Who's Using In-Ears?

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DinoTrousers

New member
I run direct at my church using a Tech21 Liverpool, and until recently, I'd been relying on a wedge to hear myself. I've just switched to an in-ear system. Right now I'm running just a really cheap pair of decent, isolating ear buds, but I'm looking to upgrade. I'll have a bit of money coming in, but I'd feel more comfortable in the $100 or less range. I would go to $150 if the in-ears were just that much better.

I know I want some with good bass definition to hear the bass player and kick drum really well. I don't particularly want a flat response. These will 100% be for tracking and live use, never mixing.

What are you guys using?
 
Re: Who's Using In-Ears?

I use out-ears. I don't want to listen to the inside of my head, and I prefer to have my senses fully in contact with the whole environment when playing live. I wanna be in touch with the others in the room, not isolated from them.

There is almost always an acoustic solution to sonic issues, the technology should be a last resort.
 
Re: Who's Using In-Ears?

When being blasted with a stubborn keyboard player's monitor, the solution was in-ears or find a new keyboard player. I don't get to make roster decisions, so I went with the back-up plan! That said, I do often only use one in-ear to feel the room a bit more.
 
Re: Who's Using In-Ears?

DinoTrousers said:
When being blasted with a stubborn keyboard player's monitor, the solution was in-ears or find a new keyboard player.
Click to expand...

The first thing I would have been thinking about would have been physical re-location ... of something ... the source of keyboard player's sound, or myself as an irritated player.
 
Re: Who's Using In-Ears?

Also attempted. It's a crowded stage (10-piece band) and nobody else wanted to move by the keyboard player's monitor (go figure). My spot on stage is also not ideal as I'm literally put in a corner. We have some bass traps, but I still end up with a sonic mess. This is all furthered by not having an actual sound guy, and just various youth kids who volunteer and only know how to move the faders up and down a little bit. We have a really great engineer come in once a year and try to help us fix the monitors, but it's really not enough.

All of my problems would be solved if I was allowed to trade the keyboard player for a sound guy!
 
Re: Who's Using In-Ears?

Used and hated them. It resulted a much tighter performance with much less soul. Not as if tight playing and soul had anything against each other.

DinoTrousers said:
All of my problems would be solved if I was allowed to trade the keyboard player for a sound guy!
Click to expand...

Sounds like a plan.
 
Re: Who's Using In-Ears?

I loved em when my band used em. On the other hand, I'm used to playing through headphones, too.
 
Re: Who's Using In-Ears?

I use them. But it doesn't matter to me what kind of earbuds you use, you really have to spend $$ to get the most out of them. I'd lump everything up to $200 together. Then things start sounding better quickly. The more drivers you can afford, the better off you are. Good ones not only are comfortable, but they block out any outside sounds, so you can be pretty close to that keyboardist's monitor, and it won't be an issue.
 
Re: Who's Using In-Ears?

Oh yeah, it took me a while to get used to using them, getting better ones than consumer grade definitely helped a lot, but it's still a transition. What kind of monitor system are you going to use them with? We use an Aviom system at church, so everyone can set their mix individually (sounds like you are using something similar?). The hardest part for me is that I totally have to trust the sound man for what's coming out of the mains because I know my mix is nothing like the main mix, I trust some of the sound guys more than others.
 
Re: Who's Using In-Ears?

if you have a good sound guy and good equipment they can be great. most of the places i play are too small for the hassle or have a sound company providing the pa and in ears arent really feasible with such sort setup times
 
Re: Who's Using In-Ears?

At our church we are using the Allen & Heath MEs that are directly linked to the Allen & Heath console and IDR. love them.
 
Re: Who's Using In-Ears?

Right now I'm just using a mixer fed a direct monitor line from the board. We're looking at upgrading to Avoim or Hearback. I'm leaning toward Hearback mainly because I'm good friends with one of their designers, and it's what we used at the studios I've worked with. That said, Avioms are really fantastic as well. I've not had the chance to try the Allen & Heath.
 
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