Rehearsing With In Ears...Kind Of

DavusPG

So I'm in a band which is quite fortunate on that our singer lives in a decent sized house with a room at the back of the garage that is used solely for band rehearsals. Personally I think it has spoiled us a bit as if we were having to pay for rehearsal time then I suspect we'd have got our shit together a lot quicker....Anyway that's another issue.

The only downside is we do need to be respectful of the neighbours of course and there is also an ongoing debate within the band of going iems or wedges for gigs.

As a way of getting a taste of in ears, keeping the neighbours happy and (most significantly for me) hearing what we really sound like before it's pumped the through the PA at a gig, I suggested we all go into our mixer and then from that into a headphone amp where we all have a volume control to set the level as we like it and rehearse with iems.

Our drummer has an electric kit and our bassist DI's into the PA at gigs anyway so the only sound in the room will be guitars loud enough to be mic'd - which doesn't need to be very loud I don't think? And of course our singer. So it's all doable within the space we have.

So the other night we tried it for the first time and although I can see it has potential it certainly didn't sound as good as I was hoping - or as when we've recorded live in the room. The guitars were DI'd which for me is part of the problem as I've never got a sound I liked from the redbox on my H&K

One thing it did highlight is that with two guitarists in the band finding tones that complement each other is very important. I think on a few my gain is way too high which combined with his guitar = noise!

I may be guilty of trying to dial in tones which mimic the full band mix rather than just what the guitar is actually doing.

I guess what I'm asking is can anyone give any tips on getting a good mix and approaching dialling in guitar tones that will sit properly in a full band mix?

We're all new to it but want to get it right. After years of playing along to things at home through headphones I'm beginning to suspect that what I think is the right tone for a song is possibly complete overkill!

Danny1969

We use IEM's for rehearsal in one band I play in. We all plug into a Mackie DL1608 and then we all take a feed from that so we can all have our own mix. The drums are electric, my guitar is DI'ed with a Vox Tonelab and the bass is DI'ed straight in. Like you it enables us to practice indoors without pissing off the neighbours. 

I like the but I see it as a way of practicing under a microscope, every little mistake is clearly audible and anyone landing late or early on the beat stands out a mile, likewise any dodgy vocals. I think if you accept it's not meant to sound like a band in a room and get used to it your find when you do play live your be a tighter band all round because of the way you rehearsed. ..... because in a lot of full on noisy rehearsals someone can easily play something wrong and no one might notice because everything's so loud!  ..... The amount of times I've recorded bands in the studio and a guitarist has been pulled up on a part and protested "I've always played it like that!" .... and he has ..... they have just never heard it

My advice is don't bother with wedges. A decent wedge cost about £200 upwards and will still be a pain in the arse, will cause feedback, will spoil the FOH mix in small venues, will be another thing to lug around.  A £90 set of Shure SE215's or similar will fit in your pocket, not interfere with the mix out front, will protect your hearing and generally allow you to hear everything properly. It's a no brainer these days. 

ICBM

I tried that some years ago, and it's the main thing that's put me off ever considering IEMs for gigging. I hated it, and so did everyone else.

We found it didn't sound natural in any way, and encouraged us all to use the mixer to set levels, tones and control dynamics, rather than doing it by our playing.

I agree with Danny that there are a lot of problems caused by practicing too loud too, but I'd far rather fix that by playing quieter - you may need a quieter drum kit, my drummer got a 'Flats' kit, which also proved very useful for small gigs.

RocknRollDave

I wouldn't gig without in-ears these days. Takes a while to get used to it, and a fair bit of tweaking, but worth the perseverance. It may not sound 100% natural to you, but as long as the FOH sound is right, and you can hear what you are doing, that is what matters, IMO.

DavusPG

So we tried it again only this time we mic'd the guitars and spent time getting all the levels dialled in.

Wow, what a difference, so much so the entire band are now IEM converts and thanks to us Shure have sold another 4 sets of SE425s.

For our next gig we will use the IEMs to monitor but with a wired set up - it's a small venue so not like we'll be thrashing around the place! A few more gigs down the line we'll go wireless.

Can we all receive from one transmitter? I'm guessing this is the part of the kit not to skimp on?!!

Thanks for the comments 

Danny1969

I wouldn't bother all recieving from the same transmitter, that would mean you all have to have the same mix. Normally you all have your own aux send and that allows you to have your own personal mix. For the best ears you need stereo which means 2 aux sends each.