Show dictionary · Audio
Monitor Engineer
Also: mon engineer · monitor mixer
The monitor engineer mixes what the performers hear: an individual mix for each musician or presenter, delivered to wedges, sidefills, and in-ear monitors from a dedicated console at the side of the stage. Their audience is the people facing away from everyone else’s.
In practice
The job is one mix per person, all at once: the drummer’s ears, the singer’s wedges, the bassist’s more-me, each recallable per song. In-ear eras added RF management and the psychology of isolation; a performer sealed into ears trusts the monitor engineer with their entire experience of the show.
Communication is the core skill: reading faces mid-song, decoding hand signals (point up at a mic, then up), and building trust at soundcheck so show-time requests are rare and calm. FOH mixes for thousands; monitors mixes for eight critics standing very close.
How you’ll hear it
"Ask monitors for more click in mix 3 and less guitar in the sidefills."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.