In ear Monitor

Mark1960

Hi All - The vocalist in our band is thinking of trying an in ear monitor, and I was wondering if any body has had any experience with anything like this, and what are the pitfalls.

Thanks in advance

Roland

We use IEMs.

Our vocalist and bassist (BVs) both use cheapish IEMs, and find the satisfactory sound quality. I think they’re Mackies. 

Mine are isolating, although I hear enough spill through the vocal and drum overhead mics to know how the audience are responding. 

The big breakthrough for us was changing to a mixer with multiple aux out channels, each its own mix. Singer, bassist (BVs), and I each have our own mixes. 

If it’s just your singer who wants to try IEMs then you just need one aux/monitor channel from you desk. You could try it out at rehearsal with a long cable rather than wireless. He will need a half decent pair of earbuds, for example Shure SE215s. 

PolarityMan

We run a behringer XR-12 which gives us 4 mono mixes and 3 of us use IEMs, the drummer still prefers a wedge....I love it. I dont sing but I can actually hear the vocals properly including little performance nuances etc that got lost going through a PA. I use the shure SE315s and singer has the 215s so those are fine.

Might want to check out massdrop too they have loads of fairly cheap IEMs

Jota

I started using IEM this year.

Can say enough good things about the KZ ES4. Specially for price (€13).

I still hate using these things but we really need to do it in our band (click and backing tracks) and I never had my ears ringing after a show again.