I'll tell you, if you play anywhere that has subs, you *will* feel your bass tone with IEMs. It will be even better because without the noise pollution of your amp, the front of house engineer will put even *more* of your bass into the subs. Nothing like hitting a low note and feeling the venue shake beneath your feet.
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Ok Folks, lets have it. IEM's or Backline
- Thread starter dbase
- Start date
I have never used these Eems!
However, i am not afraid of change! For now i will take the old tried and true.
However, i am not afraid of change! For now i will take the old tried and true.
Having a personal amp/monitor and sane collective onstage monitoring levels does NOT equate to the audience going deaf.
What I've found works best for me is to have both IEMs and a backline bass amp. My position is on the right side of the stage (my right), so I have an IEM in my left ear to mitigate stage volume (particularly drums & cymbals) but no IEM in my right ear so I get the "live" sound, including my bass amp. I find that this approach of combining the IEM in my left ear with the stage volume in my right ear gives me excellent monitor control to hear vocal harmonies and the other instruments, plus I can hear myself really well, plus I get the energy of the stage sound and don't experience that IEM sterility. We don't play loud onstage, so that helps too.
We used a sound guy with his own PA and I was outside on a portable stage with my own amp and he had 4 18" subs for me to partake. It was heaven. No IEM's, just monitors and I could hear everything. Some sound men like to turn down my volume and I don't appreciate that if a song has an important heavy bass part and nobody can hear it.
I get it, dude. But for me, it’s just so much easier when the volume is the house’s problem and I can just concentrate on hitting the notes.
+1
It's NOT either use IEM or go deaf. This is a false dichotomy that people in this thread keep posting. Don't blame the amp for the volume, play with adults that know how to control their volume.
I haven't played a gig where IEMs were offered by the soundman/woman. So... the whole band has to have their own IEMs and the venue has to offer the option to send signal to your IEMs? Is that how it works?I admit I'm a Dinosaur, but I want to feel the power, not only in my ears but all over my body.. I'm not totally against IEM's, but I prefer a nice big bass amp on stage with me. Who's with me. Yea or Nay.
I would prefer it, but I guess I need to know more about it. Being a rarely-gigging originals band bassist, it doesn't seem like it's worth it at this point for us. But I'm open to the idea.
It took me over ten years to finally capture one of these unicorns.
GOOD IEMs will do it. My band previously used some okay-ish quality ones and mine would constantly cut out and lag to the point where I'd be half a measure behind everyone else because my click was out of sync. Between that and the fact that one guitarist's Axe-FX didn't have cab modeling from the direct out, giving me a big staticy mess, we decided to ditch them.
Bad/Middle of the road IEMS <<<<<<<<< Amps <<<<<<< Good IEMS
Bad/Middle of the road IEMS <<<<<<<<< Amps <<<<<<< Good IEMS
I admit I'm a Dinosaur, but I want to feel the power, not only in my ears but all over my body.. I'm not totally against IEM's, but I prefer a nice big bass amp on stage with me. Who's with me. Yea or Nay.
IEM all the way, for the same reason I don’t ride a horse to work, technological advances.
if I had someone to run the IEM mixes and get everything working correctly before soundcheck, then It'd be great to go that route!
I don't want to deal with it all the stuff but would be happy if someone else did and just gave me some earbuds for soundcheck.
Then I'd just make a large cardboard cutout of a fancy amp and put it on the stage.
I don't want to deal with it all the stuff but would be happy if someone else did and just gave me some earbuds for soundcheck.
Then I'd just make a large cardboard cutout of a fancy amp and put it on the stage.
Amp + Monitor for me.
Was working a festival in Denmark last year and one band had a 'silent stage'. They were all using Kemper Profilers and the Drummer had an electric kit. Everyone was on in-ears and all you could hear in the wings was the FOH. Really weird.
Was working a festival in Denmark last year and one band had a 'silent stage'. They were all using Kemper Profilers and the Drummer had an electric kit. Everyone was on in-ears and all you could hear in the wings was the FOH. Really weird.
I don't like the isolation and I play with people who play at reasonable volumes (including the drummer!). If I had a good set of IEM's and the technology to go with it, I'd use probably them. But I don't.
I agree. I’ve seen on multiple occasions folks using in ears where they’ve jerked them out and complained of pain because of a loud volume spike during soundcheck.
You can get hearing damage just as easily from loud in ears or a loud PA. A loud PA is probably the biggest reason for hearing damage that’s why I wear ear plugs.
It’s not as common as it used to be for bands to have rediculously loud backline. Soundguys just don’t allow loud stage volume anymore and most musicians don’t want people in their band that insist on playing stupid loud. I’m 37 and when i started gigging as a teen those rediculous 4 Marshall 412 cabs onstage type setups were already in decline. Amps have changed a lot over the years also. Guitar players used to need to push amps hard to get the tones they wanted, now they make smaller amps that get cranked tones as lower volume and a lot of the newer amps like my guitarist Mesa boogie head have a half power option. For a lot of our gigs I stack two cabs but only plug in the top one.
