Your opinions needed on sound,..

Ah, the non musician (or non performing musician), controlling soundman. Have minimal sound on stage so that I can mix from the back of the room like I was at a big concert or recording studio. And never mind why people won't keep dancing and the club doesn't book your return. I think it sounds just the way I like it back at the mixer.

Anyway,

FWIW, I'd really recommend Sensaphonics. You will pay pro prices, but get pro stuff. And when you have things in your ear all night long, you want something comfortable. Sensaphonics uses a soft molding compound that I have no problem with over 3-4 hour gigs. And any of their audiologist/fitters is trained to deal with musicians, not just shoot hearing aid molds. Meaning, if you sing or double on a wind instrument, they know how to compensate the molding process for that so the plugs won't leak. Leaking causes the bottom to drop out (killer on a drummer who's relying on hearing the bass guitar) and exposes you to excess noise.

Also, notice that the varsity acts still have wedges on stage, even though they have their ears in. You want a balanced stage sound, just as if you weren't using IEMs. Both for the people right in front, and yourselves. The IEMs will drop 25-30 dB of the outside sound. Meaning if you're running 110-115 dB on stage (not really loud for a rock act), your ears will get 80-90 dB (still fairly loud) into which you can bleed another 3-6 dB of what you want to hear clearly into though the IEMs.

The Vegas thing with no amps on stage, the drums behind a shield and everything though the mains, is an aberration caused by the desire to homogenize things into a very controlled and inoffensive background pablum that won't bother Mr. and Mrs. Omaha on their summer vacation.
 
You're thinking is right in line with mine.

By BIGGEST concern is the lack of consistency. It sounds SO different every time. I know every room will sound different, but shouldn't it be managable? AND, shouldn't the monitors be the same (pretty much) every time? It's only on-stage,.. i can't see the room affecting that as much. I'm starting to think the sound guy should be driving a school bus instead of presenting our sound to the masses. ANOTHER thing, I have a different monitor everytime. We're constintly doing things different. Guitar players always changing their levels, different monitors depending on the venue. I'd think we should establish a "base setup" & go from there. Oh wait, I'm just the drummer, what do I know about sound?
 
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