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Bad sounding bass in IEM's

#21
My church did the same thing several months ago along with backing and click tracks through Beringers. I can't afford IEMs so I use headphones. The sound is terrible but as long as it sounds good in front of the stage I'm OK with it. I'm old school and would prefer to use on stage monitors with my own amp behind me. The sound man always tells me I sound fine. As long as you sound good out in front of the stage then don't be too too concerned with how you sound in the OEMs. As long as you can hear what you are playing you will be fine.:whistle:
 
#22
s0c9 said:
I got SE215's with my PSM200.. they lasted about 5 mins in my ears. They are SINGLE driver buds and will distort quickly, can't handle deep bass and hasten ear fatigue.
I always recommend TRIPLE drivers for bassists, because you can control how MUCH BASS you get in your mix.
With single driver buds, everything is going thru ONE speaker, right next to your ear.. You boost the bass, and zzzzttt.. distortion.
Here's some additional comments I made on single drivers...
OTE vs. IEM

As suggested above.. plug into another unit and see if you get the same results. IF you do.. UPGRADE your buds.
If you get good clean sound from the other one, you have a wireless frequency issue..
My humble guess (from your description) is wireless interference. Pick a different frequency ??
Click to expand...

I can't confirm that the Bass sounds Bad through the SE215s! Im using them myself and they work perfectly with all Bass Volume levels.

Your tone through the iems will be, let's say dry, so having a unlikable tone might come from the Bass itself, or probably the d.i box or your amps' d.i. Out.

I'm using an Eden WT-550 head with a Studio grade D.I. Out and it gives a perfect Touch to my iems' and overall tone.

Your Sound guy should test your channel and get the frequencies right etc.
 
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#24
s0c9 said:
LOL, I'm THAT guy.. and I've long got rid of the PSM200 and the SE215's.. I now run Senn G3 and 1964 A8's.. I have ZERO issues with sound quality.. :)
Click to expand...
lolol Yeah haha

Anyway, i cant attest any issues with the budget Shure in ears, and all my Band is using those. I currently own a dual Sennheiser G3, works perfectly.

In my opinion, they eccellently deliver the frequency spectrum. Perfect choice for me and my Band :)
 
#25
I went through the same scenario once. My bass sounded great at home and absolutely horrible through the IEMs. I was told I was the problem and there was nothing that could be done to fix it.
Closer to the truth was the individual(s) running the board did not know how to set the gain and EQ the bass properly and for a while even had a high pass filter on that channel so no bass frequencies were passed through into the IEM mix.
That was really a terrible sounding mess. See if you can find someone experienced who knows how to EQ the individual channels on the board and the IEM mix. Hope you can get that fixed, it is hard to have to live with.
 
#26
Tedward said:
Thanks for the replies. We have changed frequencies and I don't think it's the buds, other band members are getting good clean sound and the distortion and hissing happens at low volume. So I don't think the buds are being over driven. I have noticed there some spots on the stage that I should stay away from. The interference is so bad that the sound is all garbled up so bad it just sounds like noise.

Is there a way to control the tone and dynamics or are those related to the distortion and hissing. The volume is the same if I lightly pluck the string or hit hard, making it hard to play the softer passages.

Tedward
Click to expand...

As others have noted, it sounds like you're having a channel problem. I wish I knew more about this, but it's still new to me and our sound guy takes care of our IEM issues. I know that I sometimes get what you describe above, and I immediately hand my pack over to him to find me a clear channel. And it gets fixed.

Here's other info that might be useful from the thread I started not too long ago Need IEM help. Again.
 
#28
This might be a bit off topic, but why don't people just use a nice set of headphones instead of fighting with earbuds? Is it just looks? It's not like they would fall off unless you were headbanging a ton or something. Because I guarantee that the bass in my Sony MDR7506's sounds awesome. I would imagine having an actual set of headphones would have to sound better than any earbuds no matter how pricey.
 
#29
Josh Kneisel said:
This might be a bit off topic, but why don't people just use a nice set of headphones instead of fighting with earbuds? Is it just looks? It's not like they would fall off unless you were headbanging a ton or something. Because I guarantee that the bass in my Sony MDR7506's sounds awesome. I would imagine having an actual set of headphones would have to sound better than any earbuds no matter how pricey.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure it's mostly looks and price. But high quality IEMs will rival any high quality headphones. They just seem to cost more to get that quality into a small package. .... IMO
 
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#30
The 215s used to be good, but they've restructured the product line and I think the 315s are really the place to start. However, I don't think multi-driver IEMs are an absolute necessity unless you absolutely need audiophile sound, and if your problem is distortion and hiss, that's not the result of /any/ model of Shure in-ears that I've ever worn, unless they're massively defective.
 
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#32
I've had several pairs of both custom and universal IEM's with 6-8 balanced armitures per IEM. The extra drivers (and respective crossovers) generally do a better job at dividing and conquering the frequency spectrum than a single driver. And with more authority. Some better than others depending on design of the crossovers, shape of the shell, porting, etc, etc.

All that being said, the single driver (albeit a rather special proprietary dynamic driver) Campfire Audio Vega IEM's kick the living crap out of all the multi-driver IEM's I've had. They excel at reproducing bass/sub-bass frequencies. Read the reviews. A little spendy, but they'll double for audiophile-quality listening as well. I use them with my Questyle QP1R DAP and it's portable audio bliss.
 
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#33
The performance of IEMs is highly dependent on how well the tips seal your ear canal. Try different ones to see if you can achieve a better seal.

On the other hand, if you look at in-ears, you'll realize that you need to step up to more top-line models if you want bass with tone.

I've tried a bunch of them - including really good ones - and none of them work very well for me because I have small-sized ear canals.

For myself, I would either use some headphones or find a small combo amp that will let me hear myself without being obnoxious.
 
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#34
I've had a long relationship with IEM's, and am currently running IEM only (no amp) on a weekly basis.

To anyone who says the SE215's aren't good enough- I wholeheartedly, fundamentally disagree. I used mine for the better part of 3 years with little to no issues, and they sounded just fine. They are absolute workhorses- nothing fancy, but they work, and get the job done. I tried a number of multi-driver ears, and none of them sounded better than the Shures, a lot of them sounded worse, and started distorting in the low end.

One thing I've learned... you can't cheap out on the wireless system you use. You can have the most expensive custom molded IEM's, but if your body pack is shoddy, your sound will suffer. Think of it as running a Crate head through a Glockenklang cabinet.

I'm currently running 64 Audio U4's (endorsing artist) and a Sennheiser G3 unit. Beautiful sound all around, and bulletproof reliability. Not cheap though.

To the OP- something is wrong in the signal chain. If some people are getting good sound, and others aren't, there's an obvious problem. I highly, highly, highly doubt it's an issue with your IEM's. I didn't catch what system your using to feed them, but I can't imagine multiple people having the same issue at the same time. As a former church player, I know that a lot of times, the sound engineers are volunteers, like a lot of the staff is. My bet is that something is wired wrong or set incorrectly, either at the board, or somewhere between the board and your body pack. Might even be something as simple as a bad cable, or three.
 
#36
I use the 64 Audio U4 IEM. They sound great. For bass you need multiple drivers.
Plus, they use the Apex system that helps with ear fatigue. Good stuff. Check them out. Its your ears, treat them with good buds!!!
 
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#37
This is almost certainly a problem downstream with the mixing board, effects used at the board, or at the audio distribution level when the signals go out to the ears or wireless. For better or for worse, church systems are often overly complicated and operated and maintained by non-professionals, so stuff is almost guaranteed to occur. In a properly set up system, you can use a set of $10 earbuds and it will still sound pretty good. I know I'm going against the grain here, but experience tells me that you don't need to spend 3-4 hundred bucks on new inears, which likely aren't the source of the problem, unless they're low quality single driver affairs. If you can plug your existing inears into an iPhone, iPad, or iPod and things sound good, your inears are likely not the issue.

Also, make sure you have fresh batteries in your wireless pack if you haven't already, and make sure all plugs/jacks/connectors involved are clean and well fitting.
 
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#38
Lot of good tips here for troubleshooting! I found even triple drivers didn't give me enough bass for live situations (Country band touring, worship, and pop gigs), so I went with the Westone UM Pro 50s (four drivers), which recently got slashed from $600 to around $400. Night and day difference for bass. Zero clipping or distortion, just fat, cleans lows, and a super precise mix across the rest of the frequency range. Every detail is right there, at least IME. What's really cool is how that company inearz can take custom audiologist molds and reshell certain brands and product lines. And even though the seal is around 90% there with the Westones, that's next for me. A tight, true seal and solid isolation makes a huge difference in the effectiveness of your IEMs as well. I'd recommend you visit comply.com and get some of their foams inserts if you think that might be an issue as well. I used them with some Shures and ATs, and they made a huge difference.
 
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