Monitoring a Synthesizer

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Ben Anderson with Expert Village, and I'm here today to talk to you about monitoring your keyboard. Monitoring is very important because the keyboard, unlike many other instruments, is a computer and an electrical instrument, and, therefore, has no sound when it's originally being played, unlike a guitar. Whereas if the guitar isn't plugged in, it still has strings that will ring out if you play it. And you'll be able to hear them. So, monitoring is a very key thing in order to hear the sound that's coming out of your keyboard. There are many different things that you can use as monitors. For example, headphones can be used to plug straight into your keyboard so you can hear what you're actually playing. Another important way to monitor is an amplifier, like the one here. When using on stage, you can use an amplifier to be a monitor for yourself so that you can hear what you're playing, because oftentimes it's hard to hear what one is playing while on stage and everyone is playing their own instruments. Other monitors you can get are professional studio monitors. You can also go out and buy, for recording situations; you can set up two speakers so that you monitor the sound behind you, as shown behind me. In a live setting, having an amplifier on stage is very key for a keyboardist, because oftentimes, if you're not playing with an amplifier and having the sound person determining your sound levels, it's hard to be able to know what the sound is sounding like coming outside of the speakers if you can't hear it. Having an amplifier on stage, and plugging into that, will at least give you a good idea of what you really are hearing and will let you know how you're sounding and how loud you're going to sound, compared to not having a monitor at all. By having your own monitor or amplifier, you know, most players, we get used to the sound of our amplifier, of our monitor. So having a monitor on stage is really important because then you know--you'll know what sound you're going to be getting out of your amplifier, rather than playing the sound through a PA in a club. You don't know what those speakers are going to sound like. But you could always trust the sound of your own amplifier."