SINGLE ear in ear monitors

[b.ionian]

At church I have wireless headphones, but I miss too much of the singers and other musicians, and I don't get a good feel for the music. I looked for single in-ears for just my right ear, but I couldn't find any. Does anyone else use only one in ear?

Thanks for any help you may provide.

 

[DWBass]

I don't think they make 'single' ear in ear monitors. Just leave one ear unplugged.

 

[hrodbert696]

Only putting an IEM in one ear is a bad idea. For one thing, the whole point of IEMs is to limit the volume of stage noise hitting your ear drum. If you leave an ear exposed to the room, you aren't sparing your ear anything. Also, I have heard (and I'm not up to speed on the medical basis of this) that your ears can vary their sensitivity to noise and damage (Dr. Google is referencing the stapedius and tensor tympani muscles that dampen reactions), and that if you use an earplug (which an IEM bud basically is) on one ear but not the other, it can screw this up. A sound bud in one ear is for bodyguards and secret security agents so that they can get radio messages in that ear while engaging the room around them, not for something constant like music.

The best solution for over-isolation from room sound when using an IEM is to set up a mic pointed at the room and running it as an "ambient" channel. Then you can blend the room sound into the rest of your mix while still protecting your ears.

 

[tshapiro]

The only time I’d ever pull out one ear is if I am running sound from on stage and need to hear the front of house (yes, with enough experience you can hear the front). I find that adding a bit of the singers mics in my mix not only gives me a bit more of them but also adds some ambient sound as well. If you do add an ambient mic, I find that a wide diaphragm condenser mic placed somewhere near you works good. You might also find that you can have the low end rolled off that mic (<100htz) to prevent too much low end mush in your in ears. Now, if you happen to have the capability to run stereo in ears, running 2 opposing wide diaphragm mics in stereo is amazingly transparent in your ears.

 

[Wasnex]

While some people wear only 1 IEM but, I agree it's a bad idea. The best and safest solution is a proper IEM mix.

The reason wearing 1 IEM is a bad idea is due to something called binaural summing. If you hear a sound equally in both ears, you perceive it as 6dB louder than if you hear the same sound in only one ear. So for equal volume with only 1 IEM you must turn up 6dB louder. Increasing the volume means less exposure is necessary for your hearing to become damaged.

Binaural summing is also one of the reasons why hard panning should not be used for a stereo IEM mix. In the event you run a stereo mix, I suggest panning the lowest sound sources and the most important sound sources to the center. So bass, bass drum, and your vocal mic if you sing, should be panned to the center. I also like snare in the center. Other sound sources should be panned left and right in 3-5dB intervals up to about 15dB.

The only sound sources I suggest panning harder than 20dB are stereo sound sources. For example a stereo reverb or perhaps a close spaced pair of mics use for drum overheads. I suggest panning stereo sound sources to the point where the stereo image starts to develop a hole middle and then backing the panning off a bit. A stereo reverb should sound like it is coming equally from all directions, and drum overheads should produce an image that seems fairly natural and balanced across the stereo horizon.

 

[Mike Caldwell]

Sounds like you just don't have a good mix put together.

Yes to to the one ear IEM comments.

Are your wireless headphones Bluetooth? Any latency issues if they are?

 

[Altitude]

We put a mic roughly in the middle of the stage area to capture ambient sound. Everyone can mix as much or as little of it into their mix as they like. It really helps with this isolation sensation.

 

[Flatwound]

I usually use only one when I play at church. But volumes there are very low, and I’m ampless. I’ve never gotten completely used to in ears, maybe because I haven’t had to. In the cover band, our stage volumes are more-or-less tolerable, and we use stage monitors.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

We put a mic roughly in the middle of the stage area to capture ambient sound. Everyone can mix as much or as little of it into their mix as they like. It really helps with this isolation sensation.

We have an overhead condenser on the drums which is mainly for the drummer and not in the mains for the small venues we play, but we also happen to have 3 vocal mics on stage that all capture more ambient sounds (and unfortunately, the loud snare!).

 

[Syco_bass]

We have an overhead condenser on the drums which is mainly for the drummer and not in the mains for the small venues we play, but we also happen to have 3 vocal mics on stage that all capture more ambient sounds (and unfortunately, the loud snare!).

Our drummer does the same thing, and the lead singer is standing right in front of the drummer. Needless to say, I have to turn down the lead vocals, Overhead mic, and the drummer's vocal mic. They all pickup the snare drum. As far as the OP's issues, most ppl have already explained why it's a bad idea. Another option would be to purchase some custom molded IEM's that have ambient plugs in them. I have a set from Westone and I can adjust the ambient noise with these little discs/plugs. They come in 10 decibel increments. I think 30 is considered "noise canceling". I use the 20 decibel ones. I can hear everything going on in the crowd as well as on stage and my band mates can talk to me without yelling. Good luck. Keep your ears safe.

 

[baxter_x]

I use entry level IEM so that I can have both the tone from the in ear but also from the stage. No need to pull of a monitor.
I feel I don't need anything else.

 

[el murdoque]

If you have the coin, get the InEar Hearmix pro.
Instant ambient sound, in stereo.

One bud is a bad idea, as described above. Do the self test and set up everything so you have good sound and good volume. Then take out one plug. You'll instantly feel the sound (especially bass) drop.
I know of singers that remove one, so they can hear their voice more naturally, but they don't need as much of the band mix as a bassist would.

You mentioned wireless phones being used? Are these made for this application or are they bluetooth. If the latter, try a cable solution first. Bluetooth latency, under ideal circumstances, is much too big to be used in live music, and you should feel extremely disconnected while using them.

 

[InhumanResource]

At church I have wireless headphones, but I miss too much of the singers and other musicians, and I don't get a good feel for the music. I looked for single in-ears for just my right ear, but I couldn't find any. Does anyone else use only one in ear?

Thanks for any help you may provide.

Doesn’t this sound more like you need to fix your monitor mix? Single IEMs aren’t really a thing as far as I’m aware.

 

[darwin-bass]

How loud is your church? Both of the ones I play at are not too loud so running 1 IEM is not as risky as say a bar band setting. I see many of our singers running just 1.

Even so, you have to be careful with volume. With just 1 in it is too easy to turn it up too loud.

The only time I've ever run just one is last Sunday when I forgot to plug the IEMs in. I popped one out so I could hear something until we hit the bridge of the first song when I had a moment to plug my cable in.

 

[darwin-bass]

At church I have wireless headphones, but I miss too much of the singers and other musicians, and I don't get a good feel for the music. I looked for single in-ears for just my right ear, but I couldn't find any. Does anyone else use only one in ear?

Thanks for any help you may provide.

Some churches will have ambient mics so that you can bring some room sound into your IEM. It can help with feeling connected to the congregation. As for being connected with the rest of the band that is 100% an issue with having a good mix. Fix your mix.

The other issue is the talkback problem. Good IEMs will block outside sound making band communications more difficult unless you have some sort of talkback system set set up (and people use it!)

 

[backin82]

At church I have wireless headphones, but I miss too much of the singers and other musicians, and I don't get a good feel for the music. I looked for single in-ears for just my right ear, but I couldn't find any. Does anyone else use only one in ear?

Thanks for any help you may provide.

Single in-ears aren't a thing. Your problem is that you have a bad mix due to levels or mic placement. Our church runs two house mics that we can blend into our overall mix that helps with ambience.

If you do a single ear, my recommendation is to get the level/loudness set with both IEMs firmly in place. Once the level is how you want it, remove or loosen the side you want, and don't push the volume any more from that point.

 

[JohnnyBottom]

I think the simple reason not to is, because in order for you to hear the IEM with the other ear out, you would have to turn it up to damaging levels.
I love my sensaphonics IEMs with the built in ambient mics that can be EQd and limitd. I can mix in the mics in my IEMS with the monitor mix. Gives me much flexiblity.

 

[Pep]

Only putting an IEM in one ear is a bad idea. For one thing, the whole point of IEMs is to limit the volume of stage noise hitting your ear drum. If you leave an ear exposed to the room, you aren't sparing your ear anything. Also, I have heard (and I'm not up to speed on the medical basis of this) that your ears can vary their sensitivity to noise and damage (Dr. Google is referencing the stapedius and tensor tympani muscles that dampen reactions), and that if you use an earplug (which an IEM bud basically is) on one ear but not the other, it can screw this up. A sound bud in one ear is for bodyguards and secret security agents so that they can get radio messages in that ear while engaging the room around them, not for something constant like music.

The best solution for over-isolation from room sound when using an IEM is to set up a mic pointed at the room and running it as an "ambient" channel. Then you can blend the room sound into the rest of your mix while still protecting your ears.

My Sugg

At church I have wireless headphones, but I miss too much of the singers and other musicians, and I don't get a good feel for the music. I looked for single in-ears for just my right ear, but I couldn't find any. Does anyone else use only one in ear?

Thanks for any help you may provide.

Someone else recommended what I'm going to recommend, but I'll go a bit further.
Using one earbud only is a serious mistake. Not only can it gradually change your hearing sensitivity in one ear, in the long-term it could affect your balance (I'm not speaking of hearing balance).
If you need to hear the singers, just have them added to your personal mix. If that's not possible, instead of adding in ambient sound from a mic, my recommendation would be to purchase a set of in-ear monitors (earbuds) that allow ambient sound to come through naturally. Westone makes them and they work great.

 

[Jeff Hughes]

Our drummer does the same thing, and the lead singer is standing right in front of the drummer. Needless to say, I have to turn down the lead vocals, Overhead mic, and the drummer's vocal mic. They all pickup the snare drum. As far as the OP's issues, most ppl have already explained why it's a bad idea. Another option would be to purchase some custom molded IEM's that have ambient plugs in them. I have a set from Westone and I can adjust the ambient noise with these little discs/plugs. They come in 10 decibel increments. I think 30 is considered "noise canceling". I use the 20 decibel ones. I can hear everything going on in the crowd as well as on stage and my band mates can talk to me without yelling. Good luck. Keep your ears safe.

A dynamic mic between the bass drum and floor tom helps capture the drums without the intensity of cymbals and snare.

 

[darwin-bass]

At church I have wireless headphones, but I miss too much of the singers and other musicians, and I don't get a good feel for the music. I looked for single in-ears for just my right ear, but I couldn't find any. Does anyone else use only one in ear?

Thanks for any help you may provide.

Another issue is that you may be using commercial earbuds or headphones that do no block enough of the stage wash. In that case, your IEM mix will be washed over by the ambient sound leaking around and through your headphones. You'll either need to turn them up LOUD (bad idea) or get something more suitable for the task.

Nothing ruins an IEM experience faster than crappy in-ears. Folks will spend $$$$ on instruments but don't want to spend more than $ to hear themselves.