Why Wear In-Ear Monitors?

In-Ear Monitors (IEMs) are crucial with loud stage musicians, especially for the vocalists.

One thing you may not know, is that many of the large concerts you are going to now are all IEMs for everyone on stage. There's no sound on the stage at all, except possibly a guitar speaker for special effects and of course the drummer (who may be in a clear plastic cage) for sound control.

Feedback is the Singer's Worst Enemy

What happens is that the band starts playing and they have their mix in the floor monitors. The singers are doing their best to hear themselves. Then, all of the sudden, as the night goes on; --- the drummer gets more excited and he starts hitting the drums harder. Then, --- the bass player feels like he can’t hear his bass matching the bass drum. Then, he turns his bass amp up. --- The keyboard player, guitar player, and so forth will turn up their amps to match the drums.

The sound engineer can't turn your mic up because it starts to squeal.

So you, as the vocalist, get drowned by your band and the worst part of this is that ---when you cannot hear yourself --- you don't want anybody else to hear you either. This is why I say --- IEMs are crucial --- to being able to hear yourself when singing. Otherwise, people hearing you will think that you are a “rummy” as you sing out of tune.

You Can’t Hear Yourself

When you can’t hear yourself singing, you will yell instinctively and you'll be off key; sometimes even out of key and out of rhythm. Your mind will tell you that you're doing fine (it can hear the notes before you sing them out), but the audience will be hearing somebody they think is a terrible singer.

They will not imagine that you can’t hear yourself, so you'll get no sympathy. This is not to mention the damage you are doing to your vocal cords --- as you sing louder and strain your voice.

When the voice is functioning and producing sound --- and you can’t hear the results, the body will start to automatically force --- meaning that your abdominal muscles will start to push extreme air pressure at your vocal cords. Your cords will start to squeeze and your larynx will go up and you'll be straining very aggressively. Vocologists refer to this phenomena as vocal cord collisions.

Severe Hoarseness

The result of vocal cord collision is what most people call severe hoarseness, or what the doctors call acute edema of the vocal cords. Without trying to scare you; this condition can also lead to vocal hemorrhaging, polyps and nodules. (This has happened to Adele and many others.) These types of damage can be healed or removed with voice therapy, or sometimes removed by surgery. So, in order to avoid these serious conditions --- please use EIMs.

Another Advantage

Another advantage of EIMs is some of them protect your ears from the loud stage sound (especially the drummers’ high frequency symbols), if you do have amplifiers on the stage.

Many people think that EIMs are too expensive. Well, it's kind of like cars. You can get EIMs from as low as $50 to $2000 and they all have different functions and the price varies depending on the functions, including sonic value. I won't mention any brands, so you'll have to do your own research and find out what works best for you.

Big Clue

Here's a big clue. If you have EIMs, you don't have to have a wireless system. Of course, it’s very nice to have a wireless system and its most common --- but you don't need one.

You can run the headset cord from your headset to the belt loop, where you attach an extension cord (let it fall to the floor) and at the floor wrap this around your microphone cord. Give it to the engineer to plug-in to the monitor output --- it will be your EIM. Then, you can have him help you with the mix from there.

Independence

If you want to be totally independent, then you can get a vocal processor or small mixer and a splitter, so your microphone will be going to two places.

One to the sound system; (so he's running the front speakers for you) and the other output of the splitter will go to your mixer or vocal processor. Then, your EIM can be plugged into the output and you’ll have a lot more control over your personal volume.

Now of course you’ll hear only your voice, so you won’t hear the band in your EIM. That’s ok because as loud as some bands get, that can be just fine.

There's even IEMs for mixers. They're tuned totally flat, so the mixer hears the basic sounds as recorded.

Protect Your Ears

You’ll possibly have anywhere from 25 to 35 dB cut and you won’t have to turn your EIM up as loud.

If your EIMs are in the overall mix, you might think --- what about hearing the audience? Well, that's a simple process --- the sound-man can run a mic from the stage pointing towards the audience into the mix. So, without writing a book on this, the thing to remember is, keep your mind open about what's available out there and really research what fits your budget.

The main thing is that you can hear yourself in your EIMs. This is extremely critical!

Great for You

Sometimes nowadays, as I mentioned earlier; the guitar players’ drummers, bass players, sequencers or DJs’ may have their own EIMs. A system like this is a luxury for them and it's great for you.

If you can afford to use an engineer that has everything all set up and everybody has their own EIMs. That’s the ultimate.

The reason again that this is so important, is because EIMs don't create feedback. You can get the levels, bass, mid, treble, and effects and instrument mix you want. You won’t have to worry that all of a sudden --- the speakers will go crazy and drive everybody nuts with high squeals, midrange or low range feedback.

ENT Surgeons and Voice Therapists

EIMs can do more for your voice than a voice therapist or an ENT surgeon. EIMs can save you a lot of money, time and a lot of heartache. I highly recommend that you purchase EIMs. There's no excuse not to.

It’s your voice and instrument and it's up to you to take care of it. Get out there and get shopping. Look at what you can afford and what you need. You can test them out at various stores or sometimes, if you are looking for a specialized model, you can visit a special showroom in certain cities.

It's all out there, almost overwhelmingly so --- if you keep what your needs are and your budget is in mind, as you are searching; you will find exactly what you can afford. So, right now make a promise to yourself and go out and get set up with EIMs.

Brad Chapman Vocal Pre-Producer www.bradchapmanvocals.com