Realization with IEM's and a rig on stage

[J.Wolf]

Either use both ears or none.
Why?
If you take one ear out then one tends to turn up the other to compensate for the volume difference when external source is louder. The brain likes balance, and doing this is not good for your hearing. Hearing you can never regain once lost.
BTW - nice rig!

I have pretty good luck with getting the levels where I want them in both ears and taking one out here and there to hear the rig and the stage. I don’t turn up the remaining ear to compensate because I know that’s a recipe for hearing damage. I put right ear in and out all night and was really happy with that. I’m sure others may prefer to maintain consistency in their perception but that was super helpful enjoyable for me. YMMV of course

 

[s0c9]

I have pretty good luck with getting the levels where I want them in both ears and taking one out here and there to hear the rig and the stage. I don’t turn up the remaining ear to compensate because I know that’s a recipe for hearing damage. I put right ear in and out all night and was really happy with that. I’m sure others may prefer to maintain consistency in their perception but that was super helpful enjoyable for me. YMMV of course

That's good that you are taking care like that, but rare, as most don't.
I raised the topic because there's scientific proof of the hearing damage that can be caused by using only one IEM.. and as I said.. one cannot recover lost hearing.

 

[BassGuyFL]

Either use both ears or none.
Why?
If you take one ear out then one tends to turn up the other to compensate for the volume difference when external source is louder. The brain likes balance, and doing this is not good for your hearing. Hearing you can never regain once lost.
BTW - nice rig!

I’ll never understand how people can only use one ear. It scrambles my brain if I have to take one out for even a few seconds. I get some don’t like the “closed off” feeling but there’s an easy fix for that.

 

[EASonBass]

Maybe try only sealing one IEM, and let the FOH/subs and/or your back line “leak”?

 

[Zbysek]

I appreciate all of this. It is a tricky balancing act with IEM’s and i actually think I could get a pretty compelling in ear tone, if I was to spend a good deal money on a nice custom molded set and a signal chain specifically for the ears to make it sound full and punchy. I’m just not doing enough IEM gigs to justify that. I’m getting a pretty good sound actually in my cheapie ZS10 pro’s with foam tips but yeah, it’s not the feeling of air moving, which is what I crave.

I think the point of the thread was more about how noticeably not great it is, when you’re using ears and the cab isn’t close to your chest level, as opposed to when you’re not using ears and hearing a lot more of what’s happening on stage. I am pretty content with one of my taller setups with IEM’s but was surprised how underwhelmed I was with this otherwise insanely good sounding stage rig

If you like the feeling of air moving, I strongly recomment tactile transducers such as BackBeat, Eich bassboard or Eich drumchair.

I have been enjoying my IEM gigs since I started using them...