I am relatively new to this in ear monitor thing so I am here to ask for any observations on this subject. I don’t have expensive ones (Shure SE215) but found that when I play in a crowded mix I can hear my own part better. When I sing they will leak in outside sound and lose bass level on certain sung notes I guess because I am affecting the fit with my jaw muscles. Other than that they have been helpful in these situations. @Corky had a good post he made to me on another thread and I would welcome him and any one else who wants to share their stories and knowledge on this subject.
Dave, I am here to help anyway I can. We use the Shure SE 215’s as well. All the following is based on my experience:
We found it important for everyone to use the same in-ears. The 215’s are really good for the price Even tho everyone hears differently, at least the monitor settings will send the same response to the same receivers. The Kick, and Bass are always a big “want” and I can notch out a boost on just those frequencies they need in the monitor mix. It is also very important to run a stereo monitor mix, as you can pan everything, whether in wide stereo or mono. into a place in the stereo spectrum. Much easier to hear the separate parts.
If you are blessed with multiple aux outs, and a headphone amp with multiple in’s and out’s, everyone can have their own separate mix, referred to as “more me”. As I do with one band, Guitarist is always loud and ruins our monitor mix. I put his mix thru a different stereo aux where his guitar is loudly panned to 11 and 1 o’clock. His vocals run down the middle with other voices panned elsewhere, at different positions. I also run bass and drums in different pans and to a volume he wants them to be. He is satisfied. Myself, drummer, and bassist are happy with a shared mix, where the guitar sits in the mix very well.
The headphones MUST be twisted into your ears for a tight fit where you cannot hear anything outside of them. It takes awhile to get used to them.
I also have the 215. They’re quite OK for their money. Bass is indeed a bit weak but at the volumes on stage that come in i guess you don’t need more to be safe?
I assigned a background rack to it and can control their volume through my keyboard knob.
I then listen via my headphones of the audio card. I attached a telephone type stretch cable.
This is a very handy way and extra on working with PC on stage.
Do you guys work with external amplified inears?
I have 2 or 3 ways I connect now. Direct to the main mixer headphone out, direct to the Babyface headphone out and through a Presonus headphone amp / multiple out box which is connected to a separate monitor mix from the main mixer. I also connect to the windows soundcard out like you on my desktop for non music playing uses.
thx Dave
I only use mono, but maybe it’s a good tip to do it stereo. I also wish i could separate the guitar. They start of at 5 but end at 11 at the end of the gig
My 3-piece has been so obsessed with this setup, we run stereo mains and have broadcasted stereo mix to patrons to listen to on their earbuds thru cell phone. But, that is a much different take for a much different thread.
Our church got several of these from a Fender rep and for the price I think they sound better than the Shures. Some people are complaining that they fall apart, but for me at least, so far so good.
I’d really like to try Fender’s higher end in-ears.
Gotta tell ya, it is so nice to limit the guitar and hear yourself at the same time. A stereo mix will open up the world to you and give a “stage” feel to everything.
We had cards on the tables with instructions to logon. Had several good comments on it.
For those who never have heard about InEar: well known from formula1 where they manufactured in ears for some of the famius racing teams. During the last years they expanded to stage inear systems and have a bunch of high end systems available now. One speciallity is their knowledge about well fitting plugs without going the othoplastics route. So SD2 was a perfect solution for me combining reasonable price, lots of headroom and very clear and uncoloured sound.
On stage and during rehearsals we use a qu24 (allen & heath) with lots of monitor lines. Everyone besides the drummer uses inears (different system). So every musician has control on his personal monitormix via ipad/iphone. My monitor line is a stereo pair which I prefer over mono due to transparency.
Monitor Lines, 4 Keyboard Routes and Voice Live 2 are sent to a Behringer XR16. Keys and VoiceLive 2 are directly routed to qu24 (6 lines). I use the phones out of the XR16 for InEar.
The Behringer is additionally controlled by 4 faders on my KX88 (routed via cantabile). So I have the most important signals available on my fingertips without using iphone permanently.
i love the shape of these, really well thought out for use with humans and I’ll bet the fidelity is excellent! Make room for another jealous fellow with only 1.5 cents left! At $ 400.00 + U.S. Dollars it’s in a league above my Shure’s for sure.
I was blessed in te last days of my gigs in Welsh Floyd, where the sound man had a digital mixer, with WIFI, and with an APP on my iPhone, I could set my own monitor mix (which I was getting via a Shire IEM system). It was heaven (no more trying to signal to the soundman at the back of the hall that something was too loud or too quiet. If ever I invest in my own mixing system for my next endeavour, I would ensure that I have that option.
@humphrey I love the idea of putting some sliders on the keyboard to the use of controlling the mix
But to be serious: I mainly used the Behringer as I needed it to build a hot standby system, means 2 machines in parallel and switching from one to the other in case of a crash from my KX88.
Here the XR16 has the advantage to be controllable by midi. So the ability to control monitor values by fader was more or less a side effect (I don‘t want to miss anymore).
Btw.: in another band I use a smaller setup only using my Babyface: InEars connected to Headphone Out of Babyface, Monitor Lines routed to Analog Ins of Babyface and Faders mapped to cantabile to virtual midi in of babyface using LoopBe1…
