Foldback
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the record label, see Foldback Records
Foldback is the use of rear-facing loudspeakers on stage during a live music performance that is amplified with a public address system. This sound signal may be produced on the same mixing console as the main mix for the audience (called the 'front of house' mix), or there may be a separate sound engineer and mixing console on stage.
The provision of foldback (or monitor) speakers is essential to performers, because without a foldback system, the sound they would hear from front of house would be the reverberated reflections from the rear wall of the venue. The naturally-reflected sound is delayed and distorted.
A separate mixed signal is often routed to the foldback speakers, because the performers need to hear a mix without electronic effects such as echo and reverb (this is called a "dry mix") to stay in time and in tune with each other. On stages with poor or absent foldback mixes, vocalists may end up singing off-tune or out of time with the band.
The term foldback is also sometimes applied to 'in-ear monitoring' systems. However, these can also be described as 'artist's cue-mixes', as they' are generally set up for individual performers.
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[edit] Other Meanings
[edit] Power Supply Design
In power supply design, foldback is a function whereby a constant voltage power supply's output current is reduced under overload conditions, generally to maintain a constant power dissipation in a load. Most power supplies employ simple current-limiting protection; foldback goes one step further by reducing the output current limit linearly as output voltage increases, maintaining constant output power.
[edit] Current Limit Protection
The term "foldback" may also (though less commonly) be applied to less sophisticated current-limit protection in audio power amplifiers.
[edit] Hammond Organs
The term "foldback" is also used to describe an electrical design aspect of some Hammond Organs.
