Need Tech Help

buzzbuzz

Member
I've been gigging w/ a band for about 3 years now. We are a loud 80's metal cover band.
My hearing is about gone but when I wear earplugs it is hard to hear the guitar changes. I use the plastic ones - not the pink foam type. I know this is probably discussed somewhere here before but here are my questions:

I don't know really anything at all about in ear monitors, etc.

1. What alternative do I have besides a big wedge monitor next to me at a gig?
2. Is there something I can use where I can control each guitar's volume myself?
3. Also I would like to control the singer's (monitored volume to me) myself.
4. I'm also not even opposed to wearing noise cancellation headphones (or maybe just wear those at practice).

Thoughts or any links are great. Also not interested in anything real expensive unless it is really worth it - it's not like we are on tour.

What else do I need to make it work?
 
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There are a couple solutions, but the best solution while staying economical would be to get:

  • a pair of decent in-ear monitors (Shure SE215 $99 US)
  • a set of Comply foam tips to match the IEM's (3-pack for $20)
  • a Rockbox ($130)

The Rockbox is a headphone amplifier / limiter designed to drive IEMs without killing your ears. You can use a plain headphone amp but you will appreciate the limiter when the guitarist clicks the wrong pedal sending horrible feedback into the PA or when the singer eats the mic and screams "are you ready to rock?!?!" in his best Twisted Sister voice.

You can either take a line-out aux signal from your mixer and send it to the RockBox (which replaces your monitor wedges), or you can plug in the Rockbox inline with your wedges and continue to use the wedges in order to feel the extra bass. You don't have direct control over the individual volumes, but you and/or your sound man can tailor your monitor mix to exactly what you want to hear.

If you don't have a separate monitor mix just for you (you share it with the bass player or there are only 2 aux outs on your board and both are in use), then you may need to spend more money to split the signal (either all inputs or just the subgroups) into your own mixer and keep that at your side while you play.

By the way, I recommend the Comply tips over the built-in Shure ones. The Shure tips are good, but the Comply ones are more comfortable to me and seem to last a really long time. They also block out more external sound in my opinion.
 
There are a few things there you kinda lost me on so I will do some research but thabks for the tips.

"You don't have direct control over the individual volumes" -is this ONLY if I plug it in to the wedge? If not, is there another product that would allow me to adjust individual volumes? We are a 5 piece - drums, vox, guitar 1&2 and bass. I only get the vox and guitars in my monitor - no bass or drums. Don't know if that changes any of your recommendations.
 
What you're talking about is gonna cost alot of money. To be able to have individual control of who you hear in your monitor mix, one of the industry standard systems alot of pro venues use is the Aviom system, and that's provided you have everyone going through a main console of some sort. It's very cool, but very expensive considering how much work you actually do.
 
What you're talking about is gonna cost alot of money. To be able to have individual control of who you hear in your monitor mix, one of the industry standard systems alot of pro venues use is the Aviom system, and that's provided you have everyone going through a main console of some sort. It's very cool, but very expensive considering how much work you actually do.

Ok so maybe just try what Gunner suggested first as an inexpensive start and go from there?
 
Ok so maybe just try what Gunner suggested first as an inexpensive start and go from there?

Perhaps, but I'm not really sure which product he's talking about. It sounds like if you want to tailor your in-ear mix, you need to be able to get a feed from the front-of-house console of one of the auxiliary outputs, and feed that into a headphone amp so you can control the overall volume going into your in-ear monitors (for your safety). But the sound man will actually be the only one able to give you exactly what you want as he's controlling who and how much is going out of that auxiliary output at the main console.

Is your band large? I'm wondering if you even really need this if you're only talking about two guitars, bass, drums and a singer?
 
Perhaps, but I'm not really sure which product he's talking about. It sounds like if you want to tailor your in-ear mix, you need to be able to get a feed from the front-of-house console of one of the auxiliary outputs, and feed that into a headphone amp so you can control the overall volume going into your in-ear monitors (for your safety). But the sound man will actually be the only one able to give you exactly what you want as he's controlling who and how much is going out of that auxiliary output at the main console.

Is your band large? I'm wondering if you even really need this if you're only talking about two guitars, bass, drums and a singer?
It's a Judas Priest Tribute Band. Our last gig we were the headliner. First 2 bands used my kit. We get on stage and fire off four in a row. I heard nothing from the wedge for the first 4 songs-very difficult. During a short break I finally get the sound guy's attention and he runs up and fixes it. Then we're into our next 4 song run. But it was so loud I could hardly stand it.
Unfortunately I don't want to mess up the flow of our show and the singer is getting pissed because first its off then its too loud and he is trying to relay all this info to the sound guy etc. Yes, I know it is important to get all this set up first but the reality is we jumped right up after the 2nd band and the club owner is making announcements then the singer does his speaking and there's just no time to really do another sound check, etc.
 
It's a Judas Priest Tribute Band. Our last gig we were the headliner. First 2 bands used my kit. We get on stage and fire off four in a row. I heard nothing from the wedge for the first 4 songs-very difficult. During a short break I finally get the sound guy's attention and he runs up and fixes it. Then we're into our next 4 song run. But it was so loud I could hardly stand it.
Unfortunately I don't want to mess up the flow of our show and the singer is getting pissed because first its off then its too loud and he is trying to relay all this info to the sound guy etc. Yes, I know it is important to get all this set up first but the reality is we jumped right up after the 2nd band and the club owner is making announcements then the singer does his speaking and there's just no time to really do another sound check, etc.

Ah. One of those situations. This doesn't sound like an equipment problem then, as I don't think you having a better in-ear system would've helped. You really need to get a better mixing situation and a more coherent talk-down with the sound guy (who may or may not be very good to begin with). I wish you luck!
 
Ah. One of those situations. This doesn't sound like an equipment problem then, as I don't think you having a better in-ear system would've helped. You really need to get a better mixing situation and a more coherent talk-down with the sound guy (who may or may not be very good to begin with). I wish you luck!

Yeah, it doesn't matter how the signal gets to you if the sound guy isn't paying attention and forgets to un-mute your monitor mix before your set!!
 
There are a few things there you kinda lost me on so I will do some research but thabks for the tips.

"You don't have direct control over the individual volumes" -is this ONLY if I plug it in to the wedge? If not, is there another product that would allow me to adjust individual volumes? We are a 5 piece - drums, vox, guitar 1&2 and bass. I only get the vox and guitars in my monitor - no bass or drums. Don't know if that changes any of your recommendations.

My recommendation was just for replacing what you have with an inexpensive but good quality IEM setup. Whatever you have in your monitor mix now, you would have in your in-ears (you would probably need to ask your sound guy to add in bass and drums to your monitor mix). This would help keep your ears from getting further damaged while still letting you hear the whole band.

The other problem with having a sound guy who isn't paying attention between sets is outside of that scope. ;-)

Like Bo said, if you want full and complete control of your personal monitor mix onstage, then you would need your own mixer/monitor setup. The Aviom is pretty overkill and pricey for this situation, but you can get a stage snake that lets you split the signal for each mic and send one feed to the regular PA and another to a mixer sitting at your side. From there you would have full control over your monitor mix without having to communicate anything to the sound guy. This would cost about $200-$300 US for the splitter and maybe $300-$400 US for the mixer. The downside is that you would have to cart it around to every show, set it up, etc.
 
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