Can’t hear myself onstage

[ZeroZero]

Hi. I went to a rehearsal this week. It was a bit of a jam, in the room I could not hear myself when playing. Now I know that the real answer is explaining to the drummer and guitarist that pp is not something babies do in nappies, but there comes a time for every player, in the moment that they must play whilst others make a racket.
I am not too fond of in ear monitors as the fall out my ears, but I would get some if this was the best way. Are there in ear monitors that do not do this? What are my options these days, for a small pub band scenario. I had not played out for years. I also play sax and could provide backing vocals. I use a Nord Stage 4 and sometimes an SKX pro.

Equipment suggestions?

[Schorsch]

I use Westone in-ear speakers, the predecessor of the AM Pro X, and am very satisfied with them both in terms of sound and how they fit into my ears. They don't fall out of them at all but that's a subjective thing and might be different for you. If you have issues with in-ear speakers falling out of your ears in general you might look at customized ones which are 100% individually made for your ears, though much more expensive, Ultimate Ears Professional are good ones.

Just be aware that you also need a headphoen amplifier, I am using a hard wired Fischer Amps body pack with Stereo inputs. Then also make sure that you get your individual in-ear mix from the mixer which requires available channel outputs fed into the body pack.

[cphollis]

Hi. I went to a rehearsal this week. It was a bit of a jam, in the room I could not hear myself when playing. Now I know that the real answer is explaining to the drummer and guitarist that pp is not something babies do in nappies, but there comes a time for every player, in the moment that they must play whilst others make a racket.
I am not too fond of in ear monitors as the fall out my ears, but I would get some if this was the best way. Are there in ear monitors that do not do this? What are my options these days, for a small pub band scenario. I had not played out for years. I also play sax and could provide backing vocals. I use a Nord Stage 4 and sometimes an SKX pro.

Equipment suggestions?

Things I've done for that:
- bring an old CPS SSv3 and earplugs to keep up with the racket (it works!)
- use a dual small mixer IEM setup
- telling everyone to turn down or I'd be departing soon

The CPS SSv3 has a stereo spread, placed sideways on an amp stand it can fill a rehearsal room and be clearly heard above the din. APs will always suck. Don't forget the foam earplugs.

A small pair of 8" PA speakers (EV, QSC, Yammie, etc.) will sound better, but not fill the space as well.

My dual small mixer setup when a PA is available:
- mixer 1 gets keys etc., sends to FOH and mixer 2
- mixer 2 gets mixer 1 and FOH, sends to IEMs, this is where I turn up my ears.

In your case, you'd send keys, sax and vox to mixer 1 and provide a combined mix to whatever PA was available, or whatever in-room amplification you're using. If you can't hear yourself over the din, turn up mixer 2, not mixer 1.

Alternatively, if you have a single mixer with aux busses (XR-18, etc) that can be used as well.

I think people spend too much on name-brand IEMs. I buy IEMs in bulk for my band (they break!) and go for the ~$50 Amazon specials with ~$20 foam tips and a ~$10 cable. The tips come in a size variety pack, one will work well for you. If you give them a while to break in, they are as good, or better, than my Westones, Shures, etc. at a fraction of the cost.

Since I'm a keyboard player and not up front, I've been using ~$100 Sennheiser open-back headphones for gigs. I look like a complete dork but they are GREAT as my ears don't sweat and I can still hear everything around me.

Finally, if people insist on playing too loud, I remind them that I'd be leaving soon if they continued, and do so while smiling, almost like I'm talking to young children.

I've only had to walk out once.

[be lee vit]

You didn’t mention what your monitoring setup is now…I’ve made the mistake before of not bringing my own speaker to a practice. I figured I could just plug into the PA. It was a big mistake! There is more than one reason I had trouble hearing myself through a PA but bottom line is that it definitely didn’t work for me!

[NiCoX]

I use Westone in-ear speakers, the predecessor of the AM Pro X, and am very satisfied with them both in terms of sound and how they fit into my ears. They don't fall out of them at all but that's a subjective thing and might be different for you. If you have issues with in-ear speakers falling out of your ears in general you might look at customized ones which are 100% individually made for your ears, though much more expensive, Ultimate Ears Professional are good ones.

Just be aware that you also need a headphoen amplifier, I am using a hard wired Fischer Amps body pack with Stereo inputs. Then also make sure that you get your individual in-ear mix from the mixer which requires available channel outputs fed into the body pack.

I recently switched to custom molded IEMs, and while it is a bit expensive, that has been a life changer for me...

And I would also recommend the hard wired Fischer Amps body pack, that's what I'm using too...