Cabs vs. In ear

If you know that you will always have everyone going through the PA and you will be able to get a usable in-ear mix then I guess you could consider it....

Personally though, I've not yet had the privilege of playing in situations where such things can be relied upon. Sometimes the cab is just as a personal monitor and sometimes it's the only source of bass for the room! Therefore, I anticipate having my cabs for sometime to come.

Wulf

 

Well, the majority of concerts that I have been to here in Iceland they do have a cab onstage which is miked up. Most of the bigger bands have the cabs onstage and use the feed from the mike into their in ear thingy.

I have not tried both, but I prefer to have the cab onstage, preferably behind me. I just have to feel the thump in my body from it.

 

I use a cab and an in-ear monitor. The reasons are:

1. I like the sound of my amp, my better than just a DI box.

2. Reliability, I had the IEM die on me during a show once and if I didn't have my cab, I wouldn't have been able to hear myself at all.

3. The others in the band don't all use IEMs, so they also rely on my cab.


So I wouldn't get rid of my cab anytime soon, but I still go with the IEMs, hope that helps.

 

I've found people either love in-ears or HATE them. The ones that do use em usually have a seperate mic that picks up ambient gig noises such as the crowd and the rest of the band, then sends it through the in-ears. They're trying to remove that stale isolated feeling.

I've never tried em so don't read too much into what I say. Maybe hire a set and try em out before you buy anything.

 

I actually like that isolated sound. I wouldn't want any ambient club sounds. That's the reason I have the in ears, to remove everything but the music. The mics on stage pick up enough club noise for me. I would also say try out a set and see what you think before you use them, it did take me a little while to get used to them.

 

We're taking the 'band in a rack' approach presently, and it's working out quite well.
It did take a little getting used to, but I'm comfortable with it now. I'm not playing bass, but I can hear it quite well with the earbuds we use. The bassist is running a couple preamps, but no cabs. It sounds great thru the PA.

At first, I didn't like the earbuds. I felt isolated, and there can be a lot of tweaking involved. But I've finally gotten used to them, and gotten the levels right, and it really is a good way to hear what you need to hear and ignore what you don't. Sometimes I'll run it mono and pop one side out if I'm feeling particularly lonely.

There are signal routing issues that may arise which aren't a problem if you're just using a cab for stage monitoring. But I think the space you save, the less things you have to carry, and the lower stage volume all make up for a few more cables and maybe a headphone amp or 2.

 

Be careful when doing that, you tend to run the one side that's in your ear at dangerous levels that you may not realize when on stage.

 

fortunately we have no stage volume, so I don't run the headphone amp loud at all. Very low levels in the earbuds, so it's pretty safe. Good reminder though!

That's one of the best things about this band, they've figured out how to do this with practically no on-stage volume at all. I guess the guitar cab is the only thing, and it's close-miked and run at a low volume. My ears have never felt better.