CMU School of Drama


Friday, December 06, 2019

Hear At Last: A History Of Stage Monitoring

ProSoundWeb: It’s inconceivable nowadays that a band would perform a live show without stage monitors, but in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, that’s exactly what used to happen. In the early 1960s, sound systems were very basic and used primarily to amplify the vocals, and monitors had not yet been invented.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is a really great article to show just how much in the last 50 years the world of live sound has changed and been adapted to the needs of the artists. It is also a really good look at the history of the monitor mix and what precipitated these needed changes in live entertainment. Interesting was the part about why the Beatles stopped touring in the 60’s was because they couldn’t hear themselves and it caused issues with the performances. I think what the article could have done was gone into depth a bit more about the move from front fill and side fill speakers that allowed the band to hear themselves to more personal items such as in ear monitors. I know that a lot of bands still use front monitors in addition to the in ear monitors so I would have like to see more about that in this article. Overall it was a fascinating look at an often glanced over part of live sound.