Personal monitoring of a drummer at a concert.
Each instrument on stage is picked up by the appropriate type of microphone or transducer. This whole pack goes to the sound engineer's console, is tuned in volume and frequency, and is issued into large speakers that transmit kilowatts of sound to the hall. The exceptions are small clubs, where there is enough sound of an unsound installation and, directly, combos.
So, the sound on the stage and the sound in the hall are completely different things. But every musician must hear his own part and the parts of the most important instruments for the smooth and harmonious playing of the team. For this, floor speakers are used, aimed at artists - monitors. Ideally, each band member has his own such column, in which the sound engineer "adds" the desired instrument. After all, we remember that each of them is sounded.
As a drummer, I'm interested in bass, rhythm guitar and vocals. There should be no excess in the monitor mix, it clogs the air and distracts from the well-coordinated playing with the guitar, bass, and accentuation of the vocal part. In this case, I do not add synths, guitar solos and backing vocals to the mix.
The vocalist needs to naturally hear his voice, guitar and bass in order to actually hit the notes. He will hear the drums and so, since our instrument is not quiet. And so on, every musician.
Why would a drummer need headphones, you ask?
Firstly, do not forget about the metronome, of course no one lets it into the hall, the drummer just listens to it in headphones. To prevent the monitor mix from breaking through the curtain of rattling cymbals, through the headphones directly into the sick brain, the wire from the drummer's monitor is plugged into one of the channels of a small mixer (the drummer's personal mixer), a click is fed into the other channel.
As a result, the drummer isolates himself quite well from the outside world with closed headphones, for example, Vic Firth SIH1 and "mixes" a loud click into his ears, the drums themselves (kick, snare and overheads), guitar, bass and vocals. At the concert, I can hear myself well, the click and the rest of the instruments go in the background, which just help to navigate the song and maintain the concert pitch and pitch. Here, in general, and all.
I will only note the equalization of the monitor mix. The metronome sound must be the ugliest you can find, it must cut through the mix! Mostly closed headphones cut off the high frequencies, so low frequencies in the monitor mix of guitars, bass and kicks can be cleaned up - they already pass through the headphones. This greatly increases the readability of the mix.
The above description of the drummer's concert work is not a panacea, but it allows you to play the concert smoothly and smoothly, without deafening.