THURSDAY, December 6; How to Configure a Personal Monitor System
Overview
While the majority of musicians and monitor engineers are clear on the advantages of personal monitors, the proper ways to configure a personal monitor system are not as well known. Since no two situations are identical, it’s up to the user to decide how to use the system, from selecting the right system, to purchasing the right number of components, to making connections.

In this one-hour webinar, Gino Sigismondi, Shure Systems Support Manager and author of Selection and Operation of Personal Monitor Systems, will cover the critical aspects of configuring a personal monitor system, including tips on successfully transitioning from stage monitors to in-ears, and supplemental equipment that can enhance the experience.

Whether you are a musician considering the purchase of a personal monitor system, a sound system installer for houses of worship, or a sound engineer working with live music, this webinar will arm you with everything you need to know about using personal monitors.

Times
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM CDT   Register for the 10 AM Webinar
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CDT   Register for the 2 PM Webinar

After you register, you’ll get a confirmation email that’ll tell you how to join the webinar.

System requirements for PC-based attendees: Windows® 7, Vista, XP, or 2003 Server. For Macintosh®-based attendees: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer required.

Happy learning!

View archives of our webinars at your convenience on shure.com.

Meshuggah at the House of Blues on May 15, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Paul Natkin/WireImage)

I very much revere Meshuggah.  I’m not alone in that opinion.  If you are a fan of metal you will know that, love them or not, they are the best at what they do, period.  Virtuosic performance dresses a primal foundation.  Fans are just as likely to count out polyrhythmic elements as they are to headbang when listening to their music.

I had the opportunity to see them one other time to date.  It was in 2002 and the band was opening for Tool.  The arena in Madison, WI sat about 8,000.  It was big enough to ruin the performance with ambiance.  When you play as fast and as tight as they, reverb and reflection are not your friends.  I was thrilled then, to know that I was going to see them in Chicago’s House of Blues.

I sat down for an interview with guitarist Mårten Hagström and vocalist Jens Kidman prior to the show.  It was interesting to learn that, for as loud as they are in concert, there is almost no stage volume.  The guitars and bass are all handled by Fractal Audio boxes, leaving the drums and Jens’s vocals the only real volume on stage.  You would only know this from standing on the side of the stage though.  From out front, you needed earplugs…as much as I didn’t want them.  Shure’s part in the story?  Drums.  Vocals.  In-ears.  Mårten and Jens both professed to be fans of the SM7B.  Mårten used his in pre-production and demoing.  Jens hand-held his mic as he laid down vocal tracks for the record.  Playing live, his weapon of choice is the Beta 58A on a UHF-R wireless.  The band use PSM®900 with SE425-CL earphones, excepting drummer Tomas Haake, who uses the PSM 600 hardwired body pack.

Meshuggah at the House of Blues on May 15, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Paul Natkin/WireImage)

For showtime I was set up with a P9R body pack receiver in CueMode with every mix programmed in to it.  I mostly watched at the side of the stage where I was able to select each band member’s personal mix at a whim.  Just for fun (and to take the opportunity to go listen from the house) I went strolling out to the main room with my earphones in and the pack on.  I stopped behind the FOH board for a quick listen without the earphones, then continued on through the venue.  I had a few RF dropouts in the very back of the venue and in some of the concrete stairwells backstage – six in total.  It was amazing considering the band was using a directional paddle antenna which only had the stage in its line of sight.  Those few hits aside, I could hear their mixes everywhere in the venue through the pack.

The only place I didn’t dare go to test was in the middle of the floor.  Our gear can take some abuse, but the energy coming from the stage was driving the most prime real estate of the room in to a frenzied pit.  Cathartic it may have been, but I value my earphones enough to not have them ripped from my head and stomped to pieces.

Jens, Fredrik Thordendal, Mårten, and bassist Dick Lövgren delivered their punishing set from the very front of the stage, as if to drive home the listening experience through their physical presence.  From the back Tomas played faster and with more precision than one would suspect is humanly possible. The set started with “Demiurge” from their new album, Koloss.  Throughout the set were more from the album, along with fan-favorites like “Future Breed Machine” and “Combustion”.  As they launched in to one of their most ambitious and well-known tracks, “Bleed” (obZen, 2008), I dialed in Tomas’s mix.  If you’re a drummer, you might know what that means.

If you are a fan of metal, put this band on your bucket list.

Richard

The guitarist, in order to hear himself better, turns his amplifier up. The singers need more monitor level to compete with the rest of the praise band. The cycle of escalating stage volume begins again – reducing the overall sound quality and worship experience, especially in a high-ceilinged, hard surface environment designed for choirs and acoustic instruments.

An article in Millimeter quoted worship leader Craig Sibley as saying “Stage volumes in churches have gotten out of control. In church, suddenly you have a heavy metal concert going on. People are literally leaving the church because of the volume. The minute you introduce drums, the guitarist turns up his volume so he can hear himself, then the vocalist needs more volume. Next thing you know, it’s volume wars, with unfortunate impacts on worshippers.”

Today’s systems are far more advanced and far less expensive than those appearing on stages and in sanctuaries just a few years ago. But if you lack the luxury of a professional sound crew that includes a FOH engineer and a monitor engineer and more likely, rely on a resourceful staff of sound vets and volunteers, we can guide you through some of the basics and help you identify a system for your church.

Who will benefit from a personal monitor?

Personal monitors are not just for vocalists. Drummers with personal monitors tend to play quieter. When the loudest instrument onstage gets quieter, everything else can follow suit.  Some churches take this a step further by using electronic drums that create little, if any, acoustic noise.

Bass, keyboard, and electric guitar can also be taken directly into the mixer if the players are using personal monitors, eliminating the need for onstage amplifiers. The end result is a cleaner, more controlled congregation mix.

Many other uses are possible for personal monitors. Choir directors use them for cues, or to hear the pastor more clearly.

The isolation provided by personal monitors can be of great benefit to organists, especially when they are located at the opposite end of the sanctuary from the choir.  Timing can be problematic due to the often-lengthy delay times caused by this separation. If the choir microphones are fed into a personal monitor system worn by the organist, the time delay is eliminated, and the organist is able to keep in sync with the choir.

For pastors who want a monitor, in-ears are also a viable option. Lavalier and gooseneck microphones are especially prone to feedback issues with a floor monitor due to their increased sensitivity and greater distance from the sound source. A personal monitor eliminated those concerns.

Is wireless necessary or will a hardwired system serve your needs?

Personal monitor systems come in two basic varieties – wireless or hardwired.

A hardwired system requires the performer be tethered to a cable, which is not necessarily a negative. Drummers and keyboard players, who remain stationary, or even back-up singers, can take advantage of the lower cost and greater simplicity of a hardwired personal monitor system.

Advantage: Hardwired systems also work worldwide without the hassle of finding clear frequencies or dealing with frequency coordination  with wireless microphone or intercom systems. And if several performers require the same mix, hardwired systems can be daisy-chained together without experiencing significant signal loss, if the input impedance is sufficiently high to allow multiple systems to be connected to a single output with Y-cables.

Wireless equipment requires special consideration and attention to detail.  But the advantages many times outweigh the increased cost and complexity.

Advantage: One of the main benefits of personal monitors is a consistent mix no matter where you stand; going wireless allows you to exploit this advantage to its fullest extent. And when several performers require the same mix, hooking them up is even easier. You can use as many wireless receivers as you need to monitor the same mix with no adverse effects. Plus, there aren’t any cables to trip on!

How many mixes do you need?

The answer to this question depends on how many people are in your band, and their ability to agree upon what they want to hear in the monitors.

One Mix for All In a perfect world, everyone wants to listen to the same mix, so the answer to this question is: one mix. Of course this defeats the primary benefit of “personal” monitors (each performer hearing himself).

Vocals and Instruments An inexpensive configuration uses two mixes; one consisting of vocals, the other of instruments. Using a system that features dual-mono operation, the performers individually choose how much of each mix they wish to hear (see Figure 1). This is a cost-effective way to get into personal monitors, but it still requires a fairly good degree of cooperation among band members.

Drummer Separate Another scenario gives the drummer a separate mix (Figure 2 below). This option works well for two reasons: Drummers, in general, want to hear considerably more drums in the monitors than other band members, and drums can be heard acoustically, especially in bands that perform on small stages. Drums may not even be necessary in the other mixes.

The “More Me” Syndrome We’re assuming that the vocalists are able to agree on a mix of the vocal microphones. While forcing singers to share the same mix encourages a good vocal “blend”, this theory often falls apart in practice.

Separating out the lead vocalist to an individual mix will address this issue. Here’s how to accomplish it in three mixes:

Place some of the backup vocal mics in the “instruments” mix, and adjust the “vocal” mix to satisfy the lead singer, even if that means adding some instruments to the “vocal” mix. This provides:

•  An individual mix for the lead singer

•  A mix for the guitarist and keyboardist that includes their vocals, and

•  A drum mix (The bass player can drop in here, too)

How many mixes are available from your front of house console?

Monitor mixes are typically created using auxiliary (AUX) sends from a mixer, either the front-of-house console or a dedicated monitor console.

A typical small-format console will have at least four auxiliary sends. Whether or not all these are all available for monitors is another matter. AUX sends are also used for effects.  Available sends are the final determinate for the number of possible monitor mixes.

If your answer to our first question (How Many Mixes?) is greater than the answer to this question (How Many Mixes Are Available from the Front of House Console?), you have two options:

Stereo or mono?

Most personal monitor systems allow for monitoring in either stereo or mono. At first glance, stereo may seem the obvious choice, since we hear in stereo, and everything else these days features stereo sound.

Stereo requires two channels of audio. What this means for personal monitor users is two sends are required to create a stereo monitor mix – twice as many as it takes to do a mono mix (see Figure 3). Stereo monitoring can quickly devour auxiliary sends.  If your mixer only has four sends, you can only create two stereo mixes.

While not quite as “realistic” as stereo monitoring, mono allows more mixes from a smaller mixing console – and sometimes fewer transmitters. If you only need one mono mix, these mono-only systems can save you money.

Some stereo transmitters can be operated in a “dual-mono” mode, which provides two mono mixes instead of one stereo. This can be a great way to save money. If you only need one mono mix, these mono-only systems can save you money.

How many components will you need?

After you have answered these questions, plug the numbers into the following equations to determine exactly how many of each component you will need.

Good earphones are an essential component

The key to successful personal monitoring lies in the quality of the earphones. All the premium components in the monitoring signal path will be rendered ineffective by a low quality earphone.  There are three types:

Earbuds While inexpensive, the kind that came with your MP3 player have the poorest isolation and are not designed to withstand the rigors of a working musician’s environment.

Custom molded earphones offer exceptional sound quality and isolation, a considerably higher price tag, and are difficult to test before buying since they’re made specifically for one person’s ears by an audiologist.

Universal Earphones combine the superior sound quality and isolation of the custom molded designs with the versatility, “out-of-the-box” readiness and affordable cost of the consumer phones. Interchangeable sleeves of foam or flexible rubber are used to adapt the earphone to the performer’s ear canal.

Personal Monitor mixers are an optional component Personal monitoring gives the performer an unprecedented level of control. But for the performer who desires more than simple volume and pan operation, a personal monitor mixer can be added.

These are especially useful for praise teams that either have a limited number of available auxiliary sends on the console, or lack a monitor engineer to operate the console.  A small monitor mixer allows the vocalists or players to customize their mixes themselves to hear exactly what they desire.

Theoretically, any mixer can double as a personal monitor mixer, but most lack one key feature; the input signals needed to find their way to the main (FOH) mixer. Large sound systems with separate monitor consoles use transformer-isolated splitters to send the signals to two places, but these are prohibitively expensive for most worship teams. Y-cables can be used to split microphone signals, but they can get messy and are somewhat unreliable.

A few manufacturers have introduced mixers with integrated microphone splitters. These can range from basic four channel mixers with volume and pan controls to larger, more fully featured monitor console.

And one more thing … make that two more things

The pain of change is still a factor.  Your praise team may have some difficulty adapting to in-ears after years of performing in front of stage monitors.

Another concern is cost.  A good wireless system – including a transmitter, receiver and earphones – can cost anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars.  One way to get started is to introduce personal monitoring gradually – one member of your praise team at a time.  You’ll eliminate at least one floor monitor, contributing to a quieter stage and give others performers (at rehearsal) a chance to try them out and experience the difference.

There was a time when understanding pro audio and having a good pair of ears was enough to handle most church audio challenges. Then, wireless systems came into their own and changed the landscape. Touring acts may have the luxury of a dedicated RF coordinator, but few, if any, churches do. We asked Shure’s Monitor Man Michael Johns for his advice on the essentials, and here’s what he had to say.

Usually the person responsible for getting the microphones or the in-ear personal monitoring systems on air isn’t an RF coordinator. Churches might have a monitor engineer, musical director, or technical director of some sort who is responsible for the audio, but that person might also be a video or lighting person who is responsible for the whole production. More often than not, he or she is a volunteer.

Understanding the basics of RF coordination is a really simple way to become much more comfortable as a user. If you know how the products operate and how they’re supposed to work, then it’s a lot easier to get them to work right. Teams know how to operate mixing boards, they know how to operate most of the audio equipment that they’re using, but wireless systems can mystify even the most experienced audio engineers. They understand the audio side of it, but don’t always know a lot about radio frequencies (RF).

Here are four steps that will help most church audio techs get the most from their wireless mic and personal monitor systems:

1) Understand the Basics

Make sure that you learn how wireless systems work.

First of all, the components:

Earphones – compact, high-fidelity sound-isolating stereo in-ear monitors
Bodypack Receivers – sleek, wearable units that receive sound and give you the ability to adjust your volume and move freely on the stage
Transmitters – usually (but not always) a rack-mounted device which sends audio wirelessly to the receiver

Then, the nature of radio waves:

• Most wireless audio equipment accomplishes its task by converting the audio signal into a radio wave, then back to an audio signal.
• Radio waves travel at the speed of light and are able to travel a significant distance from the source. These characteristics make radio the ideal form of transmission for audio applications, from broadcast radio and television to cordless phones.
• Like sound, a radio wave can be described by its frequency and its amplitude. Frequency is measured in hertz (cycles per second). Frequencies in the radio spectrum range from a few hertz to beyond the gigahertz (GHz) range.
• Most professional wireless audio systems operate in the megahertz (MHz) range.
• Since June 2010, the FCC has ruled that only the 470 MHz to 698 MHz spectrum, shared with television broadcast stations, is available for wireless audio users in the U.S.

2) Select the Right Wireless Products and Accessories

Determine your system needs based on your unique situation. It will inform your purchasing decisions.

• Are your performers stationary or mobile? (Do you need a wired or wireless system?)
• Can monitor mixes be shared? (Will you need a personal mixer, and does your system offer multi-channel capabilities?)
• Do you require a stereo mix, or is mono acceptable? (Mono-only systems are less expensive.)
• What’s your budget? (The less you require, the less you’ll pay.)

More advanced wireless personal monitoring systems offer the ability to combine multiple transmitter antennas (for example, connecting up to four wireless transmitters to one antenna). In these systems, reducing the number of transmitter antennas in close proximity reduces the chance of sound dropouts and is crucial to obtaining the best possible performance. A variety of accessories are available, including different antennas and combiners. Directional antennas can also be used to increase range and reduce the chances of dropouts due to multi-path interference.

3) Properly Select and Coordinate Frequencies

When using Shure PSM® systems, there are three methods for choosing and coordinating frequencies. Which method is best for you will depend on the system features, the number of wireless systems in use, and your access to a computer. No method is foolproof.

Method 1: Use the Frequency Finder on shure.com
If you have internet access, go to the Frequency Finder on the Support page of the Shure website. Enter your city or ZIP code, select the PSM system you are using, and the finder will give you the best options for frequency selection. This is useful if you are using only one wireless model in one frequency band. It cannot accommodate for other wireless microphone or guitar systems in use.

Method 2: Use the Scan function of the PSM receiver (PSM®900 and PSM®1000)
Utilize the scan functions of the receiver to scan for an available frequency or group of frequencies. This gives you a real-time analysis of your operating environment. This method cannot account for all of the potential interactions between your wireless monitor systems in different frequency bands and your wireless microphone or guitar systems.

Method 3: Use a frequency coordination program such as Shure’s Wireless Workbench® Software
This is by far the best method, especially when using multiple wireless systems. Software such as Wireless Workbench will give you the most reliable frequency coordination when using multiple wireless systems regardless of the model, frequency range, or even manufacturer. Wireless Workbench is a free download from shure.com.

Advanced: Use software such as Shure’s recently updated Wireless Workbench 5.0, which you can download for free. This is recommended when a user has a number of wireless systems to get on air, has the means to scan for RF either as a product feature (for example, PSM 1000 or UHF-R®) or through an RF scanner, and needs to coordinate multiple systems.

4) Lastly, There’s No Such Thing As “Set and Forget”

Remember, even if your audio system doesn’t move from place to place, the environment changes constantly. It’s largely true that television stations remain constant, but if there are other wireless systems in the frequency band — whether it’s multiple systems in your own location or interference from the coffeehouse down the street — your wireless frequencies may need to be adjusted. What worked last Sunday (or even last night) may not be failsafe when the service begins. And that’s why frequency coordination is so important.

MICHAEL JOHNS is an associate product manager working in the monitoring category in the Shure Global Marketing and Sales (GMS) Division. Michael worked as the main marketing representative on the development team for PSM 900 and PSM 1000 in-ear monitor systems. His duties also include working on and managing the development of Shure’s pro headphone line. Michael holds a BA in Sound Engineering from Columbia College Chicago and is also a sound engineer and DJ.

Learn More

Here are two downloadable publications with more comprehensive information on personal monitor systems. Both are FREE.

Basic:
Introduction to Personal Monitor Systems (PDF)

Advanced:
Selection and Operation Personal Monitor Systems, Third Edition (PDF)

Also, make sure to check the FAQ section on the Shure site, where you can find 416 questions and answers on the subject just by searching “Personal Monitors.”

The following article is an excerpt from Shure Notes for Houses of Worship, Issue #47 (October 3, 2011).

Running live sound in a church setting can be a very challenging and a very rewarding experience. Every week, the sound crew is faced with a mix of professional, semi-professional, and amateur musicians who all unite together for a common cause. Some understand what they need to hear in their monitor mix, and some have no idea.

My job is to be as helpful as possible, designing individual mixes so that the musicians can be at their best leading the church in worship, not worrying about their mixes. The better the musicians can hear, the tighter the band will sound, and the more inspiring and moving worship will be.

Three Methods for Providing Monitor Mixes for Musicians

1. Letting the FOH sound person dial up multiple monitor mixes utilizing the AUXES.

Advantages: Less costly than the other methods.

Disadvantages: Communication has to be very good between the mixer and musicians. This puts a heavier load on the FOH mixer.

2. Letting each musician dial up his or her own mix using a feed before it hits the FOH mixer into individualized mixer units for each musician.

Advantages: Each musician gets a very personalized mix. The FOH mixer can totally focus on the main house mix.

Disadvantages: Very costly, could be too complicated for amateur musicians who might be fiddling with their mix instead of leading worship.

3. Having a dedicated stage monitor mixing board with a dedicated monitor sound operator.

Advantages: The monitor mixer has total focus on providing stage mixes.

Disadvantages: Very expensive because more equipment is needed, as well as talented and knowledgeable operators.

Lakeside Christian Church’s Method

We have chosen to use method #1 for the time being. It’s simple, clean, and very straightforward. It makes it much simpler for the non-tech oriented.

We use a combination of Shure PSM®400s as well as smaller wedge speaker monitors. We accomplish this by using a FOH mixing board with 10 AUX sends:

We break out the mixes by sending AUX 1 and 2 into one of our five Shure wireless transmitters for our two principle worship leaders, Craig Crynes and Eric Ginder. By sliding the dial to mix 1 or 2 on the Shure P4R wireless IEM (in-ear monitor), they can custom-design their individual mixes even further by adding the other’s mix. I think it’s brilliant that Shure designed this feature into their wireless receivers. It enhances the mixing options in a very useful way.
AUX 3 goes to our five-person vocal team. Everyone on the team slides his or her dial to the same side as mix 3 and receives mainly vocals, piano, and light click track. I can solo any of these individual mixes on the FOH board to check vocal balances. I also make sure to get input from the vocalists as well, to ensure that they can hear themselves.

• AUX 4 is the mix for the electric guitarist, consisting of piano, click track, worship leader, and drums.
• AUXES 5, 6, and 7 feed amplified wedges that we use for various changing band scenarios (choir, extra musicians etc.).
• AUX 8 goes to another Shure wireless unit for the drummer. This mix has lots of click track, bass, some piano, and the worship leader.
• AUX 9 is another spare amplified speaker mix.
• Aux 10 is used for my reverb send.

The key to successful monitor mixing using this method is to keep each mix simple and clean. One of the most important aspects of monitor mixing is to thin the mix out. Each musician needs to hear a specific thing. Identify those important elements, and customize each mix for them. Only the important necessary components are in each person’s ear, while the ambient FOH sound fills out the mix.

One more thing: Using the personal monitoring system really cuts the stage volume down, making for a much clearer FOH mix, and a service full of inspiration and impact.

DAN MURPHY is the Sound Tech Director at Lakeside Christian Church and also owns Group Effort Sound Studio (www.groupeffort.com), which he started in 1976. He is constantly using the natural laws of science, technology, and physics to illustrate how amazing God’s creation really is.

The ability to hear your live performance onstage, and adjust it accordingly, is one of the hallmarks of professional musicianship. When you can hear yourself, you’re more likely to stay in tune and in the groove. Today, there are two ways to monitor – stage or floor monitors (also called wedges) and in-ear personal monitoring systems.

Introducing the Wedge

Back in the 1960s, someone discovered that musicians could hear what they were playing onstage by using a version of the FOH system with the speakers turned around and facing them. This eventually evolved into the now ubiquitous floor wedge monitor that offered a lower profile and could be placed directly in front of the performer. The era of the floor monitor (or wedge) was born.

Just about every musician and sound engineer has plenty of experience with floor monitors and for good reason: they’re everywhere and what everyone is used to using. But as far as advantages go, that’s about it, other than providing a place for the guitar player to put his foot during a big solo.

Now the disadvantages: floor monitors are the primary cause of onstage feedback. They’re also the primary cause of musicians’ back problems and overcrowded vans. Unless you have a couple of loyal roadies, carrying those 40-lb. behemoths will get old in a hurry.

Finally – and this won’t be the last time you hear this from us – floor monitors increase the risk of damage to your hearing. Most musicians like to turn their monitors up to hear themselves better, which, if done too much and too often, can lead to serious and permanent hearing loss.

Personal Monitoring

The in-ear personal monitor is without a doubt the more effective of the two types. Developed in the 1980s and once thought to be affordable only to globetrotting, arena rock acts, technological advancements and wider usage have brought prices down and have made in-ear personal monitoring systems accessible to just about any performer.

In-ear personal monitors direct the sound precisely where it needs to go – in the ear – compared to loudspeakers that direct sound to an onstage sweet spot, directly in front of the musician. They also offer:

• Virtually no chance of feedback
• A better house mix, since stage monitors aren’t there to bleed into the microphones
• Greater mobility
• Reduced vocal strain – singers aren’t competing with the sound coming from floor wedges
• Cleaner, less cluttered stage
• Lower stage volume – protecting your hearing
• Portability (most systems weigh about as much as your old Walkman®). A single rack of equipment, handling the monitoring needs of the entire band, can replace the heavy amplifiers and speakers in a monitor system.
• Artist control of mix and volume; better sound quality and stereo im aging

Earphones

A critical component of any personal monitor system, make sure you don’t underestimate the importance of the sleeve. It’s essential to getting the most of the personal monitoring experience.

Made from rubber or foam, these “sleeves’ attach to the end of the earphone and are the only part of the system that makes direct contact with your ear. For this reason, they must be comfortable, secure and isolate correctly.

Some systems come with a collection of these sleeves in various sizes. Since everyone’s ears are different, finding the right sleeve is one of the most important aspects of getting the best sound from your system.

Consider these tips when selecting earphones:

• Select earphones that come with a number of sleeve options such as foam (black foam sleeves, pictured right) or rubber, as well as different sizes – small, medium and large. Make sure everyone who will use earphones try on all the various sizes and types to get the best fit. Foam sleeves often provide superior sound isolation.
• Consider custom-molded sleeves. Talk to your audiologist or contact a company that can create a custom version from a mold of your ear canal. custom-made ear sleeves are generally made of silicone and start at about $150.00, depending on the provider.

Optional Component:

The Personal Monitor Mixer
This type of mixer gives the user control over his or her mix without affecting the signal path of the main house mixer. That means the contro l is onstage instead of relying on the person at the soundboard. (pictured right: Shure P4M Personal Monitor Mixer)

Once set, the personal monitor mixer recalls these setting, so that you can achieve the same mix at every performance.

How to Select the Right System:

Ask Yourself These Questions
Wired or wireless? One system or several? Will an entry level personal monitoring system serve your need or will you need a more advanced one? You can start to get at some of these critical purchase decisions by answering these questions.

1. How many people will be using in-ear personal monitors?
While lead singers and drummers are two of the most obvious choices, everyone onstage benefits from the ability to hear their own sounds without the “volume war’ associates with floor monitors.

Ideally, everyone in the band will be in-ear, not only from the standpoint of lowering stage volume and improving the performance, but this isn’t always possible. Cost is a real consideration, and so is the pain of change. Personal monitoring is a new concept to some musicians (more about that later).

Tip: Maybe the best place to start is with the band members who are usually the ‘volume war’ combatants.

2. Will users be stationary or will they want to move freely around the stage?
One you’ve determined who is going to use in-ear personal monitoring, you’re ready for the wired or wireless decision. Wired systems are less expensive and may be sufficient for a drummer who remains seated, but a wireless system may be required for a singer or lead guitar player. It’s hard to imagine Mick Jagger or Keith Richards tethered to a cord or cable. Tip: Consider using both wired and wireless systems, based on your lineup and their needs.

3. Can band members share monitor mixers or will they need to have their own?
How many mixes are you using now? Will individual personal monitor users need to have a personal mix or can they share an overall mix?

Shared Mix
Everyone sharing a monitor mix will be listening to exactly the same mix. As long as they all agree, sharing a mix is the easiest and least expensive way to provide in-ear monitoring for a group.

Tip: When two or more band members share the same mix, they each need a bodypack receiver. But … you’ll only need one wireless transmitter to send the mix to them.

Personal Mix
Lead singers, guitar players and drummers often want to be able to isolate their own sounds from the rest of the band or add unique sounds (such as a click track for the drummer). In these cases, the ability to create a personal mix is preferable and worth the added cost and effort.

Tip: If your mixing console doesn’t distribute enough mixes (auxes) to support all the mixes you need, consider sharing mixes, using personal monitor mixers, adding a Shure Auxpander® which expands the auxiliary output capabilities of any standard mixing consol), investing in a dedicated monitor mixer or even upgrading your console.

4. Mono or stereo?
In mono, both earphones reproduce the same audio. It’s not ideal, but it’s a more economical option.

In stereo, the earphone product the most accurate monitor sounds. These include a Left a nd a Right signal and enable lower listening levels by separating sounds spatially instead of by volume. If you can afford the stereo that most systems provide, go for it.

There is also dual-mono in which you get a different mono mix in each ear, or MixMode®, a Shure solution, that allows you to hear two separate signals in both ears. With it, you can control the blend or the relative volume levels of these two mixes with the balance control.

Tip: Make sure that you present mixing console has the ability to transmit a stereo mix (stereo aux) before choosing this feature.

What’s your budget?
Here, you will need to separate fantasy from reality. The good news is that with the increased popularity of personal monitoring systems, there are an ever-expanding variety of options to meet almost any budget. The Who, INXS, Wyclef Jean and a host of megastars use the PSM®700 personal monitor system, but the PSM®200 may be just right for you.

Hearing Conservation & Personal Monitor Systems

One of the primary benefits of in-ear personal monitoring, right up there with being able to hear your own performance, is a measure of protection against noise-induced hearing loss.

Gig after gig exposure to stage monitors producing SPLs of 85 decibels and higher can produce permanent hearing loss. A University of North Texas study estimates 30-50% of all performing musicians – and this includes classical musicians – suffer from it. Here are their tips:

Tips for short-term prevention of hearing loss

• Listen to music at moderate loudness levels
• Reduce exposure time to sound levels above 85 decibels
• Reduce repeated or cumulative exposure
• Protect yourself from exposure to hazardous sound environments
• Use ear protection in noisy environments
• Rest your ears between exposures to loud sounds

Tips for long-term prevention of hearing loss

• Get a baseline comprehensive audiological evaluation
• Follow up with annual checkups
• Know the symptoms of noise-induced hearing loss:
• Temporary threshold shifts
• Ear discomfort after exposure to loud sounds
• Ringing and buzzing in the ears
• Difficulty hearing in noisy environments.

How does this relate to the use of in-ear personal monitoring systems? Just this – the hearing preservation benefit that you will receive by saving your ears from blasting stage monitors will be completely erased by setting the volume of your personal monitor system too high.

Shure is a leading proponent of hearing conservation. For information about the company’s Listen Safe initiatives, click here.

Source: The Texas Center for Music and Medicine, The University of North Texas.