Question about playing live with a bad monitor mix in San Salvador

I did a small set last weekend at a bar in San Salvador and the monitor was basically useless. Like I could barely hear my kicks over the crowd noise and ended up playing 3 or 4 bars off beat during a transition. Has anyone else dealt with terrible stage sound and found a cheap fix like in-ears under $100 that actually work?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaretrivera21d ago

Ugh, that's rough. Bad monitors in a loud bar are basically the worst, you're just flying blind up there. For under $100, the KZ ZS10 Pro in-ears are probably your best bet, a lot of drummers I know use them as cheap backups. You'll still need to spend like 15 bucks on a basic foam eartip upgrade to really block out the crowd noise though, that's the real trick. Just plugging them straight into the headphone jack on your amp or mixer is a huge step up from nothing, at least you'll hear the click and your own bleed.

aaron67721d ago

Ha, yeah nothing says "professional musician" like shoving cheap foam in your ears just to survive the gig. I swear half the battle is just making sure you don't accidentally play to a completely different tempo than the rest of the band.