JPJ

Same PA I was using on Saturday 2 x EV ZLX15P tops (nominally 500w 128dB) + 2 x Peavey Messenger Pro 15P bins (nominally 400w unknown spl).

Exactly where I am at with one of my bands. I now have four out of five of us using IEM’s and whilst my PA isn’t the worst, I ‘feel’ I would have to upgrade to cope with a truly silent stage.

Because I double between fretless bass and NS EUB in one of my bands, I have the rather excellent EBS Stanley Clarke preamp on my board which is a two-channel preamp pedal. I then have a TC Plethora x3 and Sansamp BDDI v2 in the parallel loop of the EBS to add either a little drive or whatever effects I feel I need (normally nothing more than a bit of chorus or reverb). I then take the DI from the EBS into the PA, and an in-ears mix from my desk (Behringer XR18). Works for me across my two regular gigs.

I’d be surprised if a single 15 can’t cut it for you. In my other band (the other one to the one you saw on Saturday night 😎) I’m gigging a 1x15 Neo equipped Ashdown combo rated at 400w so probably putting around 200w through the combo speaker and its more than enough, and drummer Alan is no shrinking violet when it comes to clattering his drums. I bought and then sold a 1x15 Ashdown Neo cab to pair with this as I found the combo on its own was more than enough for that band. Mind, I do trickle a bit of bass through the PA too.

My thoughts exactly - I was expecting a bass bar or similar plus a reinforcement under the bridge?

I can only add my praise for the support/advice I’ve received from Dave over the years.

The main advantage will be the isolation. I know when I went from squishy foam ear protection to ACS custom moulds it was a night and day difference. I can only imaging the same will apply with custom moulded IEM’s not to mention that these will probably have better/more drivers than the non-custom type. As to recording, it depends where your IEM signal is coming from. For example, on my X-Air XR18 desk I can monitor any aux out using the built-in headphone amp so it would be an easy stereo lead from the headphone out to computer to record the IEM mix.

One of the reasons I opted for the Vanderkley 2x12 I was using last night is that it passes your ‘door frame test’ and is (just) light enough for me to carry on my own easily. Nice single cab solution that I can enjoy as much as my old SWR Goliath 4x10 which definitely did not pass the door frame test.

Nothing in the first half (because I forgot to get them out of my gig bag before we started) ACS custom moulded protection with 17dB attenuation in the second half 😎

I think the key is to make sure you have an audience mic set up to help with the sense of isolation. When I first got my ACS hearing protection, I had that same feeling, remote from everything in the breaks between songs. I loved the fact that I could hear myself much better because of the reduced levels, but couldn’t get over the feeling of being uninvolved between songs. I’m dabbling more in the world of IEM and started like many of us with the KZ’s but I could never achieve total isolation with those, no matter what tips I used. I’m now using Sennheiser IE100’s on @warwickhunt’s recommendation, and the lower profile certainly suits my ears better, but the isolation still isn’t as good as a custom mould. So as a result, I generally only have my bass and a touch of vocals in my mix, and let the rest come through the lack of isolation. The upside is lower overall volume, and no ear fatigue. I’m sure my next step will be custom moulded in-ears but losing backline all together will need a serious FOH upgrade.

Fantastic work, really stunning, but could the problem with the epoxy be a reaction with the acetone you used for clean up?

Where we’re at is backline levels equal to acoustic drums. Drummer, singer/guitarist, fiddle player all use IEM to help them hear their instrument/voice clearer. Second guitarist/bv uses a floor wedge. I vary between backline only, hearing protection (ACS custom moulds) or IEM (Sennheiser 100’s and Xvive U4) depending on the gig. If the room means drums and particularly the cymbals are painfully loud then I’ll go either ACS or IEM. But as I mix the live sound from the side of the stage, I’m always nervous about going IEM and potentially missing something with the FOH mix. If we have the luxury of provided PA and engineer, then I’ll go IEM every time.

Don’t automatically blame the guy/girl on the desk. We had one local venue that doubled as a music venue and a nightclub. As a result the in-house rig was tuned and configured for the bottom end heavy dance music and travelling sound techs were not permitted to retune the rig. As a result, the louder the mix, the more dominant the bottom end. I was lucky (unlucky) enough to play there on more than one occasion and whilst the power of the bass was quite something, it was also so overpowering and as a result mushy. The venue became known for having a bad sound and only a few bands I saw there cracked it, generally by not pushing the master all the way to unity.