Hi all. Newbie here so please move this thread if I've posted in wrong place.
I'm a novice drummer, and have got together with a few mates for a regular jam session at local studio. We've got our 1st public 'outing' in a couple of weeks at a local open mic night, then at a small family birthday party in October.
I take regular drum lessons and always play to a metronome when in the studio. The other guys use a mixture of amps and the studio's PA, but we don't really know what we're doing with the huge 32 track mixing desk in the studio room. Just use that for volume control of the PA. No-one has IEM or really wants it at our level (I think). Think 4 older blokes just jamming or maybe in future doing a few sing along numbers in a pub.
When we first started in Jan I used to wear over the ear headphones (Shure SRH840's from my V-Drum kit) plus Alpine musicsafe pro in-ear protection plugs with a small mixer - inputs were the metronome for a click and a separate cheap mic in the room picking up 'general' sound. The mic was taped to a spare cymbal stand and aimed at who i wanted to hear most. The mixer & metronome were placed on a homemade shelf attached to my sheet music stand where i could reach them. I'm not confident enough yet to lose the music stand (hopefully no shame in that!) as i print out the songs with my prompts scribbled on the sheets as some comfort.
More recently I decided to invest in some ACS moulded ear protection (non - IEM) which meant i could lose the over-ear cans and just 'watch' the metronome needle sweep for a general timing check during playing. So i could also lose the small mixer and 'my' studio mic. I've been trying to wean myself off spending too much time looking left and down at the sweep of the metronome but that's not working (on review of our video of the sessions I'm looking at the metronome like 75% of the time and not facing forwards / engaging in the other band members etc.
So, in order to get a click back in my ears I recently picked up Westone UM Pro 10 IEM's (£139) but got home and haven't opened the box yet as I'm now doubting if I've done the right thing.
If i open the box and try them only to find they cut out everything (my ACS plugs dB cut by something like 25dB but still let some noise through) I guess I'll need to bring back my small mixer and 'band' input (plus click of course) so I can hear them ok. Does that sound sensible? I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm going from ACS Moulded ear protection and watching the sweep of the metronome needle (and being able to hear the band albeit a bit muffled) to full on IEM, and needing to pump the band into the small mixer, i guess with a separate mic in the studio again. I dont think we're all going to run through the massive mixing desk.
Sorry for the long winded post, as I say I'm just a novice but desperate in everything I do to play to time and have fun!
Any help most appreciated . Cheers
James
I'm a novice drummer, and have got together with a few mates for a regular jam session at local studio. We've got our 1st public 'outing' in a couple of weeks at a local open mic night, then at a small family birthday party in October.
I take regular drum lessons and always play to a metronome when in the studio. The other guys use a mixture of amps and the studio's PA, but we don't really know what we're doing with the huge 32 track mixing desk in the studio room. Just use that for volume control of the PA. No-one has IEM or really wants it at our level (I think). Think 4 older blokes just jamming or maybe in future doing a few sing along numbers in a pub.
When we first started in Jan I used to wear over the ear headphones (Shure SRH840's from my V-Drum kit) plus Alpine musicsafe pro in-ear protection plugs with a small mixer - inputs were the metronome for a click and a separate cheap mic in the room picking up 'general' sound. The mic was taped to a spare cymbal stand and aimed at who i wanted to hear most. The mixer & metronome were placed on a homemade shelf attached to my sheet music stand where i could reach them. I'm not confident enough yet to lose the music stand (hopefully no shame in that!) as i print out the songs with my prompts scribbled on the sheets as some comfort.
More recently I decided to invest in some ACS moulded ear protection (non - IEM) which meant i could lose the over-ear cans and just 'watch' the metronome needle sweep for a general timing check during playing. So i could also lose the small mixer and 'my' studio mic. I've been trying to wean myself off spending too much time looking left and down at the sweep of the metronome but that's not working (on review of our video of the sessions I'm looking at the metronome like 75% of the time and not facing forwards / engaging in the other band members etc.
So, in order to get a click back in my ears I recently picked up Westone UM Pro 10 IEM's (£139) but got home and haven't opened the box yet as I'm now doubting if I've done the right thing.
If i open the box and try them only to find they cut out everything (my ACS plugs dB cut by something like 25dB but still let some noise through) I guess I'll need to bring back my small mixer and 'band' input (plus click of course) so I can hear them ok. Does that sound sensible? I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm going from ACS Moulded ear protection and watching the sweep of the metronome needle (and being able to hear the band albeit a bit muffled) to full on IEM, and needing to pump the band into the small mixer, i guess with a separate mic in the studio again. I dont think we're all going to run through the massive mixing desk.
Sorry for the long winded post, as I say I'm just a novice but desperate in everything I do to play to time and have fun!
Any help most appreciated . Cheers
James