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In-Ears question

Slaine01

Slaine01

Jul 29, 2001
685
20
61
Sydney - Australia
#1
*sniff....getting old and over not being able to hear myself well enough at gigs (loud band )....looking to get into in ears but am looking more at the option of only running my bass only through them, instead of using them to get a personal mix of the whole band through the P.A. send ( so saving having to lug my cabs everywhere ).
Probably run through my sansamp then into the in ears etc - to me.
Any pro's and cons for this setup?. Anyone use them for this configuration?
bit of a nub with the whole in-ears thing so be gentle....
 
#3
How are you going to hear the rest of the band if you do this? You need to have some type of monitor mix or live mic with your bass at a minimum. I use a simple 3 channel Rolls personal mixer that runs my bass, vocal mic, and a monitor mix into my ears. I have a simple 3 knob mix and can turn the rest of the band up or down with one knob. I really like having my bass in my in-ears because I can hear myself much better than trying to run a loud stage rig and try to play louder than the drummer ;)
 
#6
If you don't bring your rig you better have good monitors so the rest of the band can hear the bass.

You learn a lot the first time you practice with in ears and a lot more on your first few gigs. The learning curve is much less severe if you educate yourself beforehand by reading as many IEM threads as you can.
 
#7
We have good monitors so the rest of the band are fine, its really just for me to have a clearer "personal bass monitoring" for myself. I am finding that my ears aint what they used to be on loud stages and having a in ear option to just take the edge off the wall of noise around me would be a good option. At the moment I am pumping a fair bit of bass across the stage which sounds great but I almost feel the need to boost my mids to get that cut through as my ears feel compressed after about the 4th song. Definately a case of ear damage due to over 30 years of loud gigs and getting a little older methinks so just looking at options here.
I have read some of the threads ( but will take some time today to read more ) but they seem to be more about in-ears as being a means for an overall "entire band mix' option - of course - but I am interested more in the personal monitoring option.
The "Rock On Audio" option looks like a great idea.
 
#8
A band I'm in just went to IEM's.

I use a Rolls PM50s. Plug the bass into the Rolls (via a direct box) and plug the Rolls into a Tape Out on the board. I get a good mix of everybody (basically what is being fed to the FOH) and then can mix that FOH signal from the Tape Out with my bass signal.

I did a homebrew version of the Rock On Audio cord: Just taped my instrument cord and a 20 ft. stereo headphone cord together and PRESTO!, I got myself an easy set up and can hear everything really well.

Still in the honeymoon period with it and still climbing that learning curve with the IEM's (I run sound for the band) but I likey!

My only complaint is that my ears hurt after sticking my IEM in there for about an hour or so. Need the ear molds!! But have to get rid of some earwax first! :eek:
 
#9
iridiumrocks said:
How are you going to hear the rest of the band if you do this? You need to have some type of monitor mix or live mic with your bass at a minimum.
Click to expand...
Well - i also have a small mic in my IEM rig for monitoring the band.... it's switched OFF 99% of the time.

Honestly if the band is loud (which the OP's band is), you can still hear them with the earphones in. Those IEM's earphones aren't magic, and I wonder why people will think you cant hear your drummer even though you're standing right next to him. There is nothing you could put into your ears in that scenario what would make the drummer and band inaudible.

Larger stages are a different thing. If I'm standing 10 feet or more away from my nearest band member, then the monitor mic comes in handy. But with that sort of physical separation I find the IEM's aren't quite as necessary as an SPL reduction tool and often don't bother using them unless my amps is also a fair distance away from me.
 
#11
I've used ears quite a bit in the past. I always ran everyone in my mix although slightly lower than my bass and vocals. The ear buds isolate you so much, it feels unnatural unless you get some semblance of a live mix in them. You can only put one in, but people tend to turn that one up because what they hear in their other ear overbalances it and they end up damaging their hearing in the ear with the ear bud in it. You have to be careful with doing that.
 
#12
Petebass said:
Well - i also have a small mic in my IEM rig for monitoring the band.... it's switched OFF 99% of the time.

Honestly if the band is loud (which the OP's band is), you can still hear them with the earphones in. Those IEM's earphones aren't magic, and I wonder why people will think you cant hear your drummer even though you're standing right next to him. There is nothing you could put into your ears in that scenario what would make the drummer and band inaudible.
Click to expand...

The drummer is never the problem and enough drums feed through the headset and bleed into the other stage mics. I just have a really tough time hearing the guitar and vocals without some type of feed from the mixer into the in-ear mix.
 
#13
in-ears only have good low end (i.e., good bass tone) if they seal really well, which therefore makes them isolate better.

it's not gonna work unless you have a way of piping the rest of the band in there as well.

you could just wear mild earplugs (i just stuff cotton in there when i play bass); less "hi-fi" ones reduce treble more than bass, cutting the cymbal wash and guitar sizzle while letting you hear the kick and your bass OK.

not so great for singing, but i kinda like it for bass. (when i play guitar, i prefer real IEMs with a full mix).
 
#14
walterw said:
you could just wear mild earplugs (i just stuff cotton in there when i play bass); less "hi-fi" ones reduce treble more than bass, cutting the cymbal wash and guitar sizzle while letting you hear the kick and your bass OK.
Click to expand...

You play with cotton in your ears? I can't imagine doing that. The main thing I like about the IEMs is that it cuts out the cymbal crashes which cause the most stress on my ears. However, I can't see how you can hear vocals, guitar, or other instruments using cotton plugs.
 
#15
cotton is not a super-strong earplug, there's still plenty of leakage. it mostly reduces the damaging treble and mids. it's a duller sound of course, but i'm used to it by now. better the dull sound while i'm playing than the next day, or permanently!

(got my ears blasted at my first rock show, van halen when i was an early teenager, and i've religiously used cotton at every show i've attended or played ever since, up until i joined a band where we all used IEMs, the best thing ever.)

like i said, cotton is OK for bass playing, but i don't like it for playing guitar.
 
#16
walterw said:
in-ears only have good low end (i.e., good bass tone) if they seal really well, which therefore makes them isolate better.

it's not gonna work unless you have a way of piping the rest of the band in there as well..
Click to expand...
....or unless the band is loud enough that no amount of cotton, cement, or anything you stuff into your ears is possibly going to block them out.

Seriously! I remember copping all sorts of flack from my guitarist in particular when he found out the band wasn't in m IEM mix. He started to relax about it when I started acknowledging his small mistakes. Could I have done that if I couldn't hear them?
 
#17
Petebass said:
....or unless the band is loud enough that no amount of cotton, cement, or anything you stuff into your ears is possibly going to block them out.

Seriously! I remember copping all sorts of flack from my guitarist in particular when he found out the band wasn't in m IEM mix. He started to relax about it when I started acknowledging his small mistakes. Could I have done that if I couldn't hear them?
Click to expand...
It really depends on how well your IEM's seal and how loud the band is. In my experience, they sealed so well that I had difficulty hearing any detail in the sound of the rest of the band (including audible departures from the set list) until I added an ambient mic to my IEM setup. YMMV, of course.

The upside is that with inputs from my vocal mic, my electric guitar, my acoustic guitar, a monitor mix, and an ambient mic, I could hear everything really well at a comfortable volume no matter where I stood on stage. The downside is that my IEM setup was nearly as complex as the PA system and took almost as long to set up and tweak.
 
#20
Took an easy way out on the weekend and ran a line out of the "Insert Out" on the back of my RH450 into a set of high quality Bose earplugs. The Bose earplugs (not IEM's) has a volume control, so giving myself a degree of audio control, and surprising ,by only having it in one ear, I had a nice clear Bass mix with the rest of the onstage sound coming through on my other "unplugged' ear.
 

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