Everything You NEED To Know About Custom In Ear Monitors

In Ear Monitors are becoming the main way most musicians monitor their live performances, but what do you need to know before you go out and spend your hard earned money on a set of custom molded in ear monitors for yourself?
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[RhettShull]

My first video course, The Tone Course, is available now. Check it out below!

[babayaga]

i've been playing for 45 years. it's always strange when people come and tell me we sound incredible. it always sounds like crap on stage.

[tedcruzkidneyhunter]

Fun fact: The Beatles were not able to hear themselves at all. Ringo said that he would often look at "Pauls foot or John's Ass". The fans were also the reason why they quit touring as well. They thought that people only saw their shows not for the music, but just because they were The Beatles, like they were animals at a zoo.

[twosnaps]

If the beatles had better monitoring they probably would've toured a lot longer

[brianpruett]

I feel it’s worth mentioning that if you are a singer, when having your molds done you want your mouth to be slightly open as it helps to make for a better fit. Also... depending on drivers if you try to get a “perfect” mix you could begin to overload your ear buds and introduce some unwanted distortion. Sometimes less is more with a in ear mix.

[gleslie]

One added thing you didn’t reference in the video... IEM’s can also let you run a click track to keep the band together, and the band leader or sound techs can communicate to the band to give info or call audibles in a set through a talkback mic. Both are huge if you have to make changes on the fly.

[culturetrash]

No one has caught the Star Wars reference yet...Wedge Antilles is the real MVP

[Hello-plqe]

I think Rick should do a production video featuring you as the artist, I mean step by step miking cabs, mixing drums, instrument arrangement.. maybe an instrumental single. Lol just an idea for you both. Great videos man

[StevePrentice]

Another point to add is that when singers use IEMs they are less likely to strain their voice by trying to compete with the speakers and wedges. The isolation lets singers sing at their natural and safe level, leaving sound balance to the sound engineer.

[MrFoetusboy]

I used IEMs, then switched back to wedges, and now I'm back to IEMs. What makes the IEMs unbeatbable is if you can pop a nice flat condenser mic somewhere, just catching the stage/room ambience, and feed that into your IEM mix so that you don't miss out on hearing the interaction between your performance and the venue you're in.

[sand]

"ive had ears fall off and hit the stage and get stepped on"

[mikesekula]

In the late 80's - early 90's, at better venues we would have side fills in addition to wedges. They made moving around on stage possible.

[fay-wi]

I worked in Hollywood in the late 1980's for one of Stevie Wonder's PA crew. Stevie had molded in-ear monitors by 1988 or earlier. They were slow to take off, probably because it was not simple to get the ear molds done.

[vinyleyezz]

Such a great explanation about the benefits of IEMs! Very clear and concise, thank you! 🎧😎👍

[peteg]

Got my band on in-ears. Had a few "I can't hear anything" moans, to which I usually reply "have you turned the pack on?" because I find that turning the pack on often cures the 'low volume' issues.

[archiemontoya]

Also super important is to wear both at all times when playing. I have a couple of friends dealing with hearing loss or damage from popping one ear out to hear audience or live sounds when room mics are not in the mix.

[truevintageguitar]

Making the switch from cans to IEMs was a huge breakthrough for me even as a hobbyist/church guitarist. I used to come off stage with my ears ringing and clogged with wax because I had to crank the cans so loud in order to hear the click track we were playing to. I didn't know how to adjust my mix properly since there wasn't much clarity in the cans anyway. The isolation from even inexpensive IEMs was a huge breakthrough and instantly changed the game for me. And thanks for the background story on how these came about! I didn't know that.

[davidc]

"A cacophony of drums and guitar amps" That's why I go to concerts

[joseph-owhf]

There's also off the shelf IEM such as those made by Shure, Sennheiser etc. Gotta make do w/ trying to find right size ear tip, and not customized for each instrument, but still way better than floor (w/ possible) side fill monitors. Most of the small time bands I know using digital mixers, do their own monitor mix using a phone and and app. The other benefit for smaller bands w/ out a just way less stuff to haul around and setup.

[robertharker]

Just a FYI, the first use of a stage monitor was by Judy Garland at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium in 1961. It was provided by McCune Sound Service.