I know for most of the members of the WLA arts team In Ear Monitors (IEM's) conjure up really positive thoughts or cause them to sin in our hearts with dreadful thoughts of what they would do to their arts pastor for intriducing the foul inventions.
I think people have two major complaints about IEM's. The first is the feel...they just kill the feel. This problem is due to two things...first that they don't push as much air as people are used to and so the "vibe" (yes intentional) is lessened. The second reason is fit and sound quality. If the IEM's are uncomfortable then the whole experience of using them can be quite negative.
Fortunately there are ways around this. The first is to get a better set of earphones. Yes, they exist and yes I'm admitting the ones we provide are not the "best" option. They aren't terrible but they aren't the best. The IEM's we have at WLA are single driver ear phones so they don't carry much bottom end. Bottom end is a big part of the "vibe" thing...as Queen pointed out large bottom end makes the rocking world go 'round (paraphrase...gosh I hope I don't get in trouble). How do you solve this? Like you would for any speaker system...add a sub-woofer. That's right, some ear phones have as many as 3 speakers built into them for better sound. Another option for increasing "vibe" is that some ear-phone makers offer an "ambient" option so you can get a bit of the stage sound mixed into your IEM's. Pretty cool.
The other fix is to get a moulded ear piece. You can make an impression yourself or go to an audiologist to have one made for you. This means the ear bud will fit your ear exactly, never slipping, never coming out, and will sound better because the foamy bit never gets in the way.
Now, I've never really mentioned this much before because the technology has always been a bit expensive. But I've just found a company that does this for much cheaper than I previously thought possible. I'm providing links to two companys, the first is the less expensive option and the second is the industry standard with the ambient option (add $100 to any set of ear phones) but they're at least twice as much money as option 1. If you've got any questions about this drop me a line! (If anyone is reading this who cares)
http://www.freqonline.com/tourdefreq.htm
http://www.ultimateears.com/_ultimateears/products/custom/ue5pro_description.php
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You forgot the part where if I am hearing myself in my ear that loud I will shy away and not 'let 'er rip' (in a totally holy way of course). When I hear way too much me in my ear I pull back thinking that I'm that loud in the house as well. If I just have enough (in ear or floor monitor) to know I'm not crazy out of tune then I can gauge how hard to sing based on what I hear from the house. This all equals more freedom, which I'm assuming equals more vibe.
ReplyDeleteNow as for fit, I'm good with that. I don't mind them actually being in my ear. Using only one helps with the vibe thing I suppose, and I no longer wish that someone would break in to the church and steal all the IEMs like I once did. No, no more cursing inwardly while using them. :-)
All in all it still comes down to me trusting the sound guys are making me sound better than natural and if I belt it out and it's too much, they'll turn me down. Although many Sundays I hear that "I couldn't hear the vocals anyway" so I might as well break in to Queen. Either way, Nothing really matters. Nothing really matters to me.