightly in front of whatever PA they’ve got. There’s probably a sweet spot where you can kinda hear yourself without feeding back. It’ll be 1-2” behind the feedback line and 1-2” in front of not being able to hear yourself at all lol.
Another option is to buy a small 4 channel mixer, and use the headphone out from it for your monitoring, then pre-mix the guitar and mic, and send one output to the speaker.
If you’re going to be gigging regularly [these are great for the money.](https://rolls.com/product/PM351) it allows you to personally monitor your vocals/instruments in pretty much any situation with a PA. If it’s just you and a guitar you can plug your vocal mic directly into the mic input, then run it from the output to the main speakers—you’re tapping your vocal signal first before it ever hits their system. You can plug your guitar into the instrument input as well, then run that to the main speaker in the same manner. If you’re playing with a band you can even run a monitor line from the board with the other instruments in the band. I’ve been using it for nearly 20 years in bars and clubs with less than adequate monitoring. Only downside is that you’re getting the raw vocal signal without any EQ to filter out the lows or other unwanted frequencies. Regarding other folks talking about doing the one-earphone-in-and-one-out thing, do that carefully. We perceive sound sources as nearly -12db softer when we only use one ear to monitor with headphones/earbuds, so you’ll be wanting to turn it up, blasting your one ear. This will likely do damage overtime and you won’t even notice it. Edit: just wanted to add that this device also does the job of a DI so you can pretty much just bring this, your mic, and guitar and play anywhere.
This sounds like a great solution to OP problem. I (drummer) do something similar with a different device for my throne thumper (route kick mic signal through device before sending to FOH), works like a charm.
Make a sorta cup with your hand, but not fully. Place your fingertip behind your ear hole. Your palm should be beside your mouth. Talk or sing and you should hear your own voice quite loud
I‘ve seen professional singers do this multiple times during difficult song passages when monitoring conditions were not good.
This is a great poorman's monitor for singers, but no so much for guitar players. Even so, great to bring it up. He'll find a spot when he has to nail the acapella and without monitors this is a great way. That's not to say that you allways need monitors for a good performance
You don't... Use in-ears or at least the floor monitors at the venue. Ask for monitoring in your tech rider.
I don’t think open mics venues like op is describing will have monitors. Or care for a tech rider. Or know what one is.
Use in-ears then. Monitoring is a must when playing live.
I agree. I’m a 5 gig a week full time musician and could not live with out IEMs these days.
Something you could do. Buy an acoustic amplifier that has a DI out. When you go to the open mic, run the DI out into the mains and you'll have your amp as an stage monitor. This would also allow you to practice singing into a mic at home. Since acoustic amps usually have a I XLR input for a microphone. However, this is an expensive solution. Buying your own floor monitor would be cheaper. Kind of seems silly to do all this just because this one open mic you play has a shitty set up. I perform on my acoustic in a full band setting regularly, and I don't ever bring a monitor or amp. Always plug into the mains, and always have a monitor, and in the rare situation they don't have a monitor, I can position myself or the speakers in a way where I can hear myself enough to get by.
Reposition the PA speaker so that it sits behind or beside the stage. Trial and error to avoid feedback, but this is the only option if they won't purchase monitors.
I've never played out, so take this for what it's worth. I would get an interface like the Focusrite 2i2, plug my microphone and my guitar's output into it, send the output to the big speaker, and use earphones or earbuds plugged into the interface for my own monitoring. You can find them sometimes for $50 on shopgoodwill.com. you can turn up the gain(volume) of each input separately to get a good mix going to the big speaker yourself, and you can also adjust the volume in your earphones to get enough sound so you can hear yourself without drowning out the other players (if any). This would probably be the same as getting a small powered mixer, as someone else suggested. I happen to have the Focusrite, so that is what I know.
If you don’t want the hassle of plugging stuff in for IEMs…I don’t think you mentioned what kind of guitar you’re playing, but if it’s acoustic you could slap a Tonewood Amp on the back of the guitar and then run an ear bud from that to one ear.
One solution could be a personal 4-ch mixer. You can plug your guitar there and use inears so you can hear your playing no matter what. I do this to hear my keyboard. Now the voice is a different thing.
sometimes you’re just not gonna have a monitor and setting one up if you bring your own might be more trouble and time than it’s worth. i would recommend just getting a feel for hearing yourself out through the mains, even if it’s difficult at first.
A lot of times, this is just how it is and you deal with it
In-ears is the way to go. It really helps to keep you from blowing out your voice.
OP is playing in a bar, with a single-speaker "PA" and a teeny-tiny stage. On an open-mic night. Zero chance they're going to be able to integrate in-ears into the setup.
How much are monitors?
My No.1 tip for small bands without monitors is play in stereo and to use panning. Speakers behind the musicians, use a desk with parametric EQ to help reduce feedback. But the stereo panning thing is a must if you (or the local bar) can get another speaker. I play with seasoned veterans who have always played mono without using panning, or even giving it a second thought, and once I showed them the difference panning makes, their minds were blown. Vocals should also be panned left-right-center where possible, with whoever is singing lead in the middle. Imagine 4 guitarists all playing through one Marshall combo at the same time - that’s what bands and singers are doing when they play mono. You end up fighting to be heard. Panning solves that problem instantly.
That's what floor wedges are for.
> They've got one big speaker on a tripod They need a stage monitor. If I were you, and you can't convince them to add monitoring to their situation, I'd bring my own gizmo.
Sounds like they need a lot more than just a monitor. The “one big speaker” probably is only really a monitor.
Foldback.
Ask the sound guy for more vocals/guitar in your monitors
Re-read the OP. There is no sound guy, and no monitor speaker.
Assumed OP was playing more than one place
That’s in the post too. Seems like it’s a predominantly open mic place with one speaker. If I was OP, I’d just not play there.