Worship Musician March 2020 | Page 188

IEMs 5 BENEFITS OF USING IN-EAR MONITORS | Christy Colmenares In-Ear Monitors (IEMs) are an amazing tool the ability to control the volume of your mix and your sound engineer having to somehow mix used by musicians and artists worldwide. In also adjust the volume levels of each member all of that. If you’re cringing right now, so am I! Ear Monitors have replaced floor monitors to of your band in order to have an enjoyable achieve superior sound quality, hearing health, experience without damaging your hearing. and also opened the way to the use of backing tracks, among many other benefits. In Ear Monitors have made it possible to run backing tracks, clicks, and have a talkback mic 2. LESS EXPOSURE TO NOISE ON STAGE for music directors to communicate with the If you are part of a small or medium sized band without the whole room knowing. Today more than ever, IEMs continue to grow church, it is very likely that you may have in popularity due to the adaptation of backing encountered problems controlling the overall 5. PORTABILITY tracks in churches around the globe. If you are sound level of the room. IEMs are of huge help If you are part of a mobile church, you know new to running tracks or IEMs, let me share in small spaces since they help eliminate extra that the weight and size of equipment matters. some benefits in using them and how you can stage noise. Wedges weigh approximately 45 pounds each. start integrating them with your team. The more wedges you need for your team, the 3. NO MORE FEEDBACK larger the vehicle you’ll need to transport them. 1. SUPERIOR AUDIO QUALITY “Please move away from the wedges!” - Sound An IEM system is very portable and can fit in One of the highest advantages of using IEMs engineers all over the world. something as small as a briefcase. have been a worship leader for years and when Let me take this moment to thank all of the Everything has pros and cons, but remember you think about floor monitors (also known sound engineers for dealing with feedback that when tools are used correctly, they can as wedge monitors), you have an immediate caused by singers standing too close to the have a big impact in you and your team. If you flashback to that guitarist or vocalist asking for wedges. We are sorry and we thank you for are thinking of starting to implement IEMs, keep more of their levels in their wedge. your service! in mind that it can be somewhat awkward at is the audio quality experience. Perhaps you first because it is very different from what you Before continuing, let me quickly apologize Having to be very conscious in where you are used to, but gradually you will begin to feel for bringing that experience to your memory stand can be limiting when you are leading the benefits that they bring. Not only will you once again… worship. In Ear Monitors allow you to eliminate be able to have a better mix and control the this limitation so you can better focus overall volume of the room but you will also now on worshipping. have the opportunity to implement other helpful Now, although some musicians prefer wedge monitoring because it gives them the ability to, tools, such as clicks and tracks to compliment not only listen to their mix, but also experience 4. TRACKS, CLICK & TALKBACK MIC the sound of the whole room, audiologists have Picture trying to run tracks with a click running agreed monitor wedges are very dangerous for live in the house mix, your MD trying to cue the the hearing of working artists. IEMs give you band with his mic also in the house mix, and 188 March 2020 the live sound of your team. Christy Colmenares Resides in Austin, TX and forms part of the MultiTracks.com team as the Brand Manager for MultiTracks.com’s Latin American branch, Secuencias.com. Secuencias.com Subscribe for Free...