yet anothee IEM question....

[the_big_e]

Yes, I tried searching but not finding anything that seems to be what I want (or understand).

I play blues at charity gigs etc with a bunch of folks. We are not so much a band as 'if you turn up, you play! so we really don't have a real sound system. We have a pa for the singer(s) and sax player but everyone else brings their own amp and plays stand alone. Nothing is mic's to the pa and there's no sound guy (or gal) so volume control is a problem and we,well all the guitar plays anyway, get LOUD!

I play keys and if I put my little K10 behind me (where I can hear it) I have no idea if I am too loud in the general mix, Sounds REAL loud to me but get out front and you cannot hear it. If I put the K10 out front of me I cannot hear is so most of the time I have no idea what I sound like. Often I end up just playing the song in time to the music but am completely unable to hear myself.

I don't want to use a regular monitor because it's just something else BIG to lug around and take up space wherever we are playing so after today's gig when I could not hear myself again I am thinking I need some sort of in ear monitor.

My kb (actually a keytar) goes into my mixer just to boost the signal and then into the K10 but the mixer has a monitor out so I am thinking I want or need some sort of SINGLE in-ear earpiece that I can plug into the monitor out of the mixer so that I can actually hear myself in one ear (I play mono so no big deal) and still hear the general cacophony of the rest of the band in the other. I don't want dual/sealed in ears because I have no way to get a mix from the rest of the 'band' so I just need some way to actually hear myself. Think of it as needing a small (one ear) headset that I can plug into the mixer.

 

Not looking to spend a fortune on this (we play for fun, not money!), just something to let me hear myself.

 

Anyone got any suggestions that might work?

[wesg]

Put the K10 farther away from yourself if you are using it to fill the room. Also remember to consider the horn geometry when selecting its orientation. Putting your only sound source close to the drums and bass helps to get you a bit of mix baseline when there is no FOH system.

[the_big_e]

It's not so much the general mix as the fact hat I just cannot hear myself over the bloody guitarists (of which we have a few)!

So I just need someway to get 'my' sound up to one ear and since I use a mixer with a monitor out, I figure what I need is a mono wired in ear setup.

[mshifflett]

It's never really a good idea to only use one IEM. People do it all the time though. I have played with a guitarist for about 9 years that has done it for almost that whole time but over time I think has damaged his hearing. Your brain will try to do some whacky calculations and compensate when you have your balance all messed up with a single IEM and you will probably end up perceiving that you need the level higher in that ear that you actually need. There are some threads around that explain it in detail, you should see if you can find them. I think one or two members here are audiologists and contributed to those threads.

[the_big_e]

So based on the advice not to only use one IEM, how about this. I use two and use an ambient mic of some sort into my own mixer to pic up the general sound of the band and feed that into my IEMs as part of my own mix. Would that work?

Bear in mind I am really only trying to hear myself over the general noise of the guitar amps and drums so as long as I can pick up the general sound coming from the stage area and mx that into my own sound I think I should be ok.