In ear monitors...

Carny Brat Matt

Junior Member
I keep getting bad mixes and sound through the monitors at shows lately. My band is considering in ear monitors. Any suggestions on which to get? How much do they really help?

Also what do you do when you can't hear anybody, or your kick, and the sound guy can't or won't do anything to fix it? I seem to completely fall apart in this situation....help!
 
I use Shure SE215

and I dont plan on changing them

love em

I use them for everything from a click for practice....to monitors live......and they are only like $100

A+
 
I have just purchased some Shure SE215's today that will serve as in ear monitors and personal earphones.
Get back to me in a week and i will tell you if they are shite or not :)
 
Can't comment on the in ear monitors - I've never used them, although my band has considered them before.

With the bad mixes on stage, I reckon that as long as you're not being drowned out by the screams of your rabid fans, if you can't hear anything on stage it might actually be because someone (with an amp) is playing very loud on stage and drowning out you and the other band members that you need to hear. Listen to see if you can work out exactly who/what you can hear. I think if you really can't hear your own kick drum then something is pretty loud!

Does your band really need to have that much volume coming off the stage or could it be turned down a bit on stage and fed through the PA? This depends on the style of music and how you guys want to present yourself, but bands I've been in usually find that if you actually trust the sound guy a little bit he will usually give you a pretty good mix out the front. If he's working with poor gear or he's in a rush that's going to be his priority - not getting your monitors set up perfect. So you can ease off the volume on stage and let him get them mix right. That's his job and he (supposedly) does it for 3 bands every night in that same venue with that same gear.

There are some bad sound guys out there, but if you're having the same problem all the time chances are there's something you can control too.

Also make sure that when you're soundchecking you actually play at the volume you are going to play live. If you sound check like you're playing in your living room and then come out with adrenalin pulsing, crank your amps and play twice as loud things are not going to be right. Give the sound guy the benefit of an "honest" sound check.

On the night if you find yourself in a real bad situation the worst thing to do is rage against the sound guy in your head. You've got to stay calm and positive and control the gig. Negative thoughts about anything will affect your playing.

I would also ease up on the washy cymbal parts, simplify certain parts (just go for the BIG hits, that's what they notice anyway!), and smack the back beat loud to keep the band together.

Cheers, Good luck
 
I use Shure SE215

and I dont plan on changing them

love em

I use them for everything from a click for practice....to monitors live......and they are only like $100

A+

Just looked at these on Amazon, do you just plug them into a PA? Seems like you will need extra long wires? I cant imagine all 5 of us with these and more cords running on the floor? Is there a wireless version or something. I do like the price of these but not sure I like having to wear headphones basically and have a cord running.
 
I use a behringer headphone amp
and Shure SE 425 inner ears. The nice thing about the headphone amp is that it has an aux input for your click, XLR and TRS in the back that plugs directly from the monitor feed from the main board. Use this instead of a wedge. A word of caution with inner ears, If the sound guy has no experiance mixing inner ears don't use them. The good thing about the behringer is that it has a main line level control and a channel level control. Here is the link of the headphone amp I use.

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/HA4700.aspx
 
Just looked at these on Amazon, do you just plug them into a PA? Seems like you will need extra long wires? I cant imagine all 5 of us with these and more cords running on the floor? Is there a wireless version or something. I do like the price of these but not sure I like having to wear headphones basically and have a cord running.

I have a wireless box
 
I use Shure SE215

and I dont plan on changing them

love em

I use them for everything from a click for practice....to monitors live......and they are only like $100

A+

was about to write the exact same thing +1000000000
 
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