In Ear Monitoring

[lasagne]

Hi Guys

Don't know if this is the best place to post this question. I play guitar and keys in a band and do backing vox. Monitoring is a constant problem for me. I currently use a floor wedge, but of course I have to move to the keyboard for about half our songs, and then I can't hear my monitor.

Does anyone have experience of in ear monitoring ? I'm sure it could solve my problem, but I'd be interested to hear anyone else's experiences.

Ta

[gagaku]

My experience : good ones are REALLY expensive and you'd still wouldn't have much control over your monitor sound.

If you're having issues with wedges you will have issues with in ear monitors.

GGK.

[MadHatterTCM]

definitely right about the expensive part. a decent pair of ear buds will run at least $150. Wireless? another 500 or so.

Me and the drummer in my band sing and both use earbuds. What we do is split the mic inputs (1 goes to the house 1 goes our mixer) and send the two mics into a mixer/headphone amp as well as a click since either one of us also start the songs etc... i switch between piano/acoustic and would like to have wireless, but the one i want is like 700 so. I stick with extension cables.

great thing about doing this though. I always have my vocals and click etc at the perfect level, because our mixer doesn't change.

[cnix]

We use in-ears and love them. The key is the mix. In our Praise Band, each band member has their own Aviom mixer at their side to control the mix. Before we got the Aviom's, the mix was done by the sound guy at the board, but it seemed like every time he adjusted someones mix, everybodys mix was effected, not good.

Charlie

[jr4089]

i heard alot about the sony md7506 or something like that. the one thats around 100$

[Whale Bone]

In general I've had good experiences with in-ear monitoring. I think there are two main issues to consider: How much sound they block and how practical it is to get what you need in them.

I've used a variety of cheap in-ear headphones that don't block sound effectively, so you often need to drive them at painful levels to get the sound you need. Recently I did a series of shows with Shure E1's (looks like they've become the SCL3) and they were very nice. Just with the cheap yellow foam pads, they fit well and block a tremendous amount of sound, meaning I could run them at a reasonable level, get a full sound and not leave with ringing ears every night. They have nice response too - I play bass and was very happy that my heavy P bass came through with great bottom end.

If you use in-ears that isolate well, you'll want a full mix (probably unlike your wedge) in them which may or may not be difficult/impossible depending on where you play. If you typically have a wedge, can you instead get a full band mix into a headphone amp?

I have only used wired setups, so I have no idea of the fidelity/reliability of wireless. I guess wireless/wired would the third major issue to consider.

Good luck