In 2015, it’s a seemingly age-old question: Wedges or in-ears? Having been around for decades, and having been embraced by the world’s most popular artists, it almost seems like in-ear monitors are a foregone conclusion. They are the standard for onstage monitoring. Or are they? It’s still a question that a lot of churches wrestle with, and I for one have not transitioned 100 percent of our monitor mixes over to IEM’s. There are still some situations where wedges excel over IEM’s, and not everyone’s console is capable of generating 24 auxes worth of stereo ear mixes.
Wedges: Pros and Cons
The church I work at is still on a combination of wedges and in-ears. Our entire band is on in-ears, but our vocal team still uses wedges. This provides several advantages over putting the entire vocal team on ears. First, we typically have between four and six vocalists who share three mono wedge mixes. In terms of cost, three powered wedges are substantially cheaper than six wireless in-ear monitoring systems, and that’s a big factor for us. Second, we do not have rehearsals for our praise band during the week. Our band rehearsals happen on Sunday morning starting around 8am, and we don’t really have time to dial in-ear mixes for six vocalists individually. The wedges provide us with a bit of efficiency for dialing monitor mixes.
The downsides of the wedges, on the other hand, are plentiful. Three wedges blaring on the downstage edge bleed low and low-mid energy out into the congregation, and that does have an effect on what people in the first few rows hear. Proper high pass filtering of the vocal mics and instruments go a long way to curb the boominess coming off of the back of the wedges, but the problem still exists, to some extent. Our vocalists are also limited in terms of their mobility by being on wedges, and this is a big problem for them. If they step too far out of the wedge’s coverage pattern, they lose their vocal entirely, so our vocalists often feel constrained to a small part of the stage. Because the vocalists are sharing wedges amongst multiple people, they are always fighting for their vocal to be dominant in the wedge mixes, even if they aren’t doing it purposefully. If one person asks for more of their own vocal, the next thing you know, someone else is asking for more of theirs. Next, you’ve got someone asking for more keys, and then more vocal, and then more guitar! This is a vicious cycle that only serves to ratchet up the overall stage volume, further affecting what people hear in the house.
In-Ears: Pros and Cons
There are, in fact, many benefits to moving your band and vocalists to in-ear monitors if you can afford to do so. Each musician or vocalist gets their own personalized, high-fidelity mix. If they move around the stage, that mix travels with them. Most importantly, in-ears drastically reduce stage volume, and they don’t feed back. Your band and congregation will thank you for the quieter stage volume, and everyone will be happy not listening to periodic squeals coming from your vocal mics. From the tech’s perspective, in-ears take up a lot less space and weigh a lot less than wedges, their associated amplifiers and cabling. If you are setting up and tearing down your stage each week, dealing with in-ears is going to be a lot easier on your back and your storage closet.
In-ears do have some disadvantages as well. As in-ear monitors isolate your artists from what is happening on stage and in the room, they are totally reliant on their in-ear mix for what they hear. We have all seen a musician or vocalist pull out their ears in the middle of a performance because they couldn’t hear themselves. While wedges aren’t the solution to this problem, it is typically less of an issue on wedge than it is with in-ears. For musicians who require a lot of low frequency reproduction, such as a drummer or bass player, in-ears lack the low frequency impact that wedges of sidefills provide. In these cases, it is often desirable to add some sort of low-frequency supplement to their mix in the form of a bass shaker or even a subwoofer. While both options sound pretty cool, adding a subwoofer adds additional stage volume and bleeds low-end all over the stage, so pursue that option with caution.
Finally, in-ears are generally more costly than wedges, but there are ways to reduce the impact on the budget. For example, most of our band members are still on hardwired ears. That may sound completely counter-intuitive to some people, but quality wireless ears are expensive! Let’s face it, we know that all of the musicians think they should be on wireless, but does the drummer really need to be wireless? Sticking with wired in-ear packs keeps costs lower while avoiding all sorts of potential problems with RF such as dropouts and interference.
The decision to use all wedges, all in-ears, or a combination of the two should not be taken lightly. This is going to have a big impact on your bottom line, but most importantly how your artists hear themselves on stage. In most cases, it is advisable not to make any major, sudden changes to your band’s monitoring situation. If you are still on wedges but thinking of moving to in-ears, phase them in over time for select musicians and vocalists, rather than making one big change all at once. This will ease the transition for your band as well as your tech team, and hopefully make everyone happier in the process.
Vince Lepore is the technical director at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Orlando and teaches live production at Full Sail University.
