I completely understand this approach. But you shouldn't be having these issues. It shouldn't be on you to throw money at a problem that is easily corrected with proper sound engineering.
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IEM issues, Can't hear myself
- Thread starter jbrooks
- Start date
I completely understand this approach. But you shouldn't be having these issues. It shouldn't be on you to throw money at a problem that is easily corrected with proper sound engineering.
I play church gigs every weekend, and can hear myself very well all the time. There is a learning curve, but the most important thing is; If you can't hear yourself, you don't start by turning yourself up. You start by turning other things down. If you can hear yourself OK when noone else is playing, then your signal is fine, stop trying to adjust your gear - you just need to learn to mix (or ask for what you need for a good mix), starting with what I just said.
A good IEM mix does NOT include everything on stage at equal levels. You need pitch and timing references. Kick, snare, hi hat - those are your timing references most of the time. Some (but not a lot) of the guitars and keys in your mix help with pitch reference. But the thing (besides your bass) that you need to hear above all else is the voice of the person singing lead. Background singers, reverb, other effects that make it nice for the audience and singers - those should be turned completely off. You need to hear what is important for doing your job, which may not be the "nicest" mix. Once you have what you need, everything else is just stuff that gets in the way.
This last weekend (It was Easter, we pulled out all the stops) we had a 30 voice choir, a half a dozen strings, a couple woodwinds - in addition to the usual rock band complement - 2 electrics, one acoustic, keys, drums, and bass. The amount of choir and orchestral instruments I had in my in ear mix? zero - I didn't need them to do my job, and not having them in my mix made the things I did need to hear that much clearer.
A good IEM mix does NOT include everything on stage at equal levels. You need pitch and timing references. Kick, snare, hi hat - those are your timing references most of the time. Some (but not a lot) of the guitars and keys in your mix help with pitch reference. But the thing (besides your bass) that you need to hear above all else is the voice of the person singing lead. Background singers, reverb, other effects that make it nice for the audience and singers - those should be turned completely off. You need to hear what is important for doing your job, which may not be the "nicest" mix. Once you have what you need, everything else is just stuff that gets in the way.
This last weekend (It was Easter, we pulled out all the stops) we had a 30 voice choir, a half a dozen strings, a couple woodwinds - in addition to the usual rock band complement - 2 electrics, one acoustic, keys, drums, and bass. The amount of choir and orchestral instruments I had in my in ear mix? zero - I didn't need them to do my job, and not having them in my mix made the things I did need to hear that much clearer.
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Man, it is quite the wonder any of us actually learn anything from these threads. It was seriously painful to work my way through the 4 pages of discussion here. Some sound advice, mixed with some off-the-wall stuff, mixed with some interesting "I suppose that's one way to handle it, but definitely not the direct way," advice, mixed with some definite, "no, that's not how this works. That's not how any of this works," in here. I know exactly where I'd start, but at this point in the convo I don't think we need any more chiefs or indians.
OP good luck weeding through all of this and finding what you need.
tldr - Man, we sure are a confusing bunch.
OP good luck weeding through all of this and finding what you need.
tldr - Man, we sure are a confusing bunch.
I have a passive, an active and an active EQ preamp. No amp.
Prior to the SansAmp Paradriver the bass made no difference.
I've been using the active bass exclusively lately. I've been limited to use the SansAmp as a passive DI box but that's going to change at the next practice
They are a recent purchase and the quality has not degraded from when I first tried them
Is this two issues? Excessive noise and inability to hear the bass?
On the noise, if no one else has a noise problem, you have to try another channel that is known to be quiet. It could be something like an open ground in the snake going to the board.
Bring an amp in. It's your gear still noisy plugged into their power?
You've got to solve the noise problem first. Once that's solved, then you can tackle the volume / mix problem.
On the noise, if no one else has a noise problem, you have to try another channel that is known to be quiet. It could be something like an open ground in the snake going to the board.
Bring an amp in. It's your gear still noisy plugged into their power?
You've got to solve the noise problem first. Once that's solved, then you can tackle the volume / mix problem.
The noise problem is pretty much solved. It was a overall noise in the whole system.
The guitarist(s) playing single coils have some noise but with noise gates it's not as noticeable as when it comes from my signal chain.
Using the SansAmp and phantom power pretty much eliminated any noise from my chain. I play the jazz pickups in unison up to 75-90% of max. Above that I pick up the noise from the light, etc.
Boosting my signal at the board prior to mix also boost a lot of string noise from the bass as well, even when I cut the treble and high mids on the bass.
I think my IEM comes pre mix from the board, therefore not boosted so that's why my output in the IEM is so much lower than every other signal in the IEM.
I think using an active DI would go a long way to fixing my overall problems. I think my signal to the board should be stronger. I can do that without the need to boost it at the board.
The guitarist(s) playing single coils have some noise but with noise gates it's not as noticeable as when it comes from my signal chain.
Using the SansAmp and phantom power pretty much eliminated any noise from my chain. I play the jazz pickups in unison up to 75-90% of max. Above that I pick up the noise from the light, etc.
Boosting my signal at the board prior to mix also boost a lot of string noise from the bass as well, even when I cut the treble and high mids on the bass.
I think my IEM comes pre mix from the board, therefore not boosted so that's why my output in the IEM is so much lower than every other signal in the IEM.
I think using an active DI would go a long way to fixing my overall problems. I think my signal to the board should be stronger. I can do that without the need to boost it at the board.
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The Qu24 will do three stereo mixes and you can switch the two audio groups from group mode to stereo mix mode for a total of five stereo mixers.
At this point before jumping into building a stereo IEM mix I would get the basics sorted out first.
I'm fully in the camp that your mixer is not being set up and operated correctly.
With the QU You app and a proper set up mixer you have full control of your mix.
As a test go to the mixer, plug into the headphone jack, hit PFL on the bass channel (most likely you will need someone else to play your bass) and see what it sounds like.
Also note what the meter level shows, you want it to be just hitting in the yellow.
Now turn off the PFL on the bass channel, select your mix (blue buttons lower right side) hit PFL on the master fader and listen, that will be what is being sent to you IEM's...provided it's wired correctly.
When you select a mix all the faders will change positions and the faders are now the mix sends.
To go back to the main LR mix mode either hit the mix button again or the blue LR button above the master fader.
This looks like the wrong direction. The best way to control what you're hearing is to have your own loop of sound back to your headphone amp (like I explained earlier) and tell them not to send you your bass signal.
I have both the JDI and JDV (active version) and they are all designed to work with mic-level inputs on most boards. You run the risk of overloading the mixer input if you send more level.
I think you missed what I've said in the original post.
The board is boosting my signal quite a bit (pre mix) as well as bring my overall volume up as well post mix to addition to the room volume control. So my "poor" signal is being boosted pre and post mix.
A quality signal from an active DI would negate the need to boost my signal pre mix. I think what is being sent to my IEM is pre mix so my IEM feed is probably is what the board sees before any boost.
The board is boosting my signal quite a bit (pre mix) as well as bring my overall volume up as well post mix to addition to the room volume control. So my "poor" signal is being boosted pre and post mix.
A quality signal from an active DI would negate the need to boost my signal pre mix. I think what is being sent to my IEM is pre mix so my IEM feed is probably is what the board sees before any boost.
If your signal being boosted, there should be no reason you are having issues in the IEMs.
This is a sound tech problem. It isn't stepping on toes to work with the sound tech to resolve it. If you can hear yourself good enough when using your preamp, you should insist on using the preamp.
Check with the sound tech. What is your initial gain input level? On a digital mixer (we use an xr18) it should be around -18dbfs. I truly believe this is where your problem is.
An active DI doesn't boost a signal. Active DIs serve to electronically buffer passive instruments that wouldn't work well with a passive DI.
Active DIs aren't there to "negate the need to boost my signal pre mix" ... A Preamp would do that.
Have you had your hearing tested recently?
I ask this because you mentioned that everybody else said that they can hear you just fine.
You could have some hearing loss in certain key frequencies, and if that’s the case, then that needs to be addressed.
I ask this because you mentioned that everybody else said that they can hear you just fine.
You could have some hearing loss in certain key frequencies, and if that’s the case, then that needs to be addressed.
