Live Click Help

[drum.rittle]

I have a Yamaha Clickstation and I use it for live shows.

I used to run headphones out of it (SkullCandy @ first) and then I bought a pair of Sony earbuds but nothing is quite loud enough. I have the volume all the way up on the station and the only thing I can use that seems to work is isolation headphones and they are just to big and bulky when I play live.

I played with Pete Yorn a while back and saw his drummer had the dr. beat with a 4 track mixer next to it to boost his click's loudness and then mix the rest of the band with it. I just wanted some ideas on the avenue I should take.

Shoudl i buy a mixer and boost the volume on that?

Any good earbuds that produce a loud sound I should look into?

I need help!

[razorx]

maybe you need to get some really expensive ear buds

[oops]

Guess it depends on the style of music you play.

I have a pair of direct sound extreme isolation headphones, rather bulky, but if you're playing heavier styles of music it's perfectly acceptable to wear them live. Run the cable down your back and it's not in the way at all. They're soft and easy to wear for long periods of time, and they cut outside noise so I only ever have the click running at half volume.

Or invest in a pair of custom fit in-ears. Expensive, but good.

Whatever you do, you shouldn't be boosting the sound too much anyway. I'd rather have headphones or earbuds that cut outside noise and feed me a lower signal than ones that purely boost the signal and damage my ears.

[danander11]

I am currently undertaking the same endeavour... I just bought the Westone UM2's, a universal model of their ES2 Custom model,, with dual drivers for a richer sound.

I also have a metronome and a Roland SPDS that I want to hear as well as a fallback mix.. so I am picking up a small mixer this week just for that. I will be able to control the levels as I am playing and allowing me to add more things later.

Ultimate Ears and Shure both make comparable products, and all three offer higher-end products. I want to try this for awhile and if it works, I'll invest in premium custom molded IEM's.. I've been told that with custom molds, you can only hear what is coming through them, and if anyone around you calls out or speaks to you, tough luck, you won't hear them.. and right now that's important for me.

One last thing someone suggested was that I pick up a Rolls PM50 headphone amp.. They are plentiful and inexpesive and may just solve your needs..

With all of that being said, the MOST important goal I hope to achieve is to control my sound, but keep it at a reasonable level so that I am not damaging my hearing.

My $0.02

[CtrStDrumSchool]

For live click tracks I always used a drum machine. The alesis SR-16 is relatively cheap. You can pick a sound that will cut through better (hand claps, cowbell etc) I layer a bigger sound on the downbeat. 10 years ago I used a big pair of KOSS headphones from Kmart! Now I use a shure IEM set up but I think just the ear buds would suffice.

[slingerland755]

Radio Shack single earphone. They are cheap and RS will take returns when it shorts out (it will eventually). Save the receipt and keep a few extra in your stick bag. Be careful though...I have tinnitus 24/7. I put a foam earplug in now and it still works fine.

[dcrigger]

I have a Yamaha Clickstation and I use it for live shows.

I used to run headphones out of it (SkullCandy @ first) and then I bought a pair of Sony earbuds but nothing is quite loud enough. I have the volume all the way up on the station and the only thing I can use that seems to work is isolation headphones and they are just to big and bulky when I play live.

I played with Pete Yorn a while back and saw his drummer had the dr. beat with a 4 track mixer next to it to boost his click's loudness and then mix the rest of the band with it. I just wanted some ideas on the avenue I should take.

Shoudl i buy a mixer and boost the volume on that?

Any good earbuds that produce a loud sound I should look into?

I need help!

You don't need to be boosting the volume - you need to be isolating your ears from the sound of the drums and the band. You were on the right path with the isolation phones - but if you want something less obvious and bulky, then you'll need to pursue isolating ear buds (not noise canceling!! totally a different thing and the wrong approach here). With the custom fitted molded plugs being best, but anything that cuts the ambient sound down is better than just going for more and more volume.

Notice in the example you gave of the other drummer's set-up included the his ability to dial in a bit of the band as well as the click. Sure sign that he was using very isolating ear monitors or iso-phones. Or he would have no need to add the band volume back into his phones.

You really need to be careful here - you only got one set of ears and just sitting behind the drums and playing at medium volume is a level of exposure most people on very occasionally experience.

David

David

[mnmckeecu]

I use a click live and ran into the same problem. I couple of watts out of a headphone amp will do the trick...simply connect a TRS (stereo) cable from your click station to your amp.

M-Audio earbuds work fantastic!

-m

[Terry Branam]

Hi drum.rittle,

For my live click rig I have been using a Boss DB-90 with the FS-6 foot switch for tempo changes. I run that as well as the monitor line (xlr) into a small mixer and dial in my own mini mix from there.

For in-ears I am using the Shure SCL-3 earbuds.These isolate a good amount of sound by themselves, however custom fitted ear molds will block even more outside sound. If you go the route of ear fittings, you can save some money with the Shure E2 buds. They aren't as great sounding as the dual drivers, but for around $100, they are very workable.

If your group communicates verbally on stage a lot, you may want to set up an extra ambient mike to hear what your band is saying between tunes.


Hope this helps. and best of luck!



Terry