How many run direct with no onstage cab?

Went IEM's for the same reasons stated above: no ringing ears after practice or gigs, can CLEARLY hear the whole band so much tighter, same thing for being able to sing on pitch and being able to play lower PA volume. I do keep an atomic CLR on stage in case something goes wrong, but I often forget to turn it on at gigs. I'm running 64 audio IEM's...FAR superior to cheaper options I've tried. The soft tips make them incredibly comfortable to wear for our 4+ hour gigs. Soundmen have thankfully loved that we're all on IEM's when we're not able to run our own sound...makes mixing FOH way easier.
 
I go in with the goal of setting up as little stuff as I'll need to still make playing fun. I keep a pair of QSC K8s in the car, and bring them in as needed.

I play a lot of Casinos on the Gulf Coast, where they have great systems and competent, pro sound men (most of whom I know), so in those situations, I trust the monitor mix. the sound guys at a couple of those rooms, like the Hard Rock in Biloxi, actually prefer that I give them a stereo signal, so I'll use one K8 on the right channel and have the sound man put just the left channel in to my monitor.

I also keep an in-ear system in my car, for when I'm playing with a band that prefers it.
 
Yep - IEM's for us

Fortunately, we all run direct bar the vocals. Drums are TD-30 with SPDX, keyboards, samplers, bass pedals, Axe FX and Bass a is Boss GT thingy..

IEM's are Audiofly AF180's. Mixer is Presonus RM32AI with a CS18 desk (connected by just one CAT5 cable!)

Gig setups are a breeze (we can save our most of our gig venue mixes as patches, FOH and 4 x individual monitor mixes, so soundchecks are a doddle!)

I used to have a monster 4 man lifting requirement 19U midi rig with 2 x 4 12 cabs. Now, just the Axe FX! My back thanks me.

Having said that, we just played an out door show at Castle Donnington, UK and I threw in a powered monitor for back up. 50K rig meant I could feel just about everything, let alone hear it!!
 
Yeah, I run direct with IEMs.
I love it, I'm a big fan of the isolation. It allows me to really hear the nuances of tone.
 
I also do direct with IEMs. Up until recently I was playing probably 4x a month live. We used IEMs at nearly every gig. There definitely is some energy lost with them IMO. The last show we played, we did without IEMs. There was definitely more energy, but I think our performance suffered without them. I'll be going back to them from here forward.

That being said, there definitely is isolation. I keep a Behringer C-4 with a little arm that attaches to a mic stand and has a mic mount on it in my gig bag. I like to clip it on our lead vocalists' stand and point it at the crowd so we can mix some crowd noise in.

FWIW - I use JH Audio JH16 Pro IEMs.
 
We use 2 floor monitors and that's all, the bass amp is enough blowed air for me live :)
 
Been doing it this way for years. Best decision ive ever made. Buying high quality custom molded in ears is key though. I use 64 audio A6's. We also add an ambient room mic to pick up crowd interaction and room sound.
 
I use them out of necessity as well as laziness. It just seems silly to lug a monitor for my "gig". I play in P&W band in which the Bass, Keys and Myself are direct. Only stage sound is coming from the drums 99.9% of the time. In the event another guitar player is present they bring a combo amp and it is mic'd up. Being a "metal" guy at heart it does suck a bit but when using ONE IEM I can hear myself very well, blend the vocals and other instruments and still get a bit of the house mix in my "empty" ear. That being said I have also just gone by the house with no IEMs but I will have issues hearing what I need this way. In a nut shell, its not bad, it just takes getting used to. The critical thing is the IEMs you use.
 
I have the ACS IEM's with the ambient mics in them - they really are very good, I would love to be able to go direct to FOH and use the IEM's for my monitoring (I'm also the singer) the only problem is other then the sax player, the band use a real drum kit and (keys, bass) conventional amps etc so they would not hear me if I didn't use a cab on stage.
My other problem is that for the life of me I can not get a good and convincing sound going direct from the Axe to the PA. (still trying though).
 
Tried with and without... without there is a hole due to the mains and drums shredding the people in the middle. Some guys just like a ripping guitar behind them, and fear change. We have been on a live nation "tour" and have played some really nice places and some not so great places. We have played with and without our IEMS. On nights without our vocals suffer, it's in the video and provable. With them our Vocals are usually dead on. It doesn't feel the same with them and without them, it's just different.

I got one of those rock n roller carts and I get all my stuff in one trip, so bringing it only takes a few minutes setup time to setup.
 
I hate IEM but it's probably the best way to go. Vocals are better and eternal monitoring hassle for the drummer is resolved. Being a non professional player and doing mainly bars, IEM is like an ultimate overshoot IMHO, so for the time being I opt for a mono monitor only on out 2 of the axe fx. The band mix is going to general monitors (one for bass/battery and two in front of the band. It's far from perfect, notably for backing vocals as we rarely have enough time for installing and setting up PA system and don't use the same configuration during rehearsal (FOH for vocals plus guitar and bass amp and drums unamplified or kick only).
 
Brad Wilson said:
I keep a Behringer C-4 with a little arm that attaches to a mic stand and has a mic mount on it in my gig bag. I like to clip it on our lead vocalists' stand and point it at the crowd so we can mix some crowd noise in.
Click to expand...

Do you have a link or pic of the arm thingy that attaches to the mic stand? I'm looking for other options to bringing a whole other mic stand just for the ambient mic.
 
I go direct to FOH (mono) but bring an FRFR monitor to any gig that I know doesn't have great monitors. I face it towards the audience just like a real cab. Soundmen seem to love it. I ask them for feedback.

Note on in ear monitors: I have a 1000 € unit from Sennheiser and a great set of molded in-ears from 64 Audio. Great. However, recently I have used the in-ears less. This is for two reasons. One is due to venues I don't know, or smaller venues where I really need to hear how my rig is reacting with the room, and the second reason is due to firmware changes or amp block or cab block changes right before a gig. I need to feel it in the room. IEMs are great but it doesn't tell me how the rig is reacting in the room. Not enough for my taste anyway.

By the way - somewhat off topic - though related to IEM and high volumes... you should of course be smart and not blast your ears out, but if you are having some tinnitus - there are apparently some natural cures that involve eating vegetables (and perhaps some roots) that can help greatly and even reverse this. I don't know that much about it because I don't have a huge problem with this, though I have come across some fascinating information in passing. If anyone has this issue - educate yourself on natural, nutritional cures rather than drugs. ...you'll probably save a lot of money and heal your ears faster.
 
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