IEM best practices

[WKSmith]

I like the as10 KZs
5 balanced armatures and no dynamic drivers. They are pretty awesome for the price!

 

[DJD100]

Another vote here for the KZ AS10, 5 Driver Earbuds (with Comply Memory Foam tips), sound great and low cost etc.

 

[scottp]

It's funny, playing electric guitar for 40+ years.
Then moving to IEM.
Now I can't stand to be without them!
The drums without them are just SO loud.
Our keyboard player spends a lot of time on his presets/sounds/tones. Stereo sounds.
I never heard the quality and detail of the keys until I started using IEM!
What a difference! Crazy!!

 

[tysonlt]

Yes IEM is awesome. I like still having my hearing after a gig. We tried monitors again the other day just to experiment, and it was awful.

I use Shure SE215s and find them a good balance between price and quality.

 

[Reaper]

I recommend custom fit in ears. Yes, they are expensive but the (peak)sound level protection is unparalleled compared to non custom in ears and they are more comfortable to wear. I can stand beside the drum kit without any problem, hear myself excellently, but my other band members - all commercial regular fit IEMs - can't hear themselves over the drums when standing in my position and have no problem talking to each other without ! microphone (downside is I constantly have to ask them to talk into the mic; which says enough actually).

 

[jclemensfl]

It's funny, playing electric guitar for 40+ years.
Then moving to IEM.
Now I can't stand to be without them!
The drums without them are just SO loud.
Our keyboard player spends a lot of time on his presets/sounds/tones. Stereo sounds.
I never heard the quality and detail of the keys until I started using IEM!
What a difference! Crazy!!

IEMs have saved my hearing.
And Fractal gear is the perfect compliment. Who wants to haul around a heavy cabinet and power amp any more?

 

[scottp]

For me, A big part of getting the sound isolation and great comfort is using the,
Comply memory foam tips for my IEM.
Comply make many styles.
I like the Comply memory foam fit better than the custom moIds I had made.

 

[Dave Merrill]

So do you IEM guys ever get together with friends and jam? Does everyone use IEMs? What's the mixer arrangement?

Or does everyone just bring an actual cab or FRFR, old school?

 

[scottp]

At my place when I jam with friends, I have a couple Headrush we use for FRFR, and 2 pair of Studio monitors.
I also have a Rivera combo and pedal board to accommodate the non Fractal player.

 

[Dave Merrill]

At my place when I jam with friends, I have a couple Headrush we use for FRFR, and 2 pair of Studio monitors.
I also have a Rivera combo and pedal board to accommodate the non Fractal player.

Thanks, as I suspected.

That's one of my big reservations about IEMs. I have such great memories of all night/weekend jams, my wasted youth.

And yes, those are distant echoes, I've only played with other people once in a very long time. But in my mind, that's probably where I am when I'm spanking it in my basement with the Axe.

So IEMs get a maybe from me.

 

[squealie]

I did silent guitar IEM for several years with AxeUltra/2. Yay for FOH, boo for me. Boo for anyone in front of the stage wondering why I was there.

Now I stick a cheap earplug in on the live side of the stage (drummer side of my head) and am back to dragging 2 4x12s for my open ear. Not too loud, just to get a spread. Way more fun. Way more suck on loadout. The earplug also doubles as a shortcut from your jawbone to your ear canal for singing on pitch.

Anyways, we love to spend money on 12-driver IEMs, so I'll shut up.

 

[Reaper]

So do you IEM guys ever get together with friends and jam? Does everyone use IEMs? What's the mixer arrangement?

Or does everyone just bring an actual cab or FRFR, old school?

For non IEM circumstances I use two headrush 108's with AF3 (and ear plugs) or just my little Koch 20W studiotone combo or the big Koch supernova 2x60W head+cab. But for safety (I already suffer from tinnitus) and for being able to hear what I'm actually playing I personally prefer IEM's. I don't need to 'feel the air moving' and accept a possible loss of sound and feel quality over knowing where I am musically wise.

 

[OrganicZed]

So do you IEM guys ever get together with friends and jam? Does everyone use IEMs? What's the mixer arrangement?

Or does everyone just bring an actual cab or FRFR, old school?

I haven't yet played in a situation where I don't have IEMs since getting the Axe-FX. If I do encounter that situation I could use one of my tube amps with the FX8 or I could use the Axe-FX, a power amp, and a cab or two.

 

[jclemensfl]

So do you IEM guys ever get together with friends and jam? Does everyone use IEMs? What's the mixer arrangement?

Or does everyone just bring an actual cab or FRFR, old school?

Admittedly, this is not my thing. But if I was put in that situation, I'd just put a couple live omnidirectional mics in the room and run 'em to my ears at an acceptable volume. Saves your hearing so you can eventually hear your grandchild, and two mics are a lot lighter than a power amp and cabs. Why carry around all that weight? It's like folks who still carry around a typewriter instead of a laptop.

Anyways, we love to spend money on 12-driver IEMs, so I'll shut up.

Less expensive than a good power amp and cab. I'm always stunned that people will spend a couple grand on those, then buy $200 IEMs to replace them and complain it doesn't sound as good.

 

[dpeterson]

So do you IEM guys ever get together with friends and jam? Does everyone use IEMs? What's the mixer arrangement?

Or does everyone just bring an actual cab or FRFR, old school?

practice i've used a jamhub for over a decade, and now I have rolands version of the jamhub. I wouldnt practice any other way, it's too easy to hide behind volume and with this way you can hear everything, and as loud or not as loud as you want. No ears ringing after practice either.

 

[Dave Merrill]

Admittedly, this is not my thing. But if I was put in that situation, I'd just put a couple live omnidirectional mics in the room and run 'em to my ears at an acceptable volume. Saves your hearing so you can eventually hear your grandchild, and two mics are a lot lighter than a power amp and cabs. Why carry around all that weight? It's like folks who still carry around a typewriter instead of a laptop.

Less expensive than a good power amp and cab. I'm always stunned that people will spend a couple grand on those, then buy $200 IEMs to replace them and complain it doesn't sound as good.

Yeah but how is everyone else going to hear you if you're only coming out of your own IEMs? Is there a pa?

 

[Dave Merrill]

practice i've used a jamhub for over a decade, and now I have rolands version of the jamhub. I wouldnt practice any other way, it's too easy to hide behind volume and with this way you can hear everything, and as loud or not as loud as you want. No ears ringing after practice either.

So everyone is in IEMs then?

That wasn't a thing, like at all, back when I was jamming with random friends all the time.

I guess you just all talk about it and make a plan.

And probably don't plan on IEMs for your local blues jam

 

[Reaper]

So everyone is in IEMs then?

That wasn't a thing, like at all, back when I was jamming with random friends all the time.

I guess you just all talk about it and make a plan.

And probably don't plan on IEMs for your local blues jam

Well not for everyone: our bass player couldn't get used to them so monitors through a wedge. Which I sort of understand because those low bass tones are more felt than heard. We use a Behringer XAir18 console (owned by the bass player) btw and each one of us has hers/his own monitor mix. Very convenient. Bass is plugged straight into the XAir.

 

[Tom Morris]

I'm forcing everyone I play with to buy IEM's. I put together a Behringer XR18 system with personal mixers (P-16) so everyone has their own mixer to dial up whatever each player wants to hear and how loud. It's been a instant ear to ear grin situation every time someone new has joined in aside from mister banger drummer. There is always that one guy that refuses to do or try anything new. I've had two practices with said drummer, last practice no live speakers in the room and not one complaint about anything to do with the IEM's LOL. Now if only I could get him to buy an electronic practice hit we could do it anywhere any time day or night.

 

[dpeterson]

So everyone is in IEMs then?

That wasn't a thing, like at all, back when I was jamming with random friends all the time.

I guess you just all talk about it and make a plan.

And probably don't plan on IEMs for your local blues jam

No interest in blues jams. But we use headphones for practice, same thing just on your ear, not in it. I have 4 sets of headphones, and 4 mics, roland e-kit, my gear and a pod for bass tones. We can practice whenever we want, no real noise other than vocals and some smacking sounds from the e-kit.