in-ear monitors

  • Thread starter Thread starter Special K
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Special K

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Now I know that this is not strictly a topic that belongs on a "home recording' forum, but I will bring it up anyway.

In-ear monitoring at live concerts - does anyone know of any cheap systems that are capable of handling 5 musicians listening at once?

The band I engineer currently do not have a dedicated monitoring system, and while discussing possible equipment combinations, the idea of in-ear monitors came up.

I have determined that in-ear monitors are superior in terms of the sound for the musician, (and the roadies if nothing else) but very dear and not very reliable (in terms of interference etc).

Another apparent problem is getting a system that runs 5 sets of in-ears.


Any thoughts would be appreciated.

K
 
I was right there with ya about a year ago. From experience...THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CHEAP AND GOOD WHEN IT COMES TO IN EAR MONITORS! My band even tried the Shure 400 series units which are sort of a "mid line" item and had nothing but problems. They constantly dropped out. We sent them back for repairs and they not only came back working worse, but they came back to us unassembled! For sure don't buy 'till ya try. Remember, when you've got something stuck in your ear muting most of the stage sound it HAS to work! If a floor wedge goes down you can usually hear enough of fronts and other stage sound to get by. I wouldn't even waste the money unless you can get something high quality.
That's my 2 cents.
 
In my last band (before I was interjected from it) we had a sponsorship deal through a guy at Harmann and we got some AKG IVM-1 in-ear monitor sets. These are the absolute top-of-the-range from AKG and retailed at £1300.

They were brilliant when we could actually use them. Most of the venues we played, we were lucky if the desk had one spare Aux to feed one of our packs, let alone four.

Our sound guy came up with a solution for this by the next tour, Y cables into the main desk and cables running into our own monitor desk (A Spirit Folio F1 16ch) and the monitor desk stayed set after the first night. Worked beautifully for a bit until the sound guy got bored of setting it up every night and quit :(

I would think that's the best solution if you're trying to feed five packs though.

Cheers,
Rich.
 
hmmm....I also had a bit of a scout of the range avaliable, and I also found that there wasn't really a cheap set of in-ears.

One thing I did find which was of interest - say I wanted ALL the band members hearing the same monitor mix through their in-ear monitors. Could I buy a unit like the Shure PSM 400, and just add additional earphones on the same frequency for the 5 band members, or would I have to buy a separate PSM 400 for each band member (which would therefore allow individual mixing for each performer)?

K
 
If you must...If all mixes are the same, you only need 1 transmitter. This, however, is not a likely situation. If you think you've got volume wars with wedges, just wait 'till you try this!
 
I agree..... IEMs are designed to give each member their own personal mix. You might find two people who will put up with the one send, but not 5. You'll have a shit fight on your hands. Everyone really needs to buy their own unit.
 
Markd102 said:
Everyone really needs to buy their own unit.
Click to expand...

This is a great idea...getting the individual band members to buy their own units - if they don't buy their own, they have to put up with the one mix through their IEM....I like it a lot!
 
Roger Daltrey uses in-ear monitors. He rips them out at least once per show.
 
I've used in ear monitoring as I was concerned about going deaf. This is a serious issue if you are playing regularly. I use the Shure E1 ear piece and an HZ audio tranmitter. Its a wired system which is OK as I play keyboards and dont need to move around. I have to say however that although the sound quality is very good and it reduces the amount of gear you have to carry its very disconcerting. I no longer feel like I'm playing live. The HZ system has a gate function. The first time I used it the song ended and it was complete silence. Pretty scary, no applause, no nothing! they hate us!
This is a very uncomfortable feeling either set up ambience mics or be prepared
 
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