Teach me about IEMs

[Iron1]

I'm a dinosaur who has never used an IEM system. My gigging life consists of either no monitor system at all or the old school drum wedges blaring 110db of white noise at you. So, hearing much of anything on stage sounds like a pie-in-the-sky fever dream. (also, sorry if I posted this in the wrong sub-forum, really wasn't sure where it would fit...)

However, my drummer and I are discussing getting IEMs for a variety of reasons both during practice and at gigs.

Since I really don't know much about them at all, and I hate buying the wrong thing, I figured there had to be no lack of people here with great knowledge, advice, insights, off-color jokes and entirely unrelated inappropriate memes to share on the topic.

 

[Achilles]

Do you have any issues with listening to regular music using ear buds? That's all it really is - and then it's a matter of how much live sound you want to hear (if anything) over and above the sound coming through the IEMs.

 

[Stone]

Howdy Fe1 this article covers some nice options -->

In-ear Monitors: The 7 Best Earphones to Hear Yourself On Stage

Learn the basics of in-ear monitors for musicians. From transmitters to receivers to the 7 best earphone headsets, here's what to know.

blog.landr.com

 

[Achilles]

Fe1

"Say his name". (Walter White voice)

 

[Iron1]

Do you have any issues with listening to regular music using ear buds? That's all it really is - and then it's a matter of how much live sound you want to hear (if anything) over and above the sound coming through the IEMs.

Nope no issues at all. But, want something that doubles as hearing protection, so the "live sound" question then comes into play. I never used to wear hearing protection because it messed with how my voice sounds in my head when I'm singing. Now I use Earasers and they do a great job of cutting the volume without cutting tone or jacking with how my singing voice sounds in my head.

So, then the questions spiral from there...

Howdy Fe1 this article covers some nice options -->

In-ear Monitors: The 7 Best Earphones to Hear Yourself On Stage

Learn the basics of in-ear monitors for musicians. From transmitters to receivers to the 7 best earphone headsets, here's what to know.

blog.landr.com

Thanks! I'll dig into that.

 

[ragingplatypi]

I started off finding a good cheap set ($20-$80). Mine are Monoprice, but if you search here you’ll find a lot of other good options. I also use mine wired with a headphone cable extender. So for very little money I’ve tried out the experience to start figuring out what I like and don’t like. I saved myself a ton of money by starting to figure out what matters and what doesn’t for me before I invest hundreds of dollars.

 

[SwirlyMaple]

If you're looking for budget options, I recommend steering clear of the Shure SE215, which seems to be what many people own. I have a set myself and, while they work, they really don't sound good by any measure.

There are a number of wallet-friendly IEMs available nowadays with *excellent* sound quality, thanks a recent explosion of "Chi-Fi" options. These brands have gotten amazing at designing well-tuned in-ears and cranking them out at very affordable prices.

The "Linsoul 7Hz Salnotes Zero" would be my pick if you want great audio for a minimum investment. They're currently only $23 dollars on Amazon and elsewhere, and they sound fantastic even against headphones/IEMs costing hundreds of dollars. In my own experience they're comfortable, durable, and have a nice detachable cable.

One of the most important things with IEMs is having a good fit with the eartips. They rely on a sealed fit in your ear canal, and for some people (myself included), this means buying 3rd-party eartips and replacing the OEM ones. I have big ear canals, and "Spinfit CP145 Large" eartips give me a great seal. I use them on all my in-ear headphones and recommend them in general as a good upgrade from stock eartips.

 

[Bob Zaod]

I'm a dinosaur who has never used an IEM system. My gigging life consists of either no monitor system at all or the old school drum wedges blaring 110db of white noise at you. So, hearing much of anything on stage sounds like a pie-in-the-sky fever dream. (also, sorry if I posted this in the wrong sub-forum, really wasn't sure where it would fit...)

However, my drummer and I are discussing getting IEMs for a variety of reasons both during practice and at gigs.

Since I really don't know much about them at all, and I hate buying the wrong thing, I figured there had to be no lack of people here with great knowledge, advice, insights, off-color jokes and entirely unrelated inappropriate memes to share on the topic.

First things first. Budget? Is it closer to 500 or 5k?

 

[Alex Kenivel]

My current IEM rig is a Shure PSM300, a Behringer XR18 digital mixer and router (needed for any serious gigging with an XR mixer). Might seem a little overkill because it is.. Also doubles as just a FoH mixer but since it has so many outputs it works great as a mixer/splitter.

We used to run mine, bassists, and drummer's IEMs through it (they brought their own Xtuga T/R rack device that sat on top of my rack.)

Once we had a good mix for everyone dialed in I'd save it as a Snapshot (mix recall) and it would be plug and play next time.

Before the XR18 I used a little Rolls PM351 mixer to mix my own vocals/guitar/Aux feed but having all the bells and whistles of the XR (EQ, Compression, Reverb, etc) makes me never want to go back.

Amazon for the buds, I went through a few different sets and some of the cheaper ones outlasted the $100+ set of MEE MX3 that I had to get replaced (and died again).

For singing it's a godsend. For guitar it's nice to hear every detail. I can't believe I'd lived with just stage wash for so many years.

 

[Iron1]

I started off finding a good cheap set ($20-$80). Mine are Monoprice, but if you search here you’ll find a lot of other good options. I also use mine wired with a headphone cable extender. So for very little money I’ve tried out the experience to start figuring out what I like and don’t like. I saved myself a ton of money by starting to figure out what matters and what doesn’t for me before I invest hundreds of dollars.

That's good advice. And a big part of why I started this thread: I'm a #CheapOldBastard

If you're looking for budget options, I recommend steering clear of the Shure SE215, which seems to be what many people own. I have a set myself and, while they work, they really don't sound good by any measure.

There are a number of wallet-friendly IEMs available nowadays with *excellent* sound quality, thanks a recent explosion of "Chi-Fi" options. These brands have gotten amazing at designing well-tuned in-ears and cranking them out at very affordable prices.

The "Linsoul 7Hz Salnotes Zero" would be my pick if you want great audio for a minimum investment. They're currently only $23 dollars on Amazon and elsewhere, and they sound fantastic even against headphones/IEMs costing hundreds of dollars. In my own experience they're comfortable, durable, and have a nice detachable cable.

One of the most important things with IEMs is having a good fit with the eartips. They rely on a sealed fit in your ear canal, and for some people (myself included), this means buying 3rd-party eartips and replacing the OEM ones. I have big ear canals, and "Spinfit CP145 Large" eartips give me a great seal. I use them on all my in-ear headphones and recommend them in general as a good upgrade from stock eartips.

I actually had the Shure's in my Amazon cart and just replaced 'em with the Linsoul. Thanks! The first set of Earasers I got were smalls (the only size available when I first bought them) and they were too small. Returned 'em for a set of mediums and they fit perfect. Will see how the stock Linsouls fit. Thanks!

First things first. Budget? Is it closer to 500 or 5k?

See above re: #CheapOldBastard

My current IEM rig is a Shure PSM300, a Behringer XR18 digital mixer and router (needed for any serious gigging with an XR mixer). Might seem a little overkill because it is.. Also doubles as just a FoH mixer but since it has so many outputs it works great as a mixer/splitter.

We used to run mine, bassists, and drummer's IEMs through it (they brought their own Xtuga T/R rack device that sat on top of my rack.)

Once we had a good mix for everyone dialed in I'd save it as a Snapshot (mix recall) and it would be plug and play next time.

Before the XR18 I used a little Rolls PM351 mixer to mix my own vocals/guitar/Aux feed but having all the bells and whistles of the XR (EQ, Compression, Reverb, etc) makes me never want to go back.

Amazon for the buds, I went through a few different sets and some of the cheaper ones outlasted the $100+ set of MEE MX3 that I had to get replaced (and died again).

For singing it's a godsend. For guitar it's nice to hear every detail. I can't believe I'd lived with just stage wash for so many years.

That's the real rabbit hole entrance I'm trying to wrap my mind around. Assuming the in ears can only reproduce what's mic'ed and sent to a mixer, in a live setting does the sound person give you a send for the IEM mixer? In practice I'm guessing we'd need to mic the crap out of the band and feed all that to the IEM mixer, or at least what's most important (Drum overheads? Guitar, bass, Vox...)

Appreciate everyone's input so far.

 

[Bob Zaod]

That's good advice. And a big part of why I started this thread: I'm a #CheapOldBastard

I actually had the Shure's in my Amazon cart and just replaced 'em with the Linsoul. Thanks! The first set of Earasers I got were smalls (the only size available when I first bought them) and they were too small. Returned 'em for a set of mediums and they fit perfect. Will see how the stock Linsouls fit. Thanks!

See above re: #CheapOldBastard

That's the real rabbit hole entrance I'm trying to wrap my mind around. Assuming the in ears can only reproduce what's mic'ed and sent to a mixer, in a live setting does the sound person give you a send for the IEM mixer? In practice I'm guessing we'd need to mic the crap out of the band and feed all that to the IEM mixer, or at least what's most important (Drum overheads? Guitar, bass, Vox...)

Appreciate everyone's input so far.

I use the Xvive System with Shure SE215's for me and Linsouls for everyone else BUT our drummer uses a Behringer P1 and swears by it. We only use them when we have to. The p1 is not wireless but it can be mounted on a mic stand or on your belt. Otherwise I use a mini array system that goes behind the band that's similar to a Bose system.

The Behringer is pretty inexpensive and so are the Linsoul buds. I have tried the combo and it's actually pretty good.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

That's the real rabbit hole entrance I'm trying to wrap my mind around. Assuming the in ears can only reproduce what's mic'ed and sent to a mixer, in a live setting does the sound person give you a send for the IEM mixer? In practice I'm guessing we'd need to mic the crap out of the band and feed all that to the IEM mixer, or at least what's most important (Drum overheads? Guitar, bass, Vox...)

With all the shithole places I've played with the dumbestfuck "engineers" at the helm, I've found that the less responsibility I put on them - the better.

Splitting every mic'ed signal you want at the source and controlling your own mix is the best way I've gone about it. Only once (first time I've actually used IEMs) did a soundidiot give me a great mix - probably because he was using his own XR mixer and was a guitarist that used a Helix LT and IEMs himself (still did a shit job at FoH).

If being sent Aux mixes from a board, you'll have to have clear communication with the engineer about what you need and when - PFL buttons should be turned ON on every channel you want so the EQ, compression, and fader moves don't disturb your mix. I regularly played a club with broken PFL buttons, so splitting the signals before they hit the FoH board was the best way to go about it.

 

[Bob Zaod]

With all the shithole places I've played with the dumbestfuck "engineers" at the helm, I've found that the less responsibility I put on them - the better.

Splitting every mic'ed signal you want at the source and controlling your own mix is the best way I've gone about it. Only once (first time I've actually used IEMs) did a soundidiot give me a great mix - probably because he was using his own XR mixer and was a guitarist that used a Helix LT and IEMs himself (still did a shit job at FoH).

If being sent Aux mixes from a board, you'll have to have clear communication with the engineer about what you need and when - PFL buttons should be turned ON on every channel you want so the EQ, compression, and fader moves don't disturb your mix. I regularly played a club with broken PFL buttons, so splitting the signals before they hit the FoH board was the best way to go about it.

Yeah part of the problem with a lot of the newer mixers out there is they are easy to use. This created so many wannabe FOH "engineers" who never actually spent time learning how to properly mix a band before buying the digital mixer. Most digital mixers (like modelers) have presets and also like modelers the presets are garbage BUT what happens sometimes is these wannabe's just set up presets and go with that.

I have been running sound for bands for almost 30 years. I can't wax poetic about matrices and such but I have a good ear for it and have done some Nationals here and there that were very happy with what I did for them. Have always been hired back by locals when I wanted to be. Been running sound for the bands I am in for even longer than 30 years.

I will also say this. At least 80% of the time there is someone in a band that hasn't a clue how to dial their rig for live use. No biggie if they take direction well and let me dial a bit for them or take advice, but many times their tone or drums suck and expect the sound guy to make it sound great. Sometimes it's just a shit house system.

 

[Iron1]

Update: Got the set of Linsoul 7Hz Salnotes Zero and while they did sound really good, in order to drown out the ambient noise I had to turn them up really loud, which then seems to create the whole "warning: hearing damage" snafu.

I'm currently using Earasers in practice to cut the harsh sound peaks and they seem to work well. Trying to use the Linsouls just ran the volume back up again. Switching out the tips didn't help them seal any better, so I returned em.

So, where does the overlap exist between proper sound monitoring and hearing protection? ATM it seems like I'm better off with relying on the Earasers and stage volume.

 

[Baba]

Update: Got the set of Linsoul 7Hz Salnotes Zero and while they did sound really good, in order to drown out the ambient noise I had to turn them up really loud, which then seems to create the whole "warning: hearing damage" snafu.

I'm currently using Earasers in practice to cut the harsh sound peaks and they seem to work well. Trying to use the Linsouls just ran the volume back up again. Switching out the tips didn't help them seal any better, so I returned em.

So, where does the overlap exist between proper sound monitoring and hearing protection? ATM it seems like I'm better off with relying on the Earasers and stage volume.

Good post, and I somewhat agree. It's a back and forth battle for me.

I use custom molds, and while they do filter out A LOT of dbs of stage volume, and I purposefully keep my IEMs down pretty low to protect my hearing, they are so low, that they are at a point where there's not much benefit to using them, as I can hear most of the instruments from the stage, even with them in.

They DO provide top end clarity that gets blocked out by wearing them or earplugs, but it's not like I really need that.

 

[Iron1]

Good post, and I somewhat agree. It's a back and forth battle for me.

I use custom molds, and while they do filter out A LOT of dbs of stage volume, and I purposefully keep my IEMs down pretty low to protect my hearing, they are so low, that they are at a point where there's not much benefit to using them, as I can hear most of the instruments from the stage, even with them in.

They DO provide top end clarity that gets blocked out by wearing them or earplugs, but it's not like I really need that.

Thanks. And, yeah, that's about what I was expecting I'd encounter the first time I'm stage with them. Thankfully, I'm so used to having to cue entirely off the snare/kick drum to keep my place in a song that doing so going forward should just come natural.

 

[Baba]

Thanks. And, yeah, that's about what I was expecting I'd encounter the first time I'm stage with them. Thankfully, I'm so used to having to cue entirely off the snare/kick drum to keep my place in a song that doing so going forward should just come natural.

My problem is both a blessing and a curse: most places I play have really decent/good wedges, and my band needs to hear me for intros and such, and I like feeling the air in the room, so I have them give me a separate IEM mix, AND ALSO pump my guitar through the wedge.

Problem with that is, it's loud enough that, what I hear is like 50/50 wedge/IEM, and if I'm really being careful, more like 70/30, so the IEMs become a little less necessary.

I'd be just fine just using a wedge and earplugs, UNTIL I get to that place where their wedge isn't working, or the tweeter is blown, or the sound man/woman doesn't know what the hell they are doing, or some such idiocy. THAT, is where my IEMs come in VERY handy.

I just had that happen last weekend. New soundguy. We didn't know the old soundguy had my IEM mix coming from send 7 instead of send 4 or whatever, so, that was a problem.

 

[spawnofthesith]

My band uses IEMs. We have a more simple and affordable approach than most... and I have 0 complaints.

We each have Behringer P2s and the in ears of our choice. When emailing input list before shows we tell the sound guy we need 3 aux sends for our IEMs. Those plug into our behringers and the sound guy just mixes our in ears instead of wedges (or in addition to wdges if anyone prefers). Easy AF and has never not sounded good.

In the event that a venue can't provide aux sends, we do have splitters and a little mixer for just in case scenarios. This small mixer setup also works in the extremely rare event that we are running our own sound



Now I've seen a lot of dudes on forums turn there noses up at this method because they don't want to be at the "mercy of the sound guy" but you kinda are at his mercy no matter how you slice it, and I definitely am not in favor of over complicating load in and sound check with extra tech, but to each their own. I've never had any complaints with the in ear mixes from any sound guy at any venue we've played since implementing this.

 

[Iron1]

So, thanks to the cheap IEM thread, I got some Chus and they seem to do a great job sealing off the outside noise.

That brings me to the next question:

What's the easiest/cheapest way for the drummer and I (and guitar player if we ever #%#%ing find one) to play our recorded song from an iPhone, so we can both hear it thru IEMs while practicing together?

My guess is an adapter cord from the iPhone, to an IEM transmitter, out to two receivers (one for each of us), then the Chu plugged into a receiver.

 

[cragginshred]

Cheap is cheap unless it's a basic guitar wireless used for rehearsals. I recommend budgeting to get molds -the only way to get the proper hearing protection db reduction. Then buy some decent ones built to the mold. Place wire in shirt to transmitter on hip which prevents getting caught on strap
#1 Good mix. Turn down frequencies/instruments that drive you nuts while still being bale to hear everyone. All modern mixers have apps for you to tweak mix on the fly
#2 Use at practice to get used to them -Very important!!!
#3 Use rechargeable batteries at rehearsal and real ones live
#4 Can take partially out of ears sometimes to hear real time volume or feel the stage
#5 Can put a condenser mic facing audience and blend that into mix but I have never felt the need to do so
#6 Mount receiver in rack to not deal with setting up each gig or rehearsal

Those are key tips off the top of my head. I got my molds and unit then hated em at first mainly because I did not get used to them rehearsing. Went back to them due to last bands drummer would break sticks every set he pounded so hard. Now I feel naked without the IEM's

I use the Shure psm 300 unit. Not top of the line but good enough and plenty pro audio for me.