SINGLE ear in ear monitors

[b.ionian]

Maybe you could use a 210 only for the high notes?

That's a thought, Baxter. Thank you The church has a GK 700RB with a neo 210 cabinet. I know, because it matches my personal rig. Just a matter of whether they would want the equipment on stage.

I was also looking at this: G8 (SINGLE)

 

[b.ionian]

I want to thank you all for your responses. Again, I wasn't getting notifications, so I didn't know anyone replied. I'm sorry I was late reading your excellent t comments.

Does anyone have an opinion on this IN ear monitor? G8 (SINGLE)

 

[shadven]

As others have said, one in/one out is a bad idea. You have to crank the one earbud to the max in order to balance the volume ewith the ambient volume. That's really bad for your ears. I'm in a couple of bands with other musicians who insist on one-in/one-out. They are NEVER happy with their mix.

That being said, InEarz.com made a custom summed-mono earbud for my daughter, who is deaf in one ear.

Work with the sound engineer to improve your mix. Do you have your own mix, or are you sharing a common mix with other people?

I'm in the same situation as your daughter. I just reached out to InEarz. Thanks!!!

 

[Tim Mulac]

First question is do you even have a separate personal monitor mixer control, that lets you can set your own mix levels. This would probably be on your phone or an iPad? (Some systems don’t, depending on how complex the system is.) If not, the mix question is moot, especially if you’re sharing a mix with someone else, who wants a totally different mix in THEIR phones. If you do have control, spend some time experimenting with it more, to find something workable for you. For example, if I’m playing bass, I’m usually close enough to the drums so I only want a bit of kick drum in my monitor. Make sure that the instruments or vocals you NEED to hear are cranked the most in your mix.

I alternate playing drums and bass at our church. Our onstage volume is not that loud, and when I play drums, I usually play with one ear out of the phones. (Left channel is frequently out, anyway...). It seems no matter how good my mix is, I still have trouble regulating my own acoustic dynamics and sound without hearing SOME direct acoustic sound from the drums. I’ve bee doing it (playing with one ear out) for about 8 years with no apparent detrimental effects. We typically only play about 4-5 songs, if that makes a difference. Playing bass, refer back to previous paragraph.

So take that with a grain of salt, as YMMV

 

[Holyroller411]

While some people wear only 1 IEM but, I agree it's a bad idea. The best and safest solution is a proper IEM mix.

The reason wearing 1 IEM is a bad idea is due to something called binaural summing. If you hear a sound equally in both ears, you perceive it as 6dB louder than if you hear the same sound in only one ear. So for equal volume with only 1 IEM you must turn up 6dB louder. Increasing the volume means less exposure is necessary for your hearing to become damaged.

Binaural summing is also one of the reasons why hard panning should not be used for a stereo IEM mix. In the event you run a stereo mix, I suggest panning the lowest sound sources and the most important sound sources to the center. So bass, bass drum, and your vocal mic if you sing, should be panned to the center. I also like snare in the center. Other sound sources should be panned left and right in 3-5dB intervals up to about 15dB.

The only sound sources I suggest panning harder than 20dB are stereo sound sources. For example a stereo reverb or perhaps a close spaced pair of mics use for drum overheads. I suggest panning stereo sound sources to the point where the stereo image starts to develop a hole middle and then backing the panning off a bit. A stereo reverb should sound like it is coming equally from all directions, and drum overheads should produce an image that seems fairly natural and balanced across the stereo horizon.

I wear a hearing aid in my right ear, so if I were to wear 2 IEMs, I'd need to remove my hearing aid. Surely I'm not the only musician who wears a hearing aid

 

[s0c9]

I wear a hearing aid in my right ear, so if I were to wear 2 IEMs, I'd need to remove my hearing aid. Surely I'm not the only musician who wears a hearing aid

You are essentially wearing 2 IEM's doing that.. all good!

But - to reinforce what has been stated by many on this thread..
if you use IEM's, use BOTH buds.. not just one!
SAVE YOUR HEARING.

 

[Wasnex]

I wear a hearing aid in my right ear, so if I were to wear 2 IEMs, I'd need to remove my hearing aid. Surely I'm not the only musician who wears a hearing aid

Wearing an IEM in your good ear and going acoustic through the hearing aid in the other ear sounds like a good way to damage your good ear. Surely you don't want to do that, so I suggest consulting with the audiologist who wrote your hearing aid prescription for the best course of action. If they don't have the required expertise, then perhaps they can provide a referral.

AFAIK the ideal solution would be wear two IEMs. However, your prescription should be applied to the ear that requires a hearing aid. I can't say if that option is realistic.