On Stage Monitoring

[LeftyLB]

Best wishes for 2004 to everyone at the MM Forum.

Slightly (well very) off topic, but does anyone use or have experience of in-ear monitoring for a live gigging band?

Everyone is in a band where the lead singer is deaf and has to have his foldback twice the volume of the actual PA, so the rest of the band turn up to be able to hear what they are playing - which means the singer reckons he can't hear so wants more juice - you get the picture.

If anyone uses or has tried in-ear, has it been worth the expense and what are the pros and cons?

Thanks

Liam

 

[stingrayplyr]

I have used 2 types. the nadi and the shure. Of the two the shure is the best. They have diffrent grade models. I use the Shure psm200. The first thing you will notice is the bass responce is nothing like a floor moniter. It will take some time to get used to. But you can control what you hear insted of relying on everyone els to keep their volume down. I also like to use one ear with and one with out. this way I still get a feel for the room. Some people love them and some hate. I personly love mine. They are the best when everyone in the band uses them. I have 6 children and at night when their asleep I plug those monitors in and crank it up! They are realy good for low volume gigs. Hope this helps

 

[Psychicpet]

Hi Lefty,
I've used in-ears quite a bit and although it is entirely different from playing with a loud stage volume and regular wedges, it's alot better when gigs start getting bigger and louder. I usually run my monitor feed into a little mixer as well as a line out from my bass preamp into the same mixer so that in my ears I can control the overall volume of the monitor send and mix in as much of me as I want, this works really well. The biggest problem with in-ears is that you have to really have your monitor guy knowing what he's doing and have the proper protection features so that people aren't getting they're ears blown. But the advantage of having a FOH engineer who can mix an excellent show and have alot more control over the band's sound which ultimately leads to the band sounding the best to the audience ('cause who cares if I like the volume on stage, if the crowd can't hear it properly and well, they're not going to buy CDs or t-shirts right) is the best way to go I think.
So I would go the route of in-ears if everyone is willing to go that route. That's my two-bits.


cheers!

 

[Psychicpet]

ps. try out Westtone for their Shure in-ear copies, they sound pretty darn close to the Shures and are cheaper.