IEM for vox only?

[kesslari]

First - I'd love for there to be a sticky on IEM's here. Just a suggestion. I've seen so many threads on them the few times I've looked. And I've looked a few times...

Here's our situation. Our singers and drummer use IEM's. Instruments are using amps. Up until now we've had both monitors (for the rest of us) and their IEMs, which are, I believe, powered by a Gentner box that is used for hearing-impaired students. I always play with Etymotic ER20's, so I'm used to having something in my ears.

So - I need some ambient sound (for the instruments) and earbuds for the vox. I'm guessing that having the earbuds in loosely, or the volume relatively low, so that I can also hear the instruments, would be the way to go, but I've read the "never play with a single earbud" instruction here so I'm asking for some specific guidance.

Suggestions on the earbuds, and in general for this type of mixed application?

Gracias amigos. Tonite may be my last gig with a monitor.

 

[Wes Whitmore]

I like ambient noise, and like hearing a little bit of stage volume mixed with hearing the pa system. I also like the isolation. I ended up poking a real small hole into the replaceable tripple flange buds. This allows you to gain back some ambient sound. It also kills the bottom end, and some output of the iems. You can actually get some real bad wine in your ears if you listen to your bass through your iems and crank it. The porting keeps the definition, but drops out most of the bass. I can still tell what note I am playing and singing. Its been working for me. I keep isolation, and I can replace the ported tips anytime.
Wes

 

[steveksux]

I picked up a small mixer, some mics on sale, and mic what I need. Its a bit of a pain, but gets good results.

Soundcraft notebook 124: $80
2 EV PL84 mics: $39 ea
1 EV PL44 mic: $28

Also can take the tape out feed from the board and get pretty good recordings of the band.

With only 1 mic for the drums, i put it right next to bass drum, very close, so off axis response picks that up, and point the mic relatively towards the snare, it picks up high hat, one cymbal. Good enough. Mic by keys, mic by guitar, feed from main mixer for vocals.

All this is assuming its a small band that doesn't run anything through the PA but vocals. Anything run through the board you don't need to mic, obviously.

If you didn't play bass, loose buds might work fine for you. Loose buds will lose all the bass response. So if you go that way, don't bother getting good IEMs that can provide decent bass.

Its a pain, but advantages of IEM are worth it. No ringing ears, you can hear the keys/guitar that's way on the opposite side of the stage, vocals are nice and clear.

Randy