In -Ear monitors

let me just preface this by saying I've never been a big fan of in-ear headphones when compared to over-the-ear types for listening to music

My band uses those battery pack monitors for vocals and it works, but basically once it gets loud enough to hear over the stage volume, it is so distorted it sounds like crap. We can keep our three-part harmonies tight, but lets just say it's not always a pleasant experience.

Is it just the nature of the beast, or is it worth plunking down extra $$ to get better ones (such as today's stupid deal of the day on MF)????

I have never used anything besides stage monitors, but I am interested in in-ear monitors as well. Hoping some people chime in. What all is needed to get started with a decent set that doesn't cost a kidney?

I'm not certain what you mean about "battery pack monitors" ,but real in ear monitors are not cheap and won't distort at high volumes...

take your time and do some research as to what you want.... also take time to have your ears poured so the fit is precise

prices can go from the low end of $300 a set to close to $3,000 a set... there are a lot of differences in the models in how they transmit the sound and what frequencies transmit the best - not all makes are flat throughout the hearing range and some are very peaky

Perhaps you need to adjust your gain structure? I wonder if you're overloading the transmitter? Does it have an overload indicator LED? Many of them have an LED that flashes green-amber-red when signal is present. Green is good, amber is okay, red is bad.

well...we picked the system up used from another band. I kicked in $60 so that was my 1/5 share. I've never even looked at the transmitter end, but we have 5 or 6 little receivers each with a belt clip, on/off switch, volume, and a red LED that lights momentarily when you switch it on.

The ear buds look like they came from wal mart.

Okay I get it this is probably the lowest of low end :!: Probably not worth my investing more $$ looking for a better sound. They work well enough for what they are, I just have to remember the audience isn't hearing the distortion.

we used the rolls unit (MF) they are not wireless but they worked very well for us. separate volume for the whole band and vol for your personal mic. allows you to balance it to your needs...for 60.00 cant be beat.

The sure wireless PSM200 series start at about 599.00 from Sweetwater or Full Compass. Depending on how you want your in ear mixes each band member can buy there own in ear setup. Taking an auxiliary send each on the mixer to achieve there own mix. A starter might be to buy one transmitter and however many beltpacks to get one mix for all.

I haven't had the guts yet to make the jump...probably someday tho. They say once you go in ear you'll never go back to the wedge monitors.

- Jagg

I've seen bands go back to wedges. Most figure out its the mix and EQ they were lacking. Or ear fatigue from too loud IEM causes them to rethink the idea.

I was in a band that used in-ears for a few years. It was the tightest band I have ever been in. I will say that everyone went direct out of their Boss GT-8, Line 6 Pod X3, or Sansamp so the only stage volume we had to deal with was the drummer. I think this made a big difference as we did not need to turn them up to get over the stage volume. It was great. There was never any volume wars on stage. I could always hear the other guitarist and he could always hear me without having to crank our amps. It was nice. We had a separate mixing console dedicated for monitors. Most of us had our own mix. I have since changed groups and some of the members were too set in their ways so we don't run them anymore. I miss them. It was nice getting home from gigs and not having my ears ringing. All I can say is if your gonna use them, everyone needs to be on board and you can't skimp. Get the good stuff, it is worth it.

I was in a band that used in-ears for a few years. It was the tightest band I have ever been in. I will say that everyone went direct out of their Boss GT-8, Line 6 Pod X3, or Sansamp so the only stage volume we had to deal with was the drummer. I think this made a big difference as we did not need to turn them up to get over the stage volume. It was great. There was never any volume wars on stage. I could always hear the other guitarist and he could always hear me without having to crank our amps. It was nice. We had a separate mixing console dedicated for monitors. Most of us had our own mix. I have since changed groups and some of the members were too set in their ways so we don't run them anymore. I miss them. It was nice getting home from gigs and not having my ears ringing. All I can say is if your gonna use them, everyone needs to be on board and you can't skimp. Get the good stuff, it is worth it.

Stop. STOP! You're Killing me!

I would miss all that too.

I was in a band that used in-ears for a few years. It was the tightest band I have ever been in. I will say that everyone went direct out of their Boss GT-8, Line 6 Pod X3, or Sansamp so the only stage volume we had to deal with was the drummer. I think this made a big difference as we did not need to turn them up to get over the stage volume. It was great. There was never any volume wars on stage. I could always hear the other guitarist and he could always hear me without having to crank our amps. It was nice. We had a separate mixing console dedicated for monitors. Most of us had our own mix. I have since changed groups and some of the members were too set in their ways so we don't run them anymore. I miss them. It was nice getting home from gigs and not having my ears ringing. All I can say is if your gonna use them, everyone needs to be on board and you can't skimp. Get the good stuff, it is worth it.

Similar good experience here with some obscure low-end chinese brand. I think we paid $50 on the transmitter + another 50 for each receiver. NEW that is, talk about going cheap lol ...

Never had any distorted sound coming across. I was really a great experience.
I'm tempted to say you guys have way too much stage volume or there's something wrong in your gain chain. Probably the latter, there's a lot that can go wrong from mixer gain/aux/output levels to transmitter gain+output levels and receiver input gain+level.

On a different note, I think a big part of succes or fail with in-ear systems is also to have your say on the monitor mix. We were running our own FOH and monitor mix from the stage so that was really great from the IEM point of view

Our soundman bought some Carvin in-ear monitors and it was the best thing that ever happened to our band! If you are going home with ringing ears, this is the way to go. I don't care what brand, or how much you pay, but I agree with vincent in the respect that-"everybody needs to be on board".

we used the rolls unit (MF) they are not wireless but they worked very well for us. separate volume for the whole band and vol for your personal mic. allows you to balance it to your needs...for 60.00 cant be beat.

I've used the Behringer (http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/MA400.aspx) version; the wired-up thing is a bit of a pain, but it makes pitching so EASY. I haven't used it for a while- well, since the previous singer (who was a whining princess when it came to foldback) left. But I'm going to resurrect it for the next gigs. We cart and set up our own production, so setting up and tuning 3 sends of FB is getting a little tedious. We have twice as much power pointing backwards as we have facing the audience:roll::lol:

I use one of these...

http://origin3.behringer.com/EN/images/lightboxphotos/MA400_P0491_Front-Top_XXL.png

... into a set of $99AUD Sony earbuds like these...

http://www.productwiki.com/upload/images/sony_mdr_as40ex.gif

Get a FoH mix feed into the "Monitor" input. Set it up so my vox are in one ear, and the "band mix" is in the other. The mixer unit goes on my pedalboard and I got a 10m (30') 3.5mm-3.5mm stereo extension lead I cable-tied to my guitar lead so I could unplug but leave the earpieces hanging round my neck during breaks.

Killer foldback (that goes in your gigbag) for less than $150AUD