in-ear monitors

thehenderson · Post by **thehenderson** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:26 pm

hey, I didn't mean to offend you by saying 'pisses people off'. I guess I was more summarising my feelings on how reluctant most soundguys seem to be to do anything outside of what they usually do. COnsidering they're usually the only person getting paid while 16 odd musicians that night get nothing it just seems unreasonable to me

If you're playing one band concerts, then it sounds like you're playing in quite a different 'scene' to the concerts that I seem to find myself at, so I'm sorry if my advice was unhelpful there!

From my experience, the less dependance you have on a competant sound person/working bar equipment, the more consistant your concerts are from town to town

rocklander · Post by **rocklander** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:10 am

yeah bro... no offence taken at all, it's just that you're right in the venues/gigs we play are clearly quite different from the ones you do. like I said, the multi band gigs (fairly few), we go with foldbacks as per the soundman's setup, but for the pub work and corp gigs we get, the in-ears may be worth a look.. sweet as mate.

sambrowne · Post by **sambrowne** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 9:20 am

Covers is actually quite different to playing originals. Almost all the covers band I know of and have been in do not have a soundman - one of the band members does the sound from the stage, usually the drummer but not always. It's not perfect but it's not impossible to do a decent job of it. And you almost never play on the same stage as more than one band - instead, you play the role of four bands in a row, playing 3 or 4 x 45 minute sets, sometimes more.

rocklander · Post by **rocklander** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:15 am

whoa Sam.. nice deal! how long are your breaks? we tend to do 3X 1hr10 sets with 2X 15 min breaks to make 4 hours total... the 45 minute sets would sure give my voice a better break heh.

thehenderson · Post by **thehenderson** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:45 am

Wow, Ive had a few covers bands aquaintances telling me they play nights like that. I used to play upright in a jazz combo, and we'd do corperate functions where we'd play three one hour sets, and have 10 min breaks between each one

in ears sound like the go man! If you have the time to set everything up like that then it sounds like a very good idea to me

but man oh man, if you're sick, singing for hours on end must be punishing

rocklander · Post by **rocklander** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:47 am

sure is.. played one corp gig last year where I could barely stand up between sets - major flu and .. um gut problems heh... but the show must go on...

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:21 pm

I think we've all been there. I had a 6 hour gig and could hardly talk through the 'flu. As RL says - the show much go on. I croaked through the night, but we made it. Fortunately, we had a good guitarist, who took longer than normal lead breaks - but as y'all know, long and constant leak breaks are REALLY boring after one song... but needs must.

We've always done 1 hour, then 5-10 min break and so on.

The one's I've suffered most at are where the guitarist and drummer are way too loud (both very common and unnecessary behaviours) and I've had to scream to get over the top of them, 'cos like RL, we've never been in the habit of using sound guys and I've never liked instruments through PAs.

thehenderson · Post by **thehenderson** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:51 pm

I think loud guitarists are often symptomatic of loud drummer, and you can never tell a drummer to play quieter without offending them personally

thanks god guitar and bass and keyboards are electric instruments that can be played at all levels with the right technology

sambrowne · Post by **sambrowne** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:49 pm

The 45 + 15 minute break thing is something I've done for the past 5 years and even having filled in for people or played with fill in guys, it seems to be the industry standard. I used to do 4 sets as a rule but lately it seems 3 sets is the go - fine by me! I couldn't imagine taking 5 - 10 minutes off and being able to give a great performance for more than a couple of hours. By the last set of the night, I need every one of those minutes in the break to allow my vocal muscles to fully relax and get back to as close to normal as they'll be until the next day.

We are blessed in DNA with a fantastic drummer, Nick, who plays very quietly but still puts out a balanced mix of snare to kick to cymbals, rather than kick, SNARE and CYMBALS as most mediocre drummers seem to do.

thehenderson · Post by **thehenderson** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 3:21 pm

'tis a rare thing, cherish it!

sambrowne · Post by **sambrowne** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 9:19 pm

thehenderson wrote:'tis a rare thing, cherish it!

Believe me, I am VERY grateful and happy to have this gig.
Would be great to see some of you guys there if you're ever in the neighborhood on a Friday or Saturday night - I'll be the nonce dancing around on stage sans guitar singing my guts out.

rocklander · Post by **rocklander** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 11:05 pm

right.. update is:
I built a jaycar FM transmitter (~$60) and bought a $40 usb/mp3/fm radio from DSE. building the transmitter was a pain in th bum cos I really have a pretty poor relationship with RF, but I think the biggest problem was my attempt at cutting down the ferrite core to fit in the case provided (as the instructions suggested to do). ended up getting a mate to look at it, and he put another ferrite core in there, which sticks up out of the case, but has a bunch of wax in it to keep the slug from moving. will put it all in a larger case later on.
transmitter works to the other end of the house in stereo and by all accounts this looks like it'll do the trick
there's a local crowd (plugs for lugs I think they're called) that makes moulded in-ear plugs (with 45dB noise reduction from external noise) for $220. the advantage there is that when I get the plugs, if I win lotto, I can get a nice pricey Shure/seinhauser piece of kit, and keep my own plugs. need to do a couple more gigs and then I can afford to get the moulded plugs.

will be testing at a fundamental level (meaning cheap arse crap in ear buds) this sunday.
I've also done a bit of web research and there's a bunch of "FM Bug" projects out there that profess to have little or no drift with no crystal, just some coils and common as transistors. an LC tank circuit keeps the frequency stable. I may look at building one or some of those depending on how I feel so potentially each member of the band could have their own freq to tune into (so drums and bass can highlight the drums and bass etc.)

so in-ear monitoring for <$330 is pretty nice. will see how they stack up with amps playing around them.

thehenderson · Post by **thehenderson** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:22 am

home-made in ears? awesome!

Jenesis · Post by **Jenesis** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:53 am

Just don't try to nail them together.

Especially when you're wearing them.

Post by **Capt. Black** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 7:08 pm

Nice.

I bet you'll be able to hear taxi comms and hassle any punters that are thinking of leaving.