Show dictionary · Audio
Wedge
Also: floor monitor · foldback (UK)
A wedge is a floor monitor: a loudspeaker in a wedge-shaped cabinet lying at a performer’s feet, angled up so they hear their mix. Each wedge (or pair) carries a mix built specifically for that position by the monitor engineer.
In practice
Wedges fight physics all night: they must be loud enough to beat the backline and PA spill, while pointing more or less at the vocal mic they are trying not to re-enter. Ringing out wedges (finding and notching feedback frequencies during check) is a monitor-world rite.
In-ear monitors displaced wedges on many tours, but wedges persist by preference and pragmatism: some performers want moving air, festivals want stages that work without fitting ears, and a downstage pair of wedges still anchors a thousand club shows a night.
How you’ll hear it
"More vocal in the downstage wedges, and pull the guitar out of mix two entirely."
Related resources
Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.