I have been involved with house of worship audio, sound systems and performing for almost two decades now. The reason I am starting this month’s Sound Sanctuary with this statement is because when I began installing church sound systems and singing in choirs, “in-ear monitors” (IEMs) were rarely used in live performance, and hardly the day-to-day item in many of today’s concert systems.
In fact, the first time I sang at church, there were no monitors at all. I simply placed a finger into my right ear so I could hear my own voice in my head. I guess that was the first in-ear monitor! Today, in-ear monitors can put a vocal mix and the band in your head — a long way removed from the finger-in-the-ear trick.
The Next Step
Are you ready to put an in-ear monitor system in your facility? I honestly believe in-ears were designed for houses of worship. First of all, eliminating your old floor wedge monitors will help bring the overall volume down in your sanctuary, while at the same time reducing onstage volume levels. And your mix will get a little cleaner because you won’t have those pesky floor wedge monitors playing back into your microphones. For that matter, you also eliminate the chance of any annoying feedback.
Those of you who plan on singing with your IEM will find that your pitch is more accurate and you can sing with less strain — mainly because you can put your own voice back into your ears at a volume that suits yourself. (A little like the finger-in-the-ear trick.) Lastly, some people think a clean stage floor (sans wedges) just looks better than one cluttered with monitors. Now that you have decided on purchasing a new in-ear system, you will have to choose a product that is right for your church.
Options and Alternatives
There are a few different ways you can go with IEMs. Personal monitor mixers are my favorite and can give each musician control over their own mix. Let’s take a look at a personal monitoring system that has become popular in many churches. That would be Aviom, which allow each musician to mix their in-ears exactly the way they want. Aviom offers 16 channels in which to build your mix on your A-16II personal monitor mixer. The Aviom system works well, but isn’t cheap — you can easily spend $5,000 (or more) on a system with a half dozen personal mixers.
The Roland M-48 live personal mixer is another excellent, well-designed personal monitor system. This system offers 16 stereo channels, with level, panning, reverb and equalization. The M-48 and accompanying S-4000D splitter and power distributor are built with rugged Roland quality, but a complete system can cost $7,000 to $8,000.
For a smaller house of worship, HearBack makes a nice system that sounds good and is about a third the price of the Aviom. However, you are limited to eight mixes, and you can’t save those mixes. But I have worked with the HearBacks and they were surprisingly durable. The mixers mount directly onto a mic stand. I once accidently knocked one over. It took the abuse without problem and continued to work perfectly. The HearBack really has a lot to offer for the price.
Other personal monitor mixing systems include the Behringer Powerplay 16 P16-M, Movek MyMix and the Pivitec e32, as well as the dbx PMC that’s due out later this year.
Now there are some of you who not only want IEMs but you also want yours to be wireless. It is easy to send a signal out of a personal monitor mixer to a wireless system. If your personal monitor mixer has a line or headphone out, you can send that signal to your wireless IEM and you’re ready to go. My pastor uses an personal mixer to drive his wireless in-ears. He also has a wireless headset mic and a wireless guitar. He basically wants to be completely free from any wired constraints when he is preaching, playing or singing.
If you don’t have a personal monitor mixer you will need a good sound tech and a flexible mixing console in order to create a great wireless in-ear mix. As for what wireless in-ear system you should purchase, that’s up to you and your budget. That said, there are quite a few wireless in-ear monitor systems out there so I will touch on my top three (not in any particular order of preference).
Shure offers a range of wireless IEMs. Its PSM200 is well made and delivers a quality performance for the price. Sennheiser also produces a lot of wireless IEMs, but my favorite Sennheiser is the EW 300 IEM G3. It cost twice as much as the Shure, but I just like it. My third pick would be the AKG IVM4500. This is another excellent IEM system for many reasons.
Maybe I should dedicate an entire column to discussing why I like these wireless IEM systems. However, there are many wireless in-ear manufacturers, so you shouldn’t have much trouble finding one that fill all of your needs. Another idea for a future column would be discussing the various options in third-party ear pieces — both stock and custom-fitted — that can take the in-ear monitoring experience to the quality you’d expect from listening to a nice stereo in a living room.
Lastly, if you are looking for an inexpensive but good-sounding in-ear option, I would go with a headphone amp. I really like the sound quality of the PreSonus HP60 amp. There are dozens of headphone amps that will fit the bill. You simply use the aux sends from you board and feed the headphone amp. From the amp via cables (long ones), you will feed your ear buds. You will need a good sound tech to set up your mix, but you will be able to eliminate your floor wedge monitors.
Whatever you decide, I wish you the best.
