What to expect with IEMs?

Karl Houseknecht said:
On the occasions when I do sing (rarely), I don't find the seal breaking. But I also don't use them for hot, outdoor shows.
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About 50% of people tend to have a fairly noticeable deformation of the ear canal when opening their mouths, at least to some degree. This can pose an issue for retention of both custom and non-custom products.

Often what works well for these folks is to have an impression taken both jaw closed, and jaw open. When scanned and the custom molds are being produced they can then take into account these possible changes in fit and usually design something that stays in much better, not to mention being more comfortable.

People aren't always going to know to do this, so its important to let the person doing your impressions know if your doing any vocals as well.
 
lqdsnddist said:
About 50% of people tend to have a fairly noticeable deformation of the ear canal when opening their mouths, at least to some degree. This can pose an issue for retention of both custom and non-custom products.

Often what works well for these folks is to have an impression taken both jaw closed, and jaw open. When scanned and the custom molds are being produced they can then take into account these possible changes in fit and usually design something that stays in much better, not to mention being more comfortable.

People aren't always going to know to do this, so its important to let the person doing your impressions know if your doing any vocals as well.
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In my experience it's more common to use a bite block and shoot the molds once with open jaw (biting on the block).

I haven't heard of taking two impressions, one with a bite block and one without and then somehow combining the two?
 
Karl Houseknecht said:
You'll hear the room reduced from what you hear in your ears. It's the perfect balance, no matter how loud your band is. I used to take an ear partially or all the way out. Now I don't do that anymore.
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I got my Westone Am pro30's today and they sound really good. Looking forward to band practice. I've been using the Shure SE425's but the Westone's sound more true and balanced. Thanks for your recommendation on these.
 
REDD said:
I got my Westone Am pro30's today and they sound really good. Looking forward to band practice. I've been using the Shure SE425's but the Westone's sound more true and balanced. Thanks for your recommendation on these.
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Hey - could you post your opinion after you have rehearsal and let me (and others) know what you thought as well? Thanks!
 
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Brian Coonan said:
Hey - could you post your opinion after you have rehearsal and let me (and others) what you thought as well? Thanks!
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Sure thing. Wednesday night is our next rehearsal. I tried them out with my guitar and vocal mic yesterday and they were better than my Shure SE425's. Practice will be the true test.
 
Brian Coonan said:
Hey - could you post your opinion after you have rehearsal and let me (and others) know what you thought as well? Thanks!
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Had rehearsal with the Westone Am pro30's for the first time. First off, they are more comfortable and lighter so you don't notice them as much and your head doesn't feel as stopped up with the filter ports. Everything seemed louder so I did turn up my guitar and vocal mic a little more than usual to get over the ambient room noise that I wasn't hearing before. Probably not as good for my ears but not terrible volume wise. With my old isolated in ears everything was the same volume no matter where I stood but with these, whatever you get close to gets louder. They have a really good sound and feel and you could talk to the other band mates between songs but not as loud as you would normally hear them so I was talking a little loud and saying huh sometimes. One thing that was interesting and I didn't expect was hearing my CLR'S when I stood in front of them mixed with the sound in my in ears. It gave my guitar a thicker sound rather than just hearing the mix in the in ears only. Overall, I could hear everything in the room just not quite as loud as you would without in ears. I think I'll keep using them and maybe spend a little more time blending my mix since this was the first night using them and we were pretty busy working on some new songs we were writing I didn't mess around with them too much.
 
I find that a drawback to IEMs is that they can feel sterile - not very live, sometimes. While IEMs help me hear more of the band (for the most part) the over all band feel gets lost due to lost room dynamics and the pure thump that comes with volume. (When I've used IEMs, stage volume is inevitably lower) Whatever I need to do to try and make it feel live and to maximize that mojo of playing live with bandmates is what I strive for.

There's nothing worse than feeling like I'm listening to an iPod on stage. If adding some 'space' with some form of reverb gives me that feel, I'm happy to do it.
 
So I play in both a power trio and at a church that has a big band. At the church, I love being able to hear how my guitar is sitting in the mix and will use reverb to change how it sits. With the trio, I use them because they're easier than messing with a wedge. Last gig with a wedge by the time we got to the end of our set I couldn't hear anything over our drummer. If I'd had IEMs it would've been consistent the whole night because the mixer has compressors and gates on things to keep it from overpowering in the mix and that sends to IEMs.
 
Of course the frustration is that the mix can be fine in my ears, but then the FOH is totally up to the sound person and may haven nothing to do with what I hear...
 
IEMS make it easier and less stressful for me to perform. Not to mention saving my hearing. I don't want to think about anything but the moment. I trust the sound guy out front can do his job. My mix is as close to cd quality as I can get. Verb on stuff, all mics are gated, stuff is panned around. no matter where I am or what mic position i'm at I can hear like i'm in my guitar beam. People have a tendency to over think stuff.
 
My current band (of 4 yrs) has been all IEM for about that long, and wireless too.
We use customs from Ultimate Ears and 1964 Audio (EU7's, A8's, A12's...).
No matter where we play - and we've done over 300 gigs together - we run our own monitors.
Dual band router (Archer C7) connected to an X32 rack, housed with the Senn G3 IEM transmitters. There's also a 16-ch splitter in the rack, with one leg hooked to the X32 Rack. The other leg goes to FOH snake if provided.
If we have to give the house an L/R feed, or we use our PA speakers, we have an X32 Producer that the other leg of the splitter is connected to and we use it to mix FOH. The producer is connected to the sams router (different static IP) so we can mix/run FOH remotely.
We always connect to the snake.. and use our own mics and cables.
We mix our own IEM's from iOS/Android devices using the 5Ghz band - which keeps us out of the 2.4Ghz soup at most venues.
Our IEM mix seldom varies, and we let FOH do what they do.
My rig is Senn G3 to 1964 A8's.. couldn't be happier with my sound.
I keep levels low and the ADEL ports in the IEM allow "bleed", similar to ambient ports. If I turn up, the bleed goes away. That bleed gives me the "room" feel, so I don't add reverb or ambience of any kind to my IEM mix. NO AMP on stage, BTW.

Yes, adjusting to IEM's takes a while.. but I've practiced at home for years using phones (still do) so the move was a no-brainer.
I've been using IEM's at church for about 5 yrs too.. Wired, but with both Aviom and Behringer systems on stage.

When I sub with other bands and we use wedges.. it's REALLY WEIRD.. Can't hear half what I need (want?) to, and I'm usually getting crushed by the drums.
GIVE ME IEM's, any day !!!
 
hbucker said:
Of course the frustration is that the mix can be fine in my ears, but then the FOH is totally up to the sound person and may haven nothing to do with what I hear...
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Yes, working with sound techs that don't know the band, music, changes, etc can always be a challenge and I would agree with @Smittefar and others - a challenge that will be consistent regardless of any equipment we're using. :)
 
hbucker said:
Of course the frustration is that the mix can be fine in my ears, but then the FOH is totally up to the sound person and may haven nothing to do with what I hear...
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Sure, but that's going to be the case IEMs or not. I've found that they're the best tool to consistently get the best results from me. I can't control what's happening at FOH, but I can use the tools available to make sure they have a great quality signal to work with.
 
jrjones said:
Sure, but that's going to be the case IEMs or not. I've found that they're the best tool to consistently get the best results from me. I can't control what's happening at FOH, but I can use the tools available to make sure they have a great quality signal to work with.
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I couldn't agree more.

My only point is that there is a certain amount of the minutia that we over analyze which will get changed or lost by the time it reaches the audience anyway.

But we should do whatever we can do to make it so we are inspired to play and experience the moment optimally. - No question.
 
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hbucker said:
I couldn't agree more.

My only point is that there is a certain amount of the minutia we over analyze will get changed or lost by the time it reaches the audience anyway.

But we should do whatever we can do to make it so we are inspired to play and experience the moment optimally. - No question.
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For sure. I'll work on the details at home but at gig if something doesn't quite translate the way I had hoped I don't worry about it.
 
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