Starting with In-Ear Monitors
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- Опубликовано: 7 июн 2024
- Making the transition from monitor wedges to in-ear monitors is full of decisions and challenges. Let’s look at the big picture of what makes that transition easier, and how you can lead your team through it.
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00:00 Intro
00:49 Why choose IEMs over wedges?
05:14 How to mix IEMs
08:06 Common objections to IEMs
15:26 Which ones should I buy?
20:51 Free virtual sound check challenge
21:06 Outro 
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Just what I needed to hear, James! The worship team has suffered long enough. I need to take action. Thank you for your kind and compelling advocacy for proper IEM use. 🙏🏼
Our church is on the step to get IEMs and this video will definetly help us to get things right. I feel like the timing is a sign. 😊
In our church we chose not to play to click or guide tracks.... and in general don't aim to 'sound like the record'. And because of that a lot of benefits of in ear monitoring evaporate for us.
That opens up for much more dynamic and interactive worship with whole communion (the worship team is a part of - we don't call it 'audience' because they aren't supposed to listen (audire) but to participate, they are not the target but the center of worship 😁😁).
Sometimes the communion is hyped up and pushes the tempo - so the band goes along. Sometimes they are deeply moved (or just a little bit tired 😅) and drag in tempo - so the band adapts that.
The same for the arrangement: Sometimes the song doesn't 'connect' - so we don't torture the people with 10 repitions of the bridge but cut short. Sometimes the communion really hits it off - so the band soaks and extends. ....
In general we love to react to the mood.
AND: We fit the arrangements to our specific (and rather diverse) musicians rather than trying to replicate the sound of a record. You CAN worship to a song from Hillsong with Organ, Flute, Bass, Cajon, 1 electric guitar .... but if you try to sound like the 3 Keyboards + 3 guitars + bass + elaborate drumset + 8 singers +.... it will become painful (to play and to sing to 😅😅).
But if you fit your arrangement to your instrumentation it can work really.
Honestly: I find it a little boring to hear the exact same sounds and arrangements in all the worship videos.
Once again, thank you so much for your wonderful wisdom and helpful insight! Not a week goes by without me either learning something new or remembering things that I've already learned from you! :)
I am the leader of the sound techs in our church and in the start of April we are getting the DiGiCo Quantum 225 with KLANG! This is SO HELPFUL for us! Much love from Norway :)
Hi James, just to say thank you for the content you create. I can see your passion and love for the congregation and for true worship through your videos! Keep up the good work and be blessed!
You're very welcome Anton! Super thankful to be able to serve y'all on the front lines :)
Great tutorial! I’ve been thinking deeply about IEMs, have thought through nearly every concern, and this video addressed every single question I have. Impressive!
Thanks Jon!
Excellent overview! Very thorough and certainly helpful.
Thank you,
Your video was detailed, and very helpful. Let's see what happens during our first inner ear rehersal coming soon.
Outstanding post. Your explanation and articulation is very appreciated. Thank you for YOUR time too!
Thanks Rob!
Throwing this out there as a word of warning, do not choose to implement IEMs simply for the goal of adding tracks to your worship music. In-ears are absolutely fantastic and I'm a huge proponent of them for all live sound situations but tread lightly when incorporating tracks. If you do decide to use tracks please please please do so with intentionality and do it to supplement what you already have. I have played at multiple churches and nothing takes the wind out of my sails more than showing up to play and realizing that I'm just getting buried in the track. You feel like a prop at that point. Implementing in-ears with the goal of using them for click and guide is absolutely fantastic, this is what my church is currently in process of doing. Click and guide help your team stay together and it does force people to practice more which is great. Overall it is extremely beneficial but can absolutely be a challenge with volunteers. When it comes to tracks you can easily discourage the people on your team and confuse the congregation when there is a flawless lead guitar part they are hearing and absolutely no lead guitarist on stage.
My approach is nearly the opposite. We use it mostly for when we play songs with synth (we don't have a synth player) and/or need extra percussion to achieve a particular feel. When there aren't extra parts we don't use a click at all. But we don't play worship music and maybe that's the difference.
@@terrillmel 100% my approach as well for my band. Go wild with your backing tracks there, it’s your own creative expression. For worship music I’m way more cautious about adding in anything.
@@cberger I see. I completely understand the audience disconnecting from the band when it feels artificial. We keep it as real as we can when possible
@@terrillmel I think there's a clear line when it's tracks to supplement a band, vs musicians to supplement the tracks, the 2nd is what I think the OP really dislikes.
This is a great take!
James you have a knack for releasing a video exactly when I need one about that topic lol I'm stoked about the coincidence.
Great and helpful information. My church hasn't changed to IEMS yet but thinking of it. We suffer with wedges competing with the FOH and vocalists not hearing themselves. I can see the path for our Transition clearer now . Thanks
Our worship band made the switch about one year ago. It has been a great experience. Getting rid of the competing monitors and extra noise really cleaned up our overall sound! Take your time getting each performer’s personal mix figured out is key. Once they are comfortable, just minor adjustments get made at sound check if needed.
We are a traveling band, so not having to lug around multiple wedge monitors was a huge bonus!
Saving this link for when people ask me about making the big switch! Thanks for this comprehensive overview
woah thanks bro! that's quite the compliment
Great info..!! We still do have guest musicians that prefer the floor monitors and those that forget their in-ears or headphones..
James you awesome. Like it
Fantastic information!
I always like in ears because my violin is right up close to my left ear and it is a LOUD fiddle. With wedges I feel I am too loud but actually too soft and playing softly is difficult in the first place. Squeaks and such are easy to make with a soft touch on the strings. My viola is a bit quieter but the low C and G are louder than the D and the A. I would love to switch but the church I play at needs a digital board and a bigger platform to start with. As you state, funds can be a bit difficult for something that only musicans can comprehend. Thanks James!
Great lesson
2:25 To tackle this issue, I started using an on-stage talkback mic, it's just a super cheap $20 Nady with a switch on it, but it's just for the in-ears. I put it up by the drum kit, facing away from it toward the audience, then if anyone in the band, usually the singer/leader, can walk up and talk to the rest of the band super clearly, without doing that thing where you walk up to each one and scream through their in-ear, and they can't hear you so they have to pop it out, then repeat for every member, I'd rather set up the mic lol.
My biggest benefit for IEMs is the personal monitor mix .
This is not a direct benefit of IEMs but often times coincides with going to IEMs.
Can you do a video going over your approach for mixing monitors from a monitor console. You mentioned panning channels that are not as important and I would like to here more of your thought process on selecting what channels to pan for who and how much to which sides.
Great video
Hey James, you said you had smaller ear canals, if you haven't, try those yellow foam ones, they're a different kind of foam that seems less dense, so they squish up a bit more, my guitar player uses them and swears by them. Try em!
Our church is possibly going with KLANG. Got to demo a bit of it at NAMM and on the iOS app. So far, I love it, but can't wait to try it out in a real world situation
Thank you Sir
You're very welcome
While IEM's can help with timing, cues, and add tracks, the main drawback is that it puts the musician in their own studio-like space and location. They become isolated. This is the main reason a singer or musician will remove one IEM so they can hear the room, and feel like being with everyone and not in their own world.
The process of adding IEM click, cues, and tracks will make a band sound better, and is needed if some musicians are not at the pro level. But too often the musician becomes isolated. Some of the large stages even have musicians 50 or more feet away from each other. A live band without tracks can sound out of tune, with mixing issues. I've watched some of those and they sound unpolished yes but their worship is just as authentic.
Watching a worship band live online that is playing at a pro level, and not using tracks, and not far apart from each, and not looking like they are isolated from each other, is a real joy to watch. I know they are live because I hear mistakes at times. Sometimes wrong notes or chords. It can be hard to tell when pro level musicians are really playing, or you are hearing tracks.
That's why I always recommend crowd/room mics as a staple of their in-ear monitor mix. And learning to mix at a level that they can hear every element clearly without having excessive noise exposure. When they get those two things right, it really lets them dial in their sound purposefully.
The greatest benefit of IEM'S for me is they save my ears. I can control the volume of the mix in my ears. I also stand in front of the drummer. No more ringing in my ears after service 😊
Another unmentioned hack for vocalists to overcome the inner hum issue, is to invert polarity of that mic on the console input. Since a single and close mic'd vocal has no polarity or phase relation to other (mic) inputs it has no negative impact in the mixing stage. Personal mixers fortunately don't have polarity inverse capabilities for musicians to play around with ;-)
Thanks
“Singers, pan your voice!” Best advice!
Weird advice, but good advice!
For budget in-ear monitors I highly recommend the KZ ZS10 model with the replacement foam tips. They are about $50 and really punch way above their weight class. I have a set of these as my backups for my Alclair custom molded in-ears. A little tip for you part-time musicians out there, use HSA money for your custom in-ear monitors. I asked my accountant years ago if I could legally claim this and he said there is a really good argument to be made for hearing loss prevention so he gave me the thumbs up. Mitigation of tinnitus is an HSA approved spending option. Please don't treat this as legal advice and consult with your accountant but mine, who I've trusted for years and is above the table on everything, said it was okay.
Heck yes! These are amazing. I'm the only person with custom IEMs in the group. The other three use KZs.
We are in the process of switching over from Mee to KZ and I would def recommend the KZ. They also have Bluetooth adapters so if you really like the way they sound you can use them in other situations as well. Obviously not for live sound applications. Just wanted to add that last part in case anyone thought I was recommending Bluetooth monitoring for live sound. I am not haha.
Mine are Alclairs (spires) as well.
@@terrillmel Yeah buddy! I have both the CMVK and the Spires. I picked up the Spires earlier this year because I found that I was missing some mids in my monitors that really helped me enjoy the music my band plays. It was subtle but with how much we are playing I thought it was worth the investment. I wish I would have just paid the extra few hundred four years ago when I got the CMVKs.
Those kz's are pretty awesome
Great! Would you make some series on PA?
- loudspeakers placement
- which type of loudspeakers to use
- how to deal with different room types (rooms with long reverb like cathedrals; "upper rooms")
- power calculation for room sizes
- delay for long rooms
- fill up monitors for wide rooms
- beam angles to consider
🙂
He has already
He has already. Check this out: ruclips.net/video/8T4ATVa6mLw/видео.html
For custom molds, I have been very pleased with Alien Ears. They are great quality for a reasonable price. They even send you the kit so you can make your own impressions without a trip to the audiologist.
thanks for the "tip"! I'll check that out
I got the 64audio AT6's and it is by far the best piece of music gear I've ever gotten! Can't recommend them enough. I wish I could go back in time and get them earlier
I have the A6 before they came out with Tia and I still absolutely love them.
Sweet! I'll have to try those
Perfect timing! We’re just getting started, trying to figure out what we want and how to get it done. Awesome!
Commenting for the algorithm.
QSC TouchMix mixers all include personal mixing via Android devices and Apple iPhone and iPads. Paired with wireless IEMs, it´s a great option. Users can also be locked down. They also have a built in TalkBack option. Use it with a ProCo Panic Button, and you are all set.
nice system :)
Awesome! Very complete overview. About virtual sound check I have two problems: 1) the sound of the drum kit that you hear even wearing in ears and 2) the bleed of the drum into the vocal mic. These two things unbalance my virtual sound check mix once we start playing. The only way I found to make it better is doing the virtual sound check with the drummer playing.
Great video. Thanks!
Yeah it's not perfect with stage noise.
We have a musician with small ear canals. You mentioned custom molds. I know they can be pretty expensive. Have you found any less expensive custom molds in your search?
“Nobody ever angrily stormed out of church because the mix wasn’t loud enough.”
I've considered it though
I've used in-ear monitors for over 25 years. It's the only way to go. You have volume control and the sound isolation gives balance of the instruments being played on stage. Never have to worry about guitars blasting in your ears, and the drums aren't played as loud because you can always hear them ( never run them through your ear mix, except if their electronic). The main problem is, if someones trying to communicate with you on stage , you really can't hear them. Then headphones would be better. I've used both.
my church uses the yamaha ead 10 which is one mic for the entire kit. since theres only one mic, theres not a lot of shaping we can do with the sound. are there any tips to make it sound not as bad, and maybe some eq tips?
Thanks for the tips! We've been using IEMs for awhile now. I'm looking at doing the ambient room mics. What would you say is the best place for those to go? We have a light bar and can mount them high but I noticed our laser projector has a LOUD fan. I also would like to use the ambient mic for our livestream as well.
If you get shotgun mics, they reject noise from the side VERY well, so the fan noise might not be as big of a deal in reality.
@@AttawayAudio that makes sense. I'll look into that - thanks man!
Perfect timing again! Amateur coverband here. This Friday we will do our first show with IEMs , we practiced last Saturday and were sold almost instantly. Some will go wireless and some will have a wire and tiny personal mixer. Your mix guide came in handy too as after a few rounds of changing each mix for the band members I got Requests for the tiniest changes to bandmembers' in ear mixes. In other words, it worked so well we could discuss those details whereas previously we would have just two wedges on stage with everything mixed on to it. With IEM we play with so much more confidence, we love it! We hope to get to s situation where we can leave a lot of the heavy gear at home, speed up sound checks (and thus time to get to playing) and have a more consistent experience each session. Thanks again
How was the show? Personally once there are people also around there is a temptation to take out an ear to hear the room/audience. Balancing the confidence of being able to hear everything you want but also struggling to connect with the listener.
@@jonathanhamlett8667 thanks for asking! Overall we were really impressed by the increased details which gave a lot of confidence, and the super low volume at which we could monitor ourselves. No ear fatigue and headaches there. But we were indeed lacking the energy of and connection to the crowd. At times it felt we were playing to a CD. I did put up an additional mic to capture the crowd but it was placed wrong so it picked up mostly drums on stage. My bad. Lastly, it took some explaining to the band members that their personal mix wasn't neccessarily what the crowd would hear. It's a fairly technical setup if you're not familiar with this setup. Another hightlight for me personallly was that we had to upgrade our mixer to facilitate more sends or buses. Our new mixer has multi-track recording capabilities and listening back to the recordings was lovely! I was really impressed by how good the recordings were already, but during the virtual mixing at home (highly recommend your free course !) found some quick wins to improve our overall sound the next time round. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this, and all the other topics, it helped me alot in setting our band up this way and we were really grateful and happy with this new setup and what it will bring us in the future. Kind regards, Tim
Does it affect whether they come with a microphone?
The churches I have worked at as technical director didn't have a single monitor on the stage. If you want to be part of the worship team then in ears is the price of admission. The problem is when people try to cheap out and want to use the cheapest earbuds they can find and that leads to a bad experience. When it's done correctly with the right gear it awesome.
Setting up n ambient mic was the turning point for me and IEM’s. No going back now.
It's a major shift :) Glad you got it set up
As an FOH that also mixes ears, I would love to know how to help that vocalist that is always pulling one ear out mid set. They have control over their own volume, but I never see them adjusting that, just bailing on the monitor mix. Occasionally, we'll get feedback from an ear that is dangling in front on a lead vocal. Because it is so close to the mic, it always results in a very high frequency feedback loop. A sound tech solo for the ages!!
It's not easy. Sometimes they just suffer through a bad mix during sound check and then in the performance can't handle it.
It can be a variety of issues, even out of the scope of audio technique. Recently I attempted to help a backing vocalist during rehearsal when the MD didn't approve it and afterwards told me off records that it was a psychological issue.
Do they have the room/venue also in their ear mix? Anytime I take an ear out it’s to hear the room. I want feedback on what the participants off stage are doing.
Or, the singer may be uncomfortable requesting what they want to hear and accept something they don’t actually like and then give up later.
@@jonathanhamlett8667 Yes, we have audience mics that are part of their mix. I never get a request to adjust it. I don't know if they know what role it plays in their mix. But I know that it makes a big difference in their ability to hear pitch.
Thankyou for the video James, also for the virtual soundcheck tip. Our family worship band are at the beginning of using In ear monitors. For a start we decided to do a wired setup. We have a Presonus 16R Mixer.
hi; you can make a comparison between the most common mixers in churches for less than 5000 dollars example the beheringer x32 vs presonus studio live series III?
sounds fun! lots of variables to discuss
Thank you for your video. My In-ear Monitor System only drives sound to one ear in all of the mixes. I use the Soundcraft iU24R Aux sends for monitor mixes. i connect regular XLR cables form AUX output to Behringer PM1 or P2 compact amps but I couldn't get it sound both sides (both ears). Is there any trick I'm missing to getting this running properly?
It depends on how the cables are wired. Typical XLR connections are balanced and mono.
Pm1 is mono, p2 has a stereo switch
Don't forget that reversing the polarity or phase of vocal mic in the singers IEM can make a huge difference in how they hear themselves
Could you explain?
@@YourHaloCreations When you are wearing IEM (or headphones) you hear yourself through your skull/head while also hearing yourself through the mic and headphones and those can sometimes introduce comb filtering on how you hear your voice. If you swap the phase/polarity of the singers mic, it can help reduce that and make the singers voice sound more full and present. Some singers don't need it, but many do. It's easy to do via the polarity switch on the channel or making a polarity swap XLR
@@oldguitars Ok thanks for that
How i can contact you for some questions?
Pero los in ear de que duelen si duelen, yo hago mezclas de monitor in ear y aplico filtros etc pero igual es desgastante para el oido me queda doliendo , tiene sus pro y contra, hay músicos que dicen que les gusta sentir la músics en vivo, es como cuando los baterista piden drum fill
greetings i work with worship leaders in uganda i would like to have one on with you if possible
My teams only have audio in one ear,. We’re using a Behringer x32 console and p16 monitors…everyone is using ear buds. Do you have a video for routing stereo to the p16 units?
The P16 personal mixers have stereo panning built into them
You'll have to use 2 channels to make an input stereo, and then they pan them hard left and right on the unit. You can also group them so the level changes track together.
@@AttawayAudio please forgive my lack of knowledge of this process… So do I link two adjacent channels at the consul, and then send it to a mix bus/matrix ?
then go to the P 16 and link two adjacent channels panning them left and right? I don’t know if I’m making this harder than it needs to be.
We made a xlr to stereo cable and it works great. One of the ears is a little bit lower than the other but it is OK. Been doing it for 10 years now no problems. No amps just iems x32 handles great
IEM's are definitely a leap of faith. A good IEM setup is more expensive than a conventional system and it takes a sound guy that is twice as proficient to really do a great job at it. The reason is more that a good IEM system is stereo for everyone, and you should use "spot " mics, or ambience mics to bring the room back into the players head. The Engineer needs to be really good at mixing sound as if they were a studio engineer. Panning and frequency management are huge parts of mixing in ears. On top of that you have to quickly move through the mixes and keep on top of the dynamics of each band member. Mixers with enough stereo sends for a 4+ person band is not cheap or readily available. Mono IEM's work, but not very well.
A behringer P16 system doesn't cost much more than monitor wedges that are quality. And then you just teach the musicians to mix their own monitors.
@@AttawayAudio This works perhaps for a Church organization, or a self contained garage band. This does not work for sound companies that provide systems, or for touring musicians that do fly ins. A good set of Ear buds for a musician is ranging around $2k. A good wireless IEM system is around $3k per musician ( Shure PSM1000 ). Per musician, IEMS cost more than a conventional monitor system. If a professional sound system provider brought a P16 rig and told the B national level act to mix their own ears, they would be asked to pack up and leave. A quality monitor wedge starts at about $2,000 each, anything below that simply functions. The RCF NX12SMA is about as low as you can go and have a " real " monitor wedge. A JBL SRX812sp is not going to cut it in the professional world.
For Worship groups, sure, maybe; if they are at the intermediate level. If you hire in a professional worship group, they won't be mixing their own in ears. Do you want your musicians playing and having fun? Or do you want them working the whole time to do a sound guys job? The musicians should only have to worry about their own talent, not the talent that wasn't afforded.
Weren‘t you the guy from AAF?
Why not use ambience iem
Once you get good at mixing your own monitor mix. The BIGGEST jump in quality will be from mono to stereo. All the entry level wireless in-ear products are mono. I've had an Xvive for a couple years now which have been reliable enough for the few shows I get. Until you get a stereo monitor solution there's not much point to the stereo mics on the stage. I wish stereo in ears where cheaper.
Stereo is life
The problem with any type of ear speakers is the simple fact they do damage to your eardrum. Damage to the ear drums because the distance of the IEM or any ear speakers next to the ear drum is too close for the ear drum to respond as designed. Ask any ear specialist. While playing the drums, I wear expandable foam ear plugs with a floor monitor in place. Sound will get through the foam but most important the ear drums are protected from close proximity of the blaring or sound. My ears are great after 40 years of playing drums around amped guitars or monitors.
that's a possibility
What if you don’t have digital board
You can run direct outputs from your analog console to an input unit from Aviom or Behringer that then distributes the signal to your in-ear monitor mixers.
I've seen a few people make their own ear moulds for existing headphones, which might help some people who don't want to invest straight away in custom moulds. Here's just one example on youtube: ruclips.net/video/lBJqPh8rbCY/видео.html hope this helps.
But do you send a mono or stereo signal to the iem?
You can do both. Mono is much less complicated and takes far less resources. If you're just getting started with IEMs I personally recommend going with mono mixes just for the cost savings.
We send stereo mixes to all our performers. This helps them feel themselves in the band. And we can pan the vocals around for the vocalists which seems to help them with harmonies.
If you have the aux sends available, always choose stereo.
As far as which monitors to choose, do NOT let your people bring iPod headphones or El Cheapos that they got at the Dollar Store. Sound leakage is so bad that they will crank up the volume to hear themselves and possibly damage their hearing. Amazon carries some really good ones for not a lot of money.
True story 👆👆
Or, try no-monitors and move to voice only.
I've used them, and hate them. Being separated from the room is horrible. I've tried using room mics, just not the same. I won't use tracks because following the Holy Spirit as I lead seldom follows a specific path I knew was coming. Also, alot of singers including myself struggle with pitch while using IEMs. Plus relying on the sound person to properly blend vocals is sketchy. Most churches have people that may know boards and basic mixing, but they aren't usually experienced musicians or vocalists.
yeah having user control of the IEM send is pretty important unless you have a trained monitor engineer.
We have p16 personal monitors, I just hate that having to make my own mix. I use a personal monitor wedge from my headrush and 1 in ear. So I blend it a little bit
Consider taking away the wedges if you go to IEM. This forces the praise team to use the IEM. I have seen bands go to IEM and then one person decides not to use them and soon nobody does. The money the church spent gets flushed.
why not mono audienmce mic ???
mono is better than none. But stereo is like 🤯
Always stereo if possible because it does make a big difference to have that spread in your ears. Sounds more natural.