Questions concerning in ear monitors (mostly vocals)

[Stinsok]

I have never used them, but it seems to be the way to go for me. It'd be nice not to have to carry wedges and use another power amp, etc. I have some questions on how to set them up and what to expect.

Do you use wireless?

Do you run your bass through them? Do you have one in your ear and leave the other out (to hear the ambient noise?)

I have a Mackie 1604 coming my way-can I use the different AUX sends for individual monitor mixes? How is your setup run?

I can't afford top of the line stuff. What is the most practical/affordable setup?

[KeithPas]

I use an in-ear monitor system in church and most of the time I pull the thing out because I hate it for hearing other instruments but I do like it for hearing vocals. Sorry, I do not know how to set them up, I just show up and plug in.

[Fnord Explorer]

The quality you get will decide what you get out of them. If you have your own PA that you lug around, it's worth the investment in some good ones. I use a cheap Nady one for a click track but it's not useful for much else (bass sounds especially horrible in them). If you play through a lot of house systems, it's probably not worth the hassle either because it requires more prep time and soundmen aren't generally very cooperative.

[On The DL]

I use an aviom system 2-6hrs a day, 5 days a week. They're pricey, probably $5k for a whole setup, but you have 16 channels on your individual mixer which can be saved along with several other options-it's an incredible system. The one we use on the road is fairly small, relatively easy to travel with. We have "y" splitters, so any instrument or mic comes to our splitter and one signal goes to us and one goes to FOH. That way, our signal isn't affected by the gains or eq from the FOH house board. In fact, everything can be muted FOH and we still get our normal signal. Then the 8 monitor signals are distributed via cat5 cables to individual 16 ch mixers which can be daisy chained.

We use to use the furmans (don't remember the model) and those work fine too. There's definitely a quality difference, but avioms are digital and like most gear, you get what you pay for. There are several other options out there as well, but in-ear monitors are definitely easier on your hearing that wedges.

One thing I would say to anyone who uses an in-ear monitor system is that both in-ears should always be used. If you use one ear in and one ear out, you will slowly loose your hearing with the difference in volume.