Alright faithful readers. You've asked for it, and here it is... a new post!
This one will be about music, so if that's not your cup of tea then I suggest you stop reading and go watch CNN or something, or just skip to the final paragraph. I really want to try out in-ear monitors. I've used them before, back with Willing Heart and they worked pretty good for me. But, that was with completely different equipment and in a completely different musical setting. Now, I've got 2 onstage amps to deal with and (if we're lucky) acoustic drums and I've been having a lot of trouble hearing myself. I use my amp on stage (500 watt hartke with a 4x10 Carvin) but this is only for monitoring purposes. Since I've gotten the bass pod (still love it), my sound comes straight out of it and I don't use my amp to change my signal to the board, I simply run parallel outs to the amp and the mixer. But, as you may know, a 4 x 10 cab has a bit of a problem getting the sound up to the ears. If you distance yourself enough from it, it sounds pretty good, but I have never had the adequate stage room to pull this off. All of my sound ends up hitting me in the legs, so I feel the bass more than anything. Now, this is quite a problem since I need to hear myself over said amps and drums, but I still need to give control of my overall volume to my dad, he runs sound. If I turn my amp up loud enough where I can hear it onstage, it becomes impossible for him to control the bass and most times he ends up turning me off completely in the house mix. You see, most places we play are rather small rooms, barely large enough to hold us, much less an audience. When you get that much bass going on, it feels up the whole room and ruins the overall sound of the band. So...
I really want to try in-ear monitors. If I could take a monitor signal from the board, run it through my head phone amp, and pump it straight into my head, I could do away with my onstage amp and give dad complete control over the bass in the house mix. With this new board, I could have my own monitor mix, separate from the rest of the band, and I could have as much bass as I want. Since Willing Heart, I've updated my ear buds to a higher model and messed around with many different tips until I've found one that best fits my ear and blocks out the most sound. Next time JMB practices I am definitely going to bring my new set-up and give it a go. And not only would this improve my monitoring of the bass, it would allow me to hear everything with so much more clarity- especially vocals. Yes, I have a great feeling about this. I can't wait to try it out.
For those of you who skipped the majority of the post to read the final paragraph, here ya go. I had hours of free time this afternoon between class letting out and a 7 o clock practice. I had this strange feeling that I was missing something really important and that I should be doing something instead of sitting around. It finally hit me. The thing that I was missing. It was dinner. I forgot to eat. Boy, I scare myself sometimes.