Complaints about using IEM's?
 

Hi, my band's been using IEM's and I've been leaving my bass rig at home for gigs.

After having bad sound at this last gig, I've gotten requests that I need to bring an amp on-stage.

Thoughts?

Requests from who? Why the bad sound? What's a stage amp supposed to solve in one stroke?

Does your preamp not provide the tone? Does the band want some bodily boomf on stage?

Bad sound onstage, or in the house?

The reason I ask is, I went through this for a few gigs with my band (all on IEMs) when I quit bringing an amp and started running my bass through a SansAmp to the board. But their issues were with not having the presence / rumble on stage... the house sound was not affected because we run everything through our own (good) P.A. and run our own sound. In fact, the house sound improved once we ditched the onstage bass amp. And when the rest of the band realized that was one less piece of gear to haul around and that it freed up more room onstage, they were sold.

My band runs an all IEM rig, no amps for anybody. The only reason I can think of (and we actually will eventually) to bring amps on stage is just so people in the front rows can get a good solid mix, as the PA speakers are off to the sides of the stage. Even then, I'll be building another Fearful cab, and we're just going to shoot out an even bass/guitar/vox mix. Otherwise, ain't nobody got time fo' dat.

We are all IEM but I almost always bring an amp so that I can feel it and some sound techs take my XLR and mic the cab and blend those signals for the PA's. I can run solo as I use a Sansamp Tech21 programmable and will do that in a really small venue. My guitarist has take to running two amps in a stereo setup recently so I need something to keep up!

We will be doing a couple big fests this summer with backline so I will only bring the Sansamp and we will see what happens.

The soundboard had 0 bass out of it, so the bass amp is so that they can feel the bass.

My stance is that if the bassist has come to terms with not feeling the bass, so can they.

We have our own P.A. with 2x18 sub cabinets so what I do is, whenever possible, set up the sub cabinets so they are in contact with stage. Or if it's a high enough stage, UNDER the stage.

That way some of the "thump" gets transferred to the stage and it helps the band feel like there's some bottom underneath everything even if there's no bass amp in the chain. And they get the actual bass notes through their IEMs.

My big complaint with IEMs live is the disconnect with the audience. I'm sure it works great if you're on a big stage or are Beyonce or whatever. The times we tried it in smaller clubs was a failure since i was in a very interactive band at the time. At practices, the IEMs were great. Everything sounded balanced, and no one's ears were ringing afterward.

I didn't mind the loss of tone or the loss of 'thump'. I just minded not being able to hear the crowd at all or being able to interact with them as much.

Very simple solution, put up 1 or 2 ambient mic's to pic up the crowd and pipe into your IEM board. Makes a world of difference....don't feel like you are in such a bubble.