In Ear Monitors

One advance in musical performance technology that I have welcomed as both an audience member and a performer is the advent of the in ear monitor (IEM).  For many years, on stage speaker (or “wedge”) monitors were used to give the performer “real time” feedback on what he was playing.  In all but the best cases I found the wedges to be a compromise in terms of volume and sound quality.  Especially as a bassist I was often frustrated with the low frequency response of the wedges when played at sufficient volumes I found in most venues.

I have yet to meet a soundman who hasn’t welcomed the removal of wedges which tend to, at best,  complicate the FOH sound.  With on-stage wedge monitors, the musician and soundman often compete to allow the audience to get great sound and the musician to hear himself play.  Many benefits of IEMs are: control of stage volume, direct control of the performer’s mix by the performer, freeing up the soundman to focus on the FOH mix rather than monitor mix (although there is still significant setup work to get the channel assignments correct) and potentially less damage to performer’s hearing if used correctly.

IEMs are not without issues.  First, I have never been satisfied with how my bass sounds with IEMs.  Even using audiologist-fitted custom ear molds and expensive multi driver monitors, I have found my trusty Sony MDR 7506 over-ear headphones to sound much more accurate, especially in the midrange and low frequencies.  Unfortunately, most over-ear headphones like the MDR 7506 don’t block out enough external noise to make them useful for most live performance applications.  I have resigned myself to accept that sound quality of my mix as a performer is secondary to the performance and what the audience hears.  I rely on the soundman to get the best sound to FOH and use my personal monitor to give a “basic image” of what the audience hears.  My opinion may change if I use super high end IEMs.

One thing I found that helps in getting a satisfying bass playing experience is to be near the subwoofers (preferably standing on top them) so that I can mimic the experience of actually hearing the bass correctly.  This in conjunction with the midrange heavy IEM have given me satisfying results.

Many vocalists will remove one IEM during a performance to get a better feel for the audience reaction to the music.  The IEM can block out so much sound that the singers can feel disconnected from the audience.  There are other tricks to handle this involving ambient microphones and pulling the IEM out of the ears slightly.

If it is your first time using IEM, realize that there is a learning curve to getting comfortable with them.  It is a very different experience listening to your playing/singing with IEM than listening to the “natural room” sound.  This is partly psycho-acoustic and partly due to the effect of the room on the sound (reverberation, echo, damping, etc).  Also, most IEM have short cables which inhibit movement.

In summary, if you go in with the expectation that the experience of using IEM will be different (and possibly vastly so) from using over-ear headphones or wedges you may find the learning curve lessened.  Hopefully this will allow you to focus on making great music.