IEM'...less isolation?

C

chamelious

www.thesunexplodes.com
Our drummer uses Shure se215's with a click track. He needs the isolation so he can hear the click, but the Shures isolate too much, he can't hear his drums.

Does anyone know of another IEM, or maybe a brand of tip, we can use to give a bit less isolation? They must be the over ear, tie behind the head kind, or they'd fall out in 30 seconds, thi s is the clincher.

He doesn't want to use headphones.

We know we can mix in a monitor feed using a mixer, we have this setup currently, but we can only use it once in 10 gigs, or less probably.

Thanks for any help!
 
Why dont you feed the overhead mic(s) into his earphone mix as well as the click? I often do this in the studio, if the drummer has headphones for click tracks etc, I just feed them some overhead and kick so that to them the drums don't sound muffled. The overheads give the kit some air in the headphones. You could always set up your own overhead that has nothing to do with the PA system but just feeds the drummers phones.

Alan.
 
+1 for adding the overheads to the Aux feeding his IEM mix. The overheads pick up a bit of everything and generally give enough idea about what's going on.

Alternatively, I've sometimes resorted to a cheap "ambience mic" out front to pick up a bit of everything like the audience hears, mixing this into the IEM feed (and obviously NOT to the FOH speakers). This can help get rid of the sense of isolation that IEMs can cause.
 
witzendoz said:
Why dont you feed the overhead mic(s) into his earphone mix as well as the click? I often do this in the studio, if the drummer has headphones for click tracks etc, I just feed them some overhead and kick so that to them the drums don't sound muffled. The overheads give the kit some air in the headphones. You could always set up your own overhead that has nothing to do with the PA system but just feeds the drummers phones.

Alan.
Click to expand...

"We know we can mix in a monitor feed using a mixer, we have this setup currently, but we can only use it once in 10 gigs, or less probably. " This is why. Also, they don't use overheads in our local venue which is pretty much the biggest place we've played; and if they did they would be the only drum mics not asked for in the in ears, cymbals have no problem cutting through everything, its the kick/toms and to a slightly lesser extent the snare.

We've tried using a single one of our mics placed around the drums somewhere (the issue isn't ambience or being isolated from the band, its hearing his own drums) but its not exactly the best.
 
Barring using non-specialist earphones (which could fall out) your choice is going to be limited. The whole point of most IEMs is to provide really good isolation so you can hear the purpose-built mix you'd normally be generating. I'm not clear on your comment about "only using it once in 10 gigs" because it would only take moments to create a rough mix (via an aux) for the IEMs--and marginally longer to tweak it to perfection.
 
chamelious said:
Also, they don't use overheads in our local venue which is pretty much the biggest place we've played; and if they did they would be the only drum mics not asked for in the in ears, cymbals have no problem cutting through everything, its the kick/toms and to a slightly lesser extent the snare.

We've tried using a single one of our mics placed around the drums somewhere (the issue isn't ambience or being isolated from the band, its hearing his own drums) but its not exactly the best.
Click to expand...

That is why you need to put up your own overheads, the overheads have the whole drum in them not just the cymbals, in fact if you feed the drummer the overheads and the kick mic he will hear the whole kit. If you placed your singe mic above the kit and feed that to the phones this will work better then placing it around the drums somewhere.

If this is all too much he will have to find some other phones that don't shut out the sound as much.

Cheers

alan.
 
Just put one ear bud in and leave the other ear open to hear what is going on around. His drums, amps, audience .....
 
if you rarely have a mixer available then why not buy a cheap one that can suit your needs?
another solutiong could be for your drummer to deal without a click and learn to keep a solid beat without any help?
 
ollie99 said:
if you rarely have a mixer available then why not buy a cheap one that can suit your needs?
another solutiong could be for your drummer to deal without a click and learn to keep a solid beat without any help?
Click to expand...

We have our own mixer, the problem is getting a monitor mix from the FOH engineer, they are rarely that helpful.

The click is for various bits of backing, and tempo locking with the synth which doesn't have a tap tempo.
 
OT but, if getting a feed is an ongoing problem, maybe your next purchase should be a splitter snake. Plug your mics into it, give one side to FOH and run the other to your mixer thereby creating your own feed.

Instead of buying different IEMs this would give you the ability to add overhead mics, feed them to your mixer and create a more suitable monitor mix.
 
Bobbsy said:
OT but, if getting a feed is an ongoing problem, maybe your next purchase should be a splitter snake. Plug your mics into it, give one side to FOH and run the other to your mixer thereby creating your own feed.

Instead of buying different IEMs this would give you the ability to add overhead mics, feed them to your mixer and create a more suitable monitor mix.
Click to expand...

I had thought about that, but its a lot of extra gear to carry about, and when you're only be allowed line checks half the time its just not feasible really.
 
I use Shure SE110 earbuds on stage and they provide GREAT sound isolation, but not enough to completely overcome the volume of the drums that are usually 4 to 8 feet away from me. They have the squishy foam tips on them, but I recall that they also came with some lighter rubber tips too similar to what I use with my cheaper earbuds (Skullcandy brand). Those don't isolate as much as the foamy ones. If your drummer doesn't have the other tips available any longer, do a google search for replacement tips or sleeves and you'll find them. Try different types and sizes until he finds the right amount of sound isolation. Good luck!
 
This whole scenario sounds illogical. If he can't hear his own drums that are right in front of him then how does he hear the rest of the band? He obviously has to use some type of mixer to feed the click track. So how is it a problem running a couple of extra microphones?
 
ocnor said:
This whole scenario sounds illogical. If he can't hear his own drums that are right in front of him then how does he hear the rest of the band? He obviously has to use some type of mixer to feed the click track. So how is it a problem running a couple of extra microphones?
Click to expand...

He can't hear the band either, another problem although less of one. Like i said using the mixer we have we can run 1 mic, but it never sounds very good.
 
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