in ear monitoring

[martinbass7750]

Hi Folks,

In ear monitoring has been discussed in many threads, but I'm starting anther one for some advice on headphone types and to find out how others set their IEM's up.

I have an AKG wireless system which I've used in previous bands where we had everything going through the desk and a sound engineer to set my levels.

My current band uses the PA for vocals only.

I don't get on with ear plugs - I have some ACS customs, but I can't hear enough of by bass when I use them, so generally end up taking one out part way through a gig.

So I want to use my IEM to give me decent bass level, and also my own vocals mixed in, then some way to get the rest of the band in to the mix.

I've read on here in the past that someone used shure phones with the foam pads, which apparently gave enough bleed through for the rest of the band, then just the bass and vocal fed into the IEM.

Anyone doing this? Any thoughts or other suggestions?

I have a pair of shure's, but one side is very distorted so I need to buy new earphones, so suggestions there would be appreciated too - I guess up to £200 would be my price guide.

I can't remember the shure model i have, but I paid about £130 on-line 3 years ago.

I've been looking on-line at the shure SE425, also the Sennheiser IE8 (which seems appealing as the bass level can be adjusted).

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Martin

Edited November 13, 2011 by martinbass7750

[Monckyman]

I use the Shure E5s mainly because a lot of bands I worked with used them. They are the earlier dual driver version of the SE425s.
I like them a lot, they give a very crisp definition but with a full bottom end.
I`ve used them with drummers and vocalists and they were great for both.
As to tips, the foams are OK, but can irritate the ear if they`re in for a few hours,and they isolate a little too well for drummers who tend to like a little ambient sound getting in so I would recommend the Xmas tree rubber tips (EATFL) for comfort and reasonable isolation.
The easiest way to get a mix for your ears without an engineer is to split whatever inputs you want,ie: kik snr hats bass keys,guit, vox 1 ,2, into a small 8 chan mixer via a passive "Y" split cable x 8
Then a budget 8 way loom into your mini desk (mackie,Peavey,even the dreaded behringer),and take the stereo output from that into your in ear transmitter.
If you just want a general mix with one or two lines mixable, then set up an aux mix on your main mixer,make sure it`s PRE fade and send that to your mixer and just Y split your bass and vox, giving you 4 inputs to mix.
You probably have a few points you can take your bass signal anyway, amp D.I,pedal D.I,pre-amp out,FX out,tuner out etc.
Sounds a faff, but once you have your mix up, it shouldn`t take two minutes to set it up.
MM