First gig with IEM (terrible)

  • So I went to my first gig this weekend where we all had to use IEM. Haven´t played with it before.
    I went and bought a pair of shure se215 earbuds which sounded just fine to me at home. I checked my presets through them and with a pair of Akg k240 headphones and my studio monitors.
    So, got to the gig and got everything set up. Used the bands wireless, Akg Spr4. It sounded absolutely terrible. Cleans were ok, but with distortion it was embarrassing. Sounded extremely shrill, buzzy and just reallly unpleasant.


    I have no experience with Iem so didin´t know what to do. I rolled of some prescence but i don´t wanna mess up my presets either. Which I hope sounded good out front. Tried pure cab also.
    I saw that they used diffrent kinds of wireless system in the band. Hopefully i didn´t sound that bad in the bandleaders mix.


    What would you do? Is there anything you can do?

  • If they sound good plugged into the headphone jack, then I would say the wireless was the problem. If the profiles don't sound good from the headphone jack then it's either the earbuds or the profiles.

  • It takes time to get used to in-ear, it freaked me out my first couple of times. I remember one of the first TV show I did, I spent the following 2 weeks before it aired crying and believing my tone and volume balance were terrible. When it finally aired, I thought it sounded amazing! The important thing is to trust that the sound is good up front, then not let it mess with how you play or perform. Good quality/custom ear molded earbuds make a big difference as some of my colleagues suggested.

  • It took me awhile to get used to IEM. One thing the many people don't realize is that when you listen to your amp, you're listening to also the amp interacting with the room. What I did is besides using the mics in my cabinet, I also use a condenser 4 to 5 feet away from the cabinet and it made a huge difference once I tweaked the eq properly When you're using IEM it's like having your guitar cabinets right in your ear! I don't know if the same applies if you're using FRFR, but I would thing it would still applies. I use Ultimate Ears Custom with dual drivers and they sounds amazing!

    Friedman BE100, Suhr PT100SE, Mesa Boogie Dual Recto,EVH 5150 iii S, 68' Metro/Friedman Plexi, Vox AC30 (2) Marshall 1960B, Port City 2 x 12 OS Wave, Scumback speakers (4)BH75,(4)M75,(4)H75,(1)H55(1)Celestion V30 Fryette PS attenuator, Mesa Boogie 2 90, Kemper Profiler amp and tons of rack and fx pedals
    ProTools 10.3.5 HD5 , Logic Pro 10.1,Ableton 9 Live. Dynaudio BM6a with BM9S sub and Focals Alpha 80

  • From which output did you get your signal from in the band context? When you use the monitor out have a look if the cab is enabled. If the cab is switched off, the distorted sounds will sound as you described...

  • Simple question - did the FOH sound come out well? I use IEM's and sometimes the distorted sound can be like a wasp in a jar - however this is replicated through the desk. Did a recording direct and got the same fizzy sound BUT only with certain profiles. The amp in the room sound was OK...

  • This may not be very helpful, but when I started using the Kemper on stage I even only used a t.bone IEM 200 (not: 100) wireless system from Thomann and, as well, the Shure SE215, I had very good experience with high gain sounds. I just want to say it to not give up hope.. It is of course a medium complex signal chain, but depends of a good monitor mix, too. I dont want to compare it to a 1000+ € wireless system and I probably have a bad taste, but I liked it. ;)
    The Shure headphones and the Kemper itself dont seem very limitating to me. Hope you can fix it :)
    Best
    Rob