Viewpoints: To IEM Or Not Is The Question
An “Emperor’s New Clothes” attitude toward in-ear
monitoring uses and safety?
By
Jack Alexander
Editor's Note: Jack starts off the debate on IEM that is sure to raise more than a few eyebrows. Be sure to read Doug Jones' chance to review Jack's rant and respond accordingly.
Throughout the industry, the prevailing winds of political correctness
indicate that in-ear monitor (IEM) systems are the new, high-tech, safe
and accurate way to provide stage monitoring to the artistes.
Put inside the ear, the better devices totally block the canal, thus preventing
the direct sound from the rest of the band and any contributions from
the stage acoustic, house acoustic, and house system from impinging on
the consciousness of the performer. This is obviously a great thing, and
more importantly, provides (without the possibility of feedback) a medium
for direct presentation of whatever stereo mix information the artist
desires, at just about any sound pressure, right into the old cranium.
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It gets better because there are no monitor amp racks, no stage monitors, far less monitor processing, less strain on the power distro due to the absence of the monitor amps, no “piggy” sidefills messing up the house mix, no unsightly mondo drum monitors leaking all over the stage and FOH. And, best of all, no feedback! There are no regenerative consequences
for any decision taken at the monitor desk. You just ram whatever
they want into the mix. No worries. |
There is no need for analytical feedback driven optimizations of the
wedges, sides, and drumfills. Gone is the hassle of stabilizing mikes
in nearfield (wedge), mid-field (sides), and quasi far-field (masking
bounces from the house) and if you actually know what you’re doing, laying
down support for both the FOH and the stage mix through artful sidefill
work. Imagine no more hum chasing in the sidefills during situations where
you were forced to go ex-distro with the power feed because of the ancient
electric in a venue.
Recording engineers, rejoice! You might be able to make some money during
your time off from Starbucks and telemarketing, as the manipulation of
IEM now falls within your skillet. Best of all, if you’re the monitor
engineer, you’ll have so little kit to hump!
Sound company owners can spend more money on FOH racks, stacks, consoles
and processing because of the hugely reduced monitor investment. Everybody
wins with lower trucking fees, reduced stagehand calls and lighting designers
elated at the absence of all the monitor junk on stage. Can you imagine
the relief at FOH?
No more fighting those pesky sidefills and drum monitors. Now you are
total master of the mix, and can get your sound unencumbered by any stage
monitor contributions.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
And then there’s the future! Imagine every audience member rolling in
with his own personal earspeaker rig, fed from infrared or whatever. No
loudspeakers anywhere (except in your cranium). Can you conceive of the
cost savings? No more ticket scalping, as access codes for the event would
be loaded into the storage medium for the personal earspeaker systems
at the time the credit card clears for the ticket purchase.
No tickets will be needed because scanners at the door will query each
individual’s personal ear system and provide admittance based on codes
tied to payment confirmation. Should someone slip in unverified, he/she
would be unable to access the show on infrared without the payment codes
properly loaded in the ear system control box.
It’s fabulous! There is hardly any uncontrolled sound anywhere, except
the backline, and with luck, most shows will be derived from samples and
there will be no live sound at all! Halls will require no acoustical work
and no big power distros because there will be no system install except
for the infrared/earspeaker rig which will deliver the show and control
the ticketing. Even more savings! No lawsuits for hearing damage, and
don’t forget the potential for “clipper” programs to be built into the
control software that will bleep bad language.
Best of all, the quality of engineering required to deliver a show will
regress to a level open to all. No more omnipotent monitor pukes with
their temperament and attitudes. Now nice people can make nice mixes for
other nice people, finally having something to show for those AV courses
they took at the local junior college.
True audio populism at work!
CUCUMBERS & SAFETY
Years ago during AES in New York, the late Dave Martin (founder of Martin
Audio) and I were sitting in a sushi joint watching this joker peel the
skin from cucumbers with a meat cleaver. We were fascinated with the precision
of that sushi cook as he took complete skins off of each cucumber. The
guy was as talented as a brain surgeon.
The conversation moved, of course, to the sorry state of the speaker business
and Dave drew the inevitable analogies with his competitors in the U.S.
as fast food and himself as the champion of purity and fine workmanship
just like the sushi chef.
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Over the years I’ve thought about that sushi guy and the concentration and skill required to peel those cucumbers, and made the connection to our humble profession in the live trenches. For all I know, most of those guys get their cucumber leavings in sheets carved by machine tools these days, but I would bet that in the best places they’re still doing it the old-fashioned way. |
If you think that some little cheese ball toy transducer run off of an
RF link to a beltpack with crummy wire receiving the mix of someone with
no background in live sound engineering is the future of our business,
then I am sure that you are equally captivated by the offerings of the
fast food giants.
All this blather about the alleged safety of IEM is so much rot. We don’t
really know the long-term effects at this point, regardless of what the
backers of all this say. Approaching a suspect monitor mix, I always stick
my fingers in my ears or wear shooting range style hearing protection
until I’m sure the mess is vaguely stable. It is not possible for me to
be hurt, as I am in final control of what will hit me.
I’m aware of all the claims about the limiters associated with IEM, and
am equally aware of the stories documenting the failure of same, and the
noxious consequences to the hearing of the poor users. Assuming for the
moment that they get the limiting sorted out, that little thing is still
right in the ear canal and the nature of the beast is to crank it. Since
Mistress Feedback isn’t there to put a damper on things, in the long term
there is a greater, not lesser, likelihood of damage compared to the outcome
with real monitors run by a real monitor engineer.
Yes, stabilizing a stage for feedback and mix requirement takes lots of
kit and a trained tech, and in many situations the kit and/or the human
are not up to it, thereby opening the door for this kind of bean-counter/corporate/quasi
scientific solution. For those who create their music in digital space
and are incapable of a real-time live performance without resorting to
replaying stored files, IEM may be a boon (forgetting for the moment about
potential hearing loss consequences).
But for those performing acoustic or electric instruments real time in
a band format, a walk around the stage to savor the various reflections
and inflections of a performance is a journey of wonder. There are some
who need the feel of the show transmitted through the air hitting them
onstage, whether from the backline or the monitors, or even the house
not the ersatz me-world provided by this limited and potentially dangerous
technology.
A LOT MORE TO SAY?
Before the chants of rage begin, it should be noted that since 1996 I
have mixed IEM over approximately 800 nights and am aware of what can
go wrong. This includes the common problem of the earspeaker person being
ahead (time/meter) of the rest of the band due to his isolation from the
stage acoustic and his reception of the beat from the drum channels in
his ear system ahead of what hits the other artists acoustically with
respect to time. Some acts have put out real monitors in addition to the
ear buds to fix this problem, which is equivalent to pouring wine sauce
on a fast food burger.
Artists using this technology also have a habit of turning their IEM systems
up, for various reasons, resulting in the act of pushing away from the
mic, losing the presence peak/proximity effect and allowing the drumkit
to leak into their voice channel. This action screws up not only their
own sound in the house, but the mix relationships forged by the FOH engineer
between them and the other singers and instruments.
Any trick EFX stuff done FOH loading the room and the punters’ imaginations
will be gone too, unless the FOH mix and/or EFX returns get folded back
along with everything else into that little toy transducer, with all the
attendant time errors.
Oh, there’s a lot more to say as well, which I will save for a later day,
but this ought to get the ball rolling on this new manifestation of the
“Emperor’s New Clothes.”
Remember, everything is good, everyone is good skill is elitist, new
technology is always better than old. Why just think about how fabulous
all those plug-ins sound in recording programs, and you will have a taste
of where live is headed with this kind of thing.
I think I’ll stick to the white tablecloth sushi restaurant, where they
still peel the cucumbers by hand while the ghosts of our audio past smile
benevolently on this latest attempt on our collective craft and the art
form of live music performance.
Jack Alexander instructs on topics allied to performance audio at Columbia College in Chicago. Reach him at jalexander@colum.edu
July 2003 Live Sound International