ive been looking at in-ears for a while now but i have no idea whats good. the place that i need them is at church. they are going to be recording our music so we need to make sure everything is working and sounding ok.
we did the first recording and everything was distorted. we turned down the levels of everything and now we cant hear ourselves well on stage. im thinking that the best thing that we could do is get in ears so that we can hear ourselves and not overbear the recording. is this the best method to solve the lack of volume? if it is, what would you reccommend? we would need at least four in ear monitors. if there is a beter way to fix the sound, what would you reccommend?
the way they are recording is taking the output of the mains and running it directly to a camera.
edit: we would need six monitors not four.
You can dance, you can dance, everybody look at your pants.
Wait, you're recording with a video camera? The likely problem is that the camera is expecting a mic or low-line input, and you are sending a hi-line signal from the main-out, thus causing significant distortion in the camera.
Use a real audio recording set-up and all should be fine.
-Laz
the camera has an xlr input if im not mistaken. its one of those fancy pants 3 chip cameras like this.
they fixed the distortion but everything is too quiet hence the desire for in ear moniotrs.
edit: maybe i should mention that this is for tv. i think that's kind of important.
You can dance, you can dance, everybody look at your pants.
I just bought a pair of Shure E2's, their cheapest in-ears ($99). I find them a bit thin, but I believe this is a function of their accuracy and their need for a bit of amping to drive them well. Turning up the pre-amp gave them a lot more depth and bottom. Getting them well seated in your ears and pointed the right direction makes a big difference, too. In the end, I find I can get excellent sound from them with the right equipment and some proper adjustment.
I don't find them particularly comfortable, but they're not unbearable. I would have liked to try the E3's, which sound like they would be more comfortable, but I wasn't willing to spend the extra bucks. The E1's are supposed to sound excellent for about the same price as the E3's.
I also wish they had a bit more punch in the low end.
I do think I will buy a set of the Etymotic ER-6's to see if they are more satisfying.
so you're just plugged in to a headphone preamp?
You can dance, you can dance, everybody look at your pants.
I've only used them as monitors for recording on a computer with a preamp adjustment (not sure what that does, but it has a different effect than just turning the volume up), with GarageBand, and on a Zoom PS-04 digital recorder/guitar amp modeller.
I think you will want to get a headphone preamp with enough heads with individual adjustable volumes to supply the whole band. Probably run that out of a mixer... or out of the camera somehow.
