Re: [Harp-L] Personal Monitor

[Greg Heumann <greg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, Richard

You didn't say what amp you were using and that's a major part of this equation - however.....

Hearing yourself at a jam is a big problem for many of us. I went through exactly the same problem and spent a better part of a year trying home-brew monitoring solutions. None of them worked for me.  I went to a jam where the host's PA had the monitors hooked up to the mains - they could not be independently adjusted. Adding any harp to that system was an instant feedback nightmare. In a jam setting most of the loud stuff (guitars) isn't mic'd at all so their signal isn't in the host's PA in the first place, and neither is yours- and the host may not want you touching his PA anyway. You need to hear everything AND yourself, hopefully with a good representation of your volume relative to others. But when you play with something in your ears you're going to hear yourself in that old, dull, I have a really bad ear infection low-pass filter but LOUD way - and it is extremely difficult to judge your volume relative to the rest of the band. So you really need good sound-insulating ear plugs, an excellent monitoring fidelity and most importantly real-time adjustment of the monitor mix.

That means YOU will have to set up a mic or mics that hear what the band sounds like out front. Ideally, that should be a wireless mic as well. The cost has just escalated further. Where will you put it? How will you prevent someone from ripping it off? You will need to control the volume of your mix while you're playing. (I made myself a belt-worn volume control for this. I even tried a stereo system where one ear was me and one ear was the out-front mic to try to get better adjustment. It never worked well.) Virtually all pro in-ear monitor (IEM) systems are wireless, and involve a sound guy doing nothing but managing monitor mixes. 

There is a solution. Do everything you can to hear yourself in the first place. That means getting your amp up higher and closer to your ear. But if that doesn't do it (and it doesn't always) then you simply need to get a bigger amp that lets you compete with the guitar players. I ended up going that route, first with a Sonny Jr Four-Ten and now with an Avenger. I play at some jams that are excruciatingly loud on occasion - but I can always hear myself. If you think about what you'd have to spend on a good IEM system, you will probably spend less on a big amp.


/Greg

http://blowsmeaway.com
http://facebook.com/blowsmeawayproductions
http://bluestateband.net



> From: Richard Trafford-Owen <richardtraffordowen@xxxxxxxxx>
> Date: January 22, 2012 10:04:02 PM PST
> To: Harp-L <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Harp-L] Personal Monitor
> Reply-To: Richard Trafford-Owen <richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> 
> I play in quite a few small venues where the band does not use a PA and I have no monitoring other than my own amp. Even when we set up or use a PA, I have great trouble getting decent monitoring. Poor monitoring means I cannot hear myself and it makes me blow harder, which damages my harps that otherwise last a very long time. I've tried putting my amp at ear level or pointing it up at me. I've tried turning it up, of course, too.
>  
> Has anyone tried personal monitoring devices that they could critique? I have good in-ear phones that could be plugged into the appropriate device. I've seen the Rolls Personal Monitor Amp, which has been mentioned in passing on the list. Cheap, but any good? I worry about the pass-through quality. Galaxy and Nady make $200 models and offer wireless capability. They go up in price from there. Also, I've seen personal monitor speaker systems that may be preferable to in-ear. I play through two different amps, one is a tube amp that probably has to be miked to get an output but the other has an output that can be used directly. Sometimes I play through the PA.
>  
> In-ear v. speaker
> Pass-through issues
> Mix vs. just my sound
>  
> Thanks for any ensuing discussion!
>  
> Richard