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"In-ears" or wedges?

#21
whisper14072 said:
We just went to in ear monitors at the church I play at.... they are Aviom A-16II Personal Mixer. I hate them.... lol... I have my channel all the way up and I still have a real hard time hearing my bass. We went all DI and that doesn't bother me but I miss having the monitor on stage. We used to use amps on stage and just kept them down... I never had an issue with mine cause it was only 65 watts and it was a kickback style so that worked out nice :) But yea I am not a fan of in ear... at least not the ones we have.... I may be too old school :)
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If you have good in ears with at least dual drivers and good tight isolation, the bass rings loud and clear. Bad single driver in-ears will give you a miserable experience every time.
 
#22
From an engineers perspective, I think in-ears are f'ing awesome. I'll take in-ears over wedges any day. I use Future Sonics single driver in-ears to check my mixes and I think they sound great. There is a huge difference between using them with the custom molds and with generic ear pieces though.

I don't know what you guys typically experience, but if you have an engineer mixing ears for you, they should have comparable quality buds to you to check your mix. I love solo'ing an artists aux mix in my buds and then going in and tweaking it until see them look over and smile. Of course it takes some practice to figure out what different musicians want depending on their instrument, and some people have unique personal preferences, but I guess that's what keeps it interesting.

I just think with IEM's you can really give the artist a MIX as opposed to some compromise based on the combination of the room, wedge/amp, vocal mic quality, feedback issues, etc.

It also has a massive effect on the FOH mix if the whole band is on ears, especially in small to medium size rooms. Trying listening to a band sound checking monitors with no FOH mains on from an audience perspective. It sounds like mud. Now imagine adding or subtracting that mud from your FOH mix.
 
#23
Yeah. For sure on two of your points:

1. You gotta actually have an engineer mixing ears mixes for you to really get the full effect. And good luck finding someone skilled enough that also cares enough on a smaller scale for that to happen. REALLY fortunate to work with a sound company that actually gets off on doing crushing band mixes and FOH even if it's a "small" gig. They do racks and stacks and engineering for nationals that come through mainly, so their work ethic carries over I guess.

2. Technically speaking, you're absolutely correct about IEMs drastically improving what FOH can do. You don't have to deal with the (I'm guessing) phase problems that happen between monitors and FOH. If your wedges are cranking in a club, FOH has to be a certain % louder or the weird combo makes everything sound washed out. That's a real dumb way of explaining this, but it's true. Ha ha ha.
 
#24
At a certain point it becomes about more than overpowering wedge bounce back in FOH. The main thing you get bouncing back is low-mids from vocals, so you actually end up compensating in the way you EQ the vocals, and sometimes in the way you tune the FOH. Since wedges are the standard, the average engineer does this with out thinking about it, or even knowing they're doing it in many cases. The first time you mix FOH house with no wedges on stage in a smaller venue where that bounce back is a major factor, it's kind of a holy $h!t moment.
 
#25
Dan Bozek said:
...

1. You gotta actually have an engineer mixing ears mixes for you to really get the full effect. And good luck finding someone skilled enough that also cares enough on a smaller scale for that to happen. REALLY fortunate to work with a sound company that actually gets off on doing crushing band mixes and FOH even if it's a "small" gig. They do racks and stacks and engineering for nationals that come through mainly, so their work ethic carries over I guess.
....
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OR, you do your own IEM sound as a band with a mixer (digital or analog).
My IEM band had its own 20 channel 19" Crest IEM desk with 6 stereo aux sends. So every band member could tweak its own mix. We used this system on every gig, in every rehearsal. So the adjustements were minimal and setup/check time was short....
 
#26
I agree that you need the good ear "bud" or custom monitors... I just don't have the cash to get them for me just to play at church 2 or 3 times a month... I now have an amp on stage.... it is a beast.... definitely overkill now but I keep the volume down so you can't hear it FOH at all. The amp I told them to use was my old bass amp was an Ibanez SW65. it is a tilt back but the other bass player blew the speaker and the team lead doesn't want to replace it.... so I know have a 4 foot cabinet with an 18", a 10" and a tweeter lol... overkill but man he first day I used it.... WOW I think i loosened a filling...lol forgot how much fun it was to play through a 18 :)

Edit/

Sorry got off subject.... not enough coffee yet this morning :)
 
#27
gillento said:
OR, you do your own IEM sound as a band with a mixer (digital or analog).
My IEM band had its own 20 channel 19" Crest IEM desk with 6 stereo aux sends. So every band member could tweak its own mix. We used this system on every gig, in every rehearsal. So the adjustements were minimal and setup/check time was short....
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Hard to fly with a 20 ch board ;) I knew a band who used IEM's, and they'd just insist that the sound company bring a certain type of digital board that recognized their programmed settings or they wouldn't play. Nice to have that kind of clout.

As for me, I know they have some advantages over monitors, but I don't think I could do it unless money was involved. I like air movement and nothing restricting my headbanging ;)
 
#29
wideload said:
Who cares about headbangin' when you got a flower pot on yer head?? Excuse me, ENERGY DOME.
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Good thing you corrected yourself ;)

You have to get one of those hardhat liners and superglue or tape it to the inside of the energy dome, and then it'll stay on for headbanging. And it'll also protect your head...minimally, but every little bit helps when idiots are throwing bottles full of pee at you ;)
 

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