In ear monitoring

MRedZac · Post by **MRedZac** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 7:39 am

There´s nothing better out on the market than Sennheiser IEM stereo devices with custom made special headphones connected... Even though it is expencive, believe me, it´s worth each single cent you spent for it...

mathieumaes · Post by **mathieumaes** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 8:01 am

I was thinking I could use the auxiliary outputs from my Keyboard for this setup...
- Connect a microphone to one of the inputs, but don't send it to the main outputs
- Setup the auxiliary output so it sends the main sound + sound coming from input 1...
Need to do some experimentation with this...

This way I can control the volume by myself, without relying on the sound engineer... I've had an accident in the past where a sound engineer accidently blew my drumfill with guitar sounds. I don't want this happening with in ears ...

Hooch · Post by **Hooch** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 8:55 am

IEMS for everyone in our band.
Works great.

Everybody has their own stereo mix and they know what
"not to do" at the monitor board on stage.

Batteries, foamies, and packs are in the drawer.
I keep a spare 25' hardware line just in case.
Used it several times.

The brand is personal preference and cost driven.
I use Sensaphonics because they allow very low volume
mixes do to the extreme isolation and detail.
Most of the problem is low end through your nose or mouth.

Hooch

mathieumaes · Post by **mathieumaes** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 10:15 am

I just checked prices on Sennheiser, holy crap!

Let's say I have about 500 eur budget, so that's half of the Sennheiser pricing :s

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 10:45 am

I wouldn't go wireless in-ear without a budget of around 1500. The Sennheiser kit is without custom ears, IIRC.

A good pair of Ultimate Ears or something like that goes for like 700/800 euros here - you can spend up to 1200 or so just on the ears if you want that. I tried a few times with non-custom ears from Shure, and while I enjoyed it compared to playing with my monitor, I lost a LOT of low-end and they don't stay perfectly put if you get even a little bit sweaty. So I'm now saving up for a custom set which I'll use with wire. For that one keytar solo I'll either have a longer wire (the keytar needs to be plugged in too in my case anyways) or just ask the sound guy to make sure I hear it wherever I'm going.

MRedZac · Post by **MRedZac** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 12:44 pm

mathieumaes wrote:I just checked prices on Sennheiser, holy crap!
Let's say I have about 500 eur budget, so that's half of the Sennheiser pricing :s

Watch out for Sennheiser IEM 300 G2 instead of G3... You can buy them used starting from around 200-250 Euro on Ebay... If technically ok, it performs quite good as well, in case you don´t want to spend already 1000 Euro for the system only without headphones... I had these for quite a long time, too. Watch out to buy a frequency band that NOT everybody has...
What was working well for me with these G2 was, that I bought some standard in-ear headphones (Shure, 140 Euro) and then went to a hearing aid acoustician to make ear adapters fitting well to my ear and the headphones (~85 Euro). This is not as expencive as you would pay for completly custom made inear headphones...

If you do like this, you can maybe make it with 500 Euro all in total...

MRedZac · Post by **MRedZac** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 12:47 pm

mathieumaes wrote:I was thinking I could use the auxiliary outputs from my Keyboard for this setup...
- Connect a microphone to one of the inputs, but don't send it to the main outputs
- Setup the auxiliary output so it sends the main sound + sound coming from input 1...
Need to do some experimentation with this...

This way I can control the volume by myself, without relying on the sound engineer... I've had an accident in the past where a sound engineer accidently blew my drumfill with guitar sounds. I don't want this happening with in ears ...

Inears are driven usually from FOH or monitormixer... NOT directly at your keyboard, since then you wont hear, what others do...

.Jens · Post by **.Jens** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:26 pm

MRedZac wrote: Inears are driven usually from FOH or monitormixer... NOT directly at your keyboard, since then you wont hear, what others do...

That's true in general. But it's not so uncommon, at least for musicians using their own pre-FOH submixer anyway, to get a balanced mix (e.g. front mix, or a copy of let's say the sidefill) of everything from FOH and adding their own signals to taste to their own monitor at the submixer.

At least the most wire-bound IEMs I know offer two inputs for either stereo IEM or summed to mono with variable blend.

MRedZac · Post by **MRedZac** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 11:39 am

.Jens wrote:
MRedZac wrote: Inears are driven usually from FOH or monitormixer... NOT directly at your keyboard, since then you wont hear, what others do...
That's true in general. But it's not so uncommon, at least for musicians using their own pre-FOH submixer anyway, to get a balanced mix (e.g. front mix, or a copy of let's say the sidefill) of everything from FOH and adding their own signals to taste to their own monitor at the submixer.

At least the most wire-bound IEMs I know offer two inputs for either stereo IEM or summed to mono with variable blend.

Yes, that´s right... But I´ve never seen somebody connecting his IEM directly to the keyboards while routing the microphone through it as well...

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 1:56 pm

I hook up my mic and Kronos to my mixer, using a mic splitter for the FOH. Then I get a line back with a bandmix from the FOH desk. Plug the inears in the mixer.

Spacenorman · Post by **Spacenorman** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 5:42 pm

I have IEM capability in my rig - using a Shure PSM200 wireless IEM transciever and bodypack along with a pair of Livewires custom ear buds.

The transceiver is mounted in my keyboard rack. I "feed" it via a mix created using the "Effects Send" outputs on each channel of my Samson SM10 line mixer. I receive an AUX SEND from the FOH board that contains a "band mix" (vocals, guitar, bass ... essentially everything EXCEPT keys) that I run into a channel on the SM10 - and then mix with my keys. I can use the IEMs with pretty much any group I play with (provided they can provide me with the "band mix" AUX SEND" - while retaining the ability to control the balance of keyboards vs "band mix" so I can ALWAYS hear myself.

Unfortunately, I've yet to work with a band in which everybody uses IEMs, which means I've still got to "move air" on stage so that my bandmates can hear me so I'm still stuck schlepping stage monitors.

I've been very happy with my Livewires ear buds. I"ve been using them almost daily for the past two years (they're what I use whenever I need to use headphones - and I listen to my iPad all day long whenever I'm working. I tried using the stock ear buds that came with the PSM200 .. but quickly discovered my ears found them uncomfortable. I never got a a good seal with them - and constantly had to constantly be futzing with them to keep them from falling out. The custom molded Livewires have been great - good sound, extremely comfortable (once I got used to wearing them a little bit!)

Hooch · Post by **Hooch** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 5:42 am

MRedZac wrote:
mathieumaes wrote:I just checked prices on Sennheiser, holy crap!
Let's say I have about 500 eur budget, so that's half of the Sennheiser pricing :s
Watch out for Sennheiser IEM 300 G2 instead of G3... You can buy them used starting from around 200-250 Euro on Ebay... If technically ok, it performs quite good as well, in case you don´t want to spend already 1000 Euro for the system only without headphones... I had these for quite a long time, too. Watch out to buy a frequency band that NOT everybody has...
What was working well for me with these G2 was, that I bought some standard in-ear headphones (Shure, 140 Euro) and then went to a hearing aid acoustician to make ear adapters fitting well to my ear and the headphones (~85 Euro). This is not as expencive as you would pay for completly custom made inear headphones...

If you do like this, you can maybe make it with 500 Euro all in total...

I have an older G2 transmitter with a new receiver pack.
Works great.
My old receiver pack just got used up.

The newer transmitters have "play well together" features that require everybody having the same thing.

I know you can get Sensaphonic custom molds that the Shure buds work with,
It's basically a custom in ear mold that takes the place of the foam buds you
get.

John

mathieumaes · Post by **mathieumaes** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 9:52 am

I found some more acceptable prices on the second hand market for the G2. It doesn't look like it has a limiter, but I'm nog going to push my luck.

I have some very decent sounding earbuds, and I know someone who can make custom molds for a friendly price...

Hooch · Post by **Hooch** » Fri Jul 06, 2012 1:44 am

Pretty sure G2 has a limiter.
Don't turn it off. It's loud enough.

One zot of feedback through the mains because
somebody wandered out front, you'll be hearing TV tone
for life.

Those with tinnitus know what I'm saying.

John

John

ronnfigg · Post by **ronnfigg** » Fri Jul 06, 2012 7:43 am

I use Shure wireless IEMs with M-Audio dual driver ear pieces. Haven't used them with the K. in the past I would set it up so I had my Triton in my ears in stereo (suh-weet!) and a mono mix of a monitor send mixed in that I could dial down when the monitor mix when to s$&t! I would send a mono aux to FOH (being sure not to send the band mix back to FOH). It worked prettywell...until the guitar turned up (ALWAYS!) I had a lot of control and could go anywhere, even with my wireless controller. In my opinion, it is the only way to go in a live situation.