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In Ears and Hearing Loss
- Thread starter eJake
- Start date
No matter how loud the stage you're on is, if you take away the monitors AND put earplugs in your ears, you will have less SPL at your ears. Now, if you put what you need in your ears, and not more than that, you can make a mix that is both more effective at helping you know what and when to play, and much quieter.
When I play, even though we don't have any amps on stage, there is inevitably drum wash and some bleed from the PA on stage, but it's not very loud. Still, with my in ears in and everything going, it's quieter than that in my ears - if I take out my in ears, it gets louder.
Anyway, the point is, if you pay attention to what you're doing, you can use in ears to help save your hearing. Of course, you can also be reckless and make your own personal ear torture scenario. It's up to you.
Hints for making up your mix: Your in ear mix doesn't have (and probably shouldn't) include everything. We have 5 vocalists onstage most weekends. if someone isn't leading one of our songs, I don't have their mic in my ears at all. We often have 2 acoustics. The one the worship leader is playing is in my ears, the other one, usually not. You need timing cues and pitch cues - if someones part isn't providing either of those, you don't need or want it in your ears.
When I play, even though we don't have any amps on stage, there is inevitably drum wash and some bleed from the PA on stage, but it's not very loud. Still, with my in ears in and everything going, it's quieter than that in my ears - if I take out my in ears, it gets louder.
Anyway, the point is, if you pay attention to what you're doing, you can use in ears to help save your hearing. Of course, you can also be reckless and make your own personal ear torture scenario. It's up to you.
Hints for making up your mix: Your in ear mix doesn't have (and probably shouldn't) include everything. We have 5 vocalists onstage most weekends. if someone isn't leading one of our songs, I don't have their mic in my ears at all. We often have 2 acoustics. The one the worship leader is playing is in my ears, the other one, usually not. You need timing cues and pitch cues - if someones part isn't providing either of those, you don't need or want it in your ears.
I apologize in advance for another Rush reference (admitted fanboy), but the link below goes into some detail about how their monitors are mixed according to what each musician wants/needs to hear during the show. The IEM content starts around 6 minutes. The IEM mix info continues into the next link. Pretty interesting.
Charles
Charles
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From an interview with Rush in 2002:
Link to interview is below.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...Vaw3fe-m8J9DhUJhRP9tUMb5X&cshid=1547141491624
Do you use in-ear monitors?
Lee: "Yes, I do. They're amazing. The ability to sing in pitch and with expression has been improved 400 or 500 percent through the development of those things. They're just about the greatest thing that's ever invented for live performance"
In Their Ears
All three members of Rush are using in-ear monitors for this tour; Lee and Lifeson use Ultimate Ears UE-5 monitors through Sennheiser 3000-series wireless hardware, and Peart uses a wired setup featuring Ultimate Ears UE-5s and a Crown D-75 power amp.
To add additional bottom end to what the band hears onstage, monitor engineer Brent Carpenter uses a series of subwoofers. "I'm using double 15" Clair Brothers MB15s powered by Crown amps," says Carpenter. "I'm using two boxes on stage left, two boxes on stage right, and two boxes upstage center. They're crossed over really low so that I can rattle the stage a little bit."
Although the band is only three pieces, their complex stage setup requires a whopping 77 inputs on the monitor console. To help keep it all under control, Carpenter uses a sophisticated Harrison/Showco Showconsole - a fully automated analog mixer - and separate presets are recalled for each song.
"I've got to take my hat off to whoever did this gig before me," Carpenter says, "because I can't imagine doing this without automation."
Link to interview is below.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...Vaw3fe-m8J9DhUJhRP9tUMb5X&cshid=1547141491624
Do you use in-ear monitors?
Lee: "Yes, I do. They're amazing. The ability to sing in pitch and with expression has been improved 400 or 500 percent through the development of those things. They're just about the greatest thing that's ever invented for live performance"
In Their Ears
All three members of Rush are using in-ear monitors for this tour; Lee and Lifeson use Ultimate Ears UE-5 monitors through Sennheiser 3000-series wireless hardware, and Peart uses a wired setup featuring Ultimate Ears UE-5s and a Crown D-75 power amp.
To add additional bottom end to what the band hears onstage, monitor engineer Brent Carpenter uses a series of subwoofers. "I'm using double 15" Clair Brothers MB15s powered by Crown amps," says Carpenter. "I'm using two boxes on stage left, two boxes on stage right, and two boxes upstage center. They're crossed over really low so that I can rattle the stage a little bit."
Although the band is only three pieces, their complex stage setup requires a whopping 77 inputs on the monitor console. To help keep it all under control, Carpenter uses a sophisticated Harrison/Showco Showconsole - a fully automated analog mixer - and separate presets are recalled for each song.
"I've got to take my hat off to whoever did this gig before me," Carpenter says, "because I can't imagine doing this without automation."
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Hey, what do you mean, you have better things to do than hang out on talkbass? That's crazy talk.Ain't no one scared man. Some of us have gigs
