Mods: This should probably be in Cafe Society since it’s about music. Feel free to move it.
While watching the Grammy’s tonight I noticed that almost all of the performers were wearing ear monitors. I believe the point of a monitor is so that you can hear yourself clearly while on the stage, but perhaps it serves multiple purposes.
Not that long ago most musicians used large speakers on the stage facing them (some people still use them), but most vocalists it seems have switched to monitors that fit in their ears, which presumably work better than the speakers do. If nothing else it gives them the freedom to wandering away from where their monitor happens to be.
Forgetting for a moment those bands who use prerecorded tracks and are hearing that music in their ears, what exactly are artists listening to during their live performance? Just their own amplified voice? Their voice and the instrument they are playing? Their voice and what the entire band is playing, or something else? Someone please fight my ignorance.
Whatever they ask the staff to put in their monitor. This will usually have all the instruments, including, of course, themselves but the mix is personalized. During sound check, the sound engineer and performers will usually try to work out what’s best.
Here’s a pro talking about mixing for in-ear monitoring:
BTW, the video turns into an advertisement for Waves products, but the intro should give you an idea.
The question has been answered - they are usually listening to a mix of themselves and the rest of the musicians. For bigger gigs, there will be a dedicated sound engineer working the monitor mix. For smaller gigs, it’ll be the front of house engineer. Some mixers and in-ear monitoring systems have shifted to iPad / iPhone apps to control them, the idea being that the musicians can easily set up their own preferred mix.
I saw Barenaked Ladies once, and they obviously had feedback or something in the monitor mix - they all reached up and pulled out their earpieces at the same time.
I have no actual experience, but I bet, particularly for something like the Grammy’s, the Stage Manager can also give them directions through the earpiece.
And I understand that drummers sometimes have a metronome click-track pumped through their earpiece, to keep them on rhythm (I guess this is kind of like a pre-recorded track, except that nobody but the drummer hears it).