In Ear monitoring On stage

[gilmour]

I was just reading through another Topic about the Pros and Cons of pracising with Headphones and someone mentioned using in ear monitoring on stage (Ped I think?)

I'm really keen to know if anyone has experience of this and how this works for you, how you might go about setting this up etc.

I dep. in a Bhangra band and the Dhol drummers are so so loud that even through one of those Ampeg Beasts (not a fan of Ampeg so I couldn't tell you the make or model) I have difficulty hearing myself on stage. As a Dep. I have to play through the other bassists spec'd backline so have no option to change it. However I know that front of house the soud engineer will be able to bring my level right up.

Any experiences or hints about how to use and set up in ear monitoring greatley recieved.

Thanks

R

[Cantdosleepy]

Bhangra? Sweet!

Sorry, can't help

[P-T-P]

I use IEMs. A bit strange at first but love them to bits right now.

I currently am using a set of Shure E3c phones and one of these [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_tie16st_863mhz.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_tie16st_863mhz.htm[/url]

I was previously using an old db Technologies wireless unit which died on me on Saturday night hence I used the spare T.Bone one. The db unit had slightly better low endresponse but the T.Bone is a far cleaner sound with a lot less compression hiss and I really liked it and for the cash I don't think you can go wrong.

To feed it you'll either need a monitor mix tailored to you or a FOH mix going into a small (2 channel) mixer with the other channel being a feed from your bass. This would then go into the transmitter and away you go.

It takes a bit of getting used to. You need to get a good seal when you put the phones in as that's key to good bass reproduction. I found the foam tips to be the most comfortable to wear, but they have very good sound isolation which can make conversation on stage a bit tricky and leave you feeling a bit odd when you finish a song to what seems like muted applause. A couple of ambient mics added to the monitor mix can help with this.

I find that our dtummer's (un-nic'd) kit cuts through the isolation and/or bleeds just enough into his vocal mic that I hear him at a nice level. Similarly, so long as my amp is kicking out enough, I can feel it's presence through the floor and that makes the whole thing work. It took 5 gigs or so to be comfortable wearing them, 10 or so to get the mix working nicely for me and now, as I said, I wouldn't be without them and am considering investing in a high-end system and getting moulds made.

[ped]

Just seen this! I will post tmozzer!

ta
ped

[Kaiu]

Hi just to add to whats already been said,

When we play, everything is mic'ed up, so its relatively easy for me. The sound engineer just switches out my floor monitor, with my in ear tranciever. I often find using floor monitors aswell as the in-ears just 'muddies' up the sound in my ears.

I am currently getting some custom moulds made, which will hopefully block out most of the external noise so I can have my mix exactly how I want it. This is only probably worth it if you have everything on stage mic'ed up.

it can take a while to get used to.In fact our singer never could get used to it, so he plays with one ear in, the other out. So he can hear his vocals but also hear the rest of the band onstage. I wouldn't advise this, as one of the main advantages of in-ears is ear protection, and by only having one in, not only are you not protecting one of your ears, but often you have to turn the volume on your reciever right up in order to hear your in-ear mix clearly through only one ear. But having said that, if you don't find it too loud, I suppose it could be a solution.

I don't have any experience with the DIY approach, i.e the two channel mixer, but it definately makes sense.

Edited September 19, 2007 by Kaiu

[TPJ]

I use my Eymotic ER6 earplugs for several groups. I get a send from the monitor or main desk to my little Yamaha mixer and add the bass from my amp and blend as needed. This works well in my gigs because I don't really move around on stage. You'd want wireless if your moving around alot. It really is great because good IEM's block out the stage noise so you get a really nice clear mix at a very safe volume.

[obbm]

Can anyone recommmend or not any particular wireless hardware.

There seem to be a lot of systems out there now and trying to decide which one to go for could be a bit of a minefield.

[dudewheresmybass]

we use sennheiser ew300 IEM systems - superb quality and easily available!
TBH i wouldn't use anything else

[P-T-P]

[quote name='obbm' post='62533' date='Sep 19 2007, 10:31 AM']Can anyone recommmend or not any particular wireless hardware.

There seem to be a lot of systems out there now and trying to decide which one to go for could be a bit of a minefield.[/quote]

db Technologies claim to have better bass response than others and of the two in-ear systems I tried, that is true, although the db unit was really old and didn't provide the cleanest sound. When the db finally gave up the ghost I switched to the T.Bone unit which our guitarist couldn't get on with and I think it's fantastic, best overall mix I've had since making the switch - signal was clean as a whistle and much more alive because of it and I didn't notice any major loss of bottom end. In fact, I kicked my octave on at for a bit of a mess around while guitarist was off on one his solos and the sound was massive.

There are occasional one second or so dropouts, haven't worked out the cause of these yet, doesn't seem to be a volume peak issue, could be though as there is in-built protection of some kind. I'm sure it's something I'll get to the bottom of fairly quickly and if not it really is not the end of the world. For £160 I don't think you can go wrong really.

Well you can go wrong if you don't get some decent phones to use I suppose!