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In ear monitors: mono vs stereo


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If you can do either, then it comes down to a personal preference.

 

I did mono for several reasons:

1) Aux sends are mono, stereo would require using a pair which reduces mixes from 8 to 4 and we're a 6 pc.

2) Stereo wireless IEM's transmitter/receiver is more expensive plus I already own a mono system

3) Running stereo sources chews up more channels and we already barely have enough at 16 channels. We would have to expand to more channels.

4) We're running mono FOH anyway, as running stereo would again require more channels of amplification.

 

Mostly comes down to cost and complexity.

 

That said, if you're already in a position to run stereo without any additional cost, then why not? One big advantage besides just being able to hear your own parts in stereo is that you can do some panning to provide a little bit of separation in some of the other parts to clean things up a bit.

 

When I do mixdown of our recorded practices, for instance, I always like panning the 2 guitars we have slightly opposite. Same with various backup vocals and any drums other than kick and snare. Lead vocal and Bass are center. If my IEM's were stereo, I would definitely do that in my monitor mix.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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When I do IEM I prefer an Enet monitor network be it dante or AVB for less channel/buss usage among other reasons.

Triton Extreme 76, Kawai ES3, GEM-RPX, HX3/Drawbar control, MSI Z97

MPower/4790K, Lynx Aurora 8/MADI/AES16e, OP-X PRO, Ptec, Komplete.

Ashley MX-206. future MOTU M64 RME Digiface Dante for Mon./net

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Thanks.

 

The Rolls PM55P has a 1/4 mono/stereo input. Our Prosonus board has 1/4 outputs and enough for to use two, I think. I may give that a try.

aka âmisterdregsâ

 

Nord Electro 5D 73

Yamaha P105

Kurzweil PC3LE7

Motion Sound KP200S

Schimmel 6-10LE

QSC CP-12

Westone AM Pro 30 IEMs

Rolls PM55P

 

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Mono sound in a room still gets you some ambience. Mono in your in-ears means everything will sound "inside your head." If you're OK with that, great. Personally I couldn't deal with that for my own sound. I use the same Rolls you have, which lets me take a stereo feed from my keys rig so I hear myself in stereo. The rest of the band comes in from a monitor mix through the XLR input, so it's obviously not stereo but I can handle that. Just not for my own sound.
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Our PA (and every other PA I've used) is mono, so I want to monitor what goes to front of house. I wouldn't want to be fooled level-wise by some big stereo patch that sounded way different/different volume to the audience. So I only run mono keys. That said, when we had enough monitor sends on our old console I ran "stereo" by using two monitor feeds. All instruments were mono, but I could pan them apart, which allowed me to turn down EVEN MORE and still hear everything :)
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Our PA (and every other PA I've used) is mono, so I want to monitor what goes to front of house. I wouldn't want to be fooled level-wise by some big stereo patch that sounded way different/different volume to the audience. So I only run mono keys.

I trust the FOH person to mix me appropriately. It's not my job to deal with what the audience hears (unless it's a small gig where it's only my rig doing sound for stage & room).

 

Broken record time again: WHY do we spend all this money on great synths/DPs/other gear, bust our asses shlepping it to gigs, and knowingly make it SOUND LIKE SHIT to ourselves? As has been noted by others on this thread, most synth & DP sounds are terrible in mono - I'm not alone in this assessment. Again, if you are happy with the sound, then great! Enjoy. Not my tempo.

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Agree ^^^ 100%

 

I dont know how many times people have said you guys are great! You look like youre having so much fun up there.

 

Most people hear with their eyes. If youre digging your sound, youre happy; if youre happy, theyre happy; if theyre happy, youre great.

____________________________________
Rod

Here for the gear.

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I wanted to use Shure Mix Mode. Mix Mode creates a dual mono mix. Doesn't sound as lush but it is a very handy to have in some live situations. I think my mono sounds pretty good.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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Mono sound in a room still gets you some ambience. Mono in your in-ears means everything will sound "inside your head." If you're OK with that, great. Personally I couldn't deal with that for my own sound. I use the same Rolls you have, which lets me take a stereo feed from my keys rig so I hear myself in stereo. The rest of the band comes in from a monitor mix through the XLR input, so it's obviously not stereo but I can handle that. Just not for my own sound.

 

The Westones I got have a passive ambient filter, so going in mono may not feel quite so much as being in a box. I may try it both ways.

aka âmisterdregsâ

 

Nord Electro 5D 73

Yamaha P105

Kurzweil PC3LE7

Motion Sound KP200S

Schimmel 6-10LE

QSC CP-12

Westone AM Pro 30 IEMs

Rolls PM55P

 

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I was considering those Westones but my tinnitus dictated that I block as much ouside sound as possible. And you can't "try before you buy" with in-ears, not that I'm aware of anyway.

 

In a previous setup, I used a handheld recorder's (Tascam DR05) stereo mic as an ambience mic, with the recorder sitting on my laptop case which was on top of my bass amp. It was OK but the sound quality wasn't that great. I get a band mix in mono now, which I consider tolerable but not ideal. Protecting my hearing is job #1 so I've accepted the situation.

 

The pricier Rolls (PM351) will let you add a second stereo mix to add to the stereo feed from a keys rig... but you'd need a monitor board or other way to get a stereo mix of the band. This is something the high-end Avioms and possibly a few other systems can do, but I find that the keyboard player is often at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to getting the monitor mix they want. There's always a compromise somewhere I just try to insure it's not with my keyboard rig's sound.

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Our PA (and every other PA I've used) is mono, so I want to monitor what goes to front of house. I wouldn't want to be fooled level-wise by some big stereo patch that sounded way different/different volume to the audience. So I only run mono keys.

I trust the FOH person to mix me appropriately. It's not my job to deal with what the audience hears (unless it's a small gig where it's only my rig doing sound for stage & room).

 

Broken record time again: WHY do we spend all this money on great synths/DPs/other gear, bust our asses shlepping it to gigs, and knowingly make it SOUND LIKE SHIT to ourselves? As has been noted by others on this thread, most synth & DP sounds are terrible in mono - I'm not alone in this assessment. Again, if you are happy with the sound, then great! Enjoy. Not my tempo.

 

 

We don't often have a FOH guy, we are small-timers that have to handle it from stage. We do have a PA, and all run direct, so no stage sound...we have to be very careful with patches and consistency to keep things under control, and by all accounts we do.

 

I'd prefer to hear things in stereo, and even more so would prefer that the audience could...but it's not to be. I don't hate the sounds I'm using in mono, it certainly helps that we tend to stick more to basics (piano, organ etc). Synths are what really fall apart in mono in my experience.

 

As far as being happy...we may be part-timer non-pros, but it's our job to put on a good show. Mono isn't going to make me mr. droopy drawers in any case...getting in a fight with my spouse or having a car break down might, but I still try :D

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Point taken, and I feel for you. I'm a little surprised to hear that every PA you've used is mono. I guess I lead a sheltered life because even the smaller bars I've played have stereo systems. I mean, it's almost harder to make a system mono today since all PA mixers I've seen have stereo outputs and powered speakers seem to be the norm. I just think that keyboard sounds like strings & pads, organs with Leslie, rhodes with stereo tremolo or chorusing... all that sounds really good in stereo imo... sorry you're missing out, but I understand & respect your opinion. I also know this has been beaten to death here too. If you're happy, that's the end of the story!
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Yeah, the biggest pain is having to check patches for mono compatibility....when I was considering going to software, this was actually kind of a big deal since I would have needed to go through all the plugins checking them...ugh.

 

I certainly love stereo, doing home studio recordings it's hard to imagine doing without! The mono doesn't sound awful, it's just...less amazing :)

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Yeah that's the thing for me - patches CAN be set up (more often it comes down to the effects) to sound good in mono. I would prefer to have consistency than sound great some places and horrible other places. If I can sound slightly less than great but much better than horrible and have it be consistent everywhere I go, then that is key. And I don't want to have different wiring/DI/Monitor schemes depending on if the place is mono or stereo (or stereo but not enough channels to run stereo because the drums took up 12 channels). So for me it's about optimizing my system for simplicity and consistency anywhere I go. I often get compliments on my sounds, so I don't think it's suffering from mono.

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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Yeah, the biggest pain is having to check patches for mono compatibility....when I was considering going to software, this was actually kind of a big deal since I would have needed to go through all the plugins checking them...ugh.

I certainly love stereo, doing home studio recordings it's hard to imagine doing without! The mono doesn't sound awful, it's just...less amazing :)

 

In Mainstage, you can use the Gain plug in on the master output (concert level) to sum to MONO, and still send stereo to your ears.

David

Gig Rig:Casio Privia PX-5S | Yamaha MODX+ 6 | MacBook Pro 14" M1| Mainstage

 

 

 

 

 

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Looking at an Ashley MX-206 for my mix, an ambient and FOH monitor feed

if I have no other option. Looking at a Tascam AE-4D for Dante and a MOTU

8D for AVB. Using one of either dante or AVB I would only feed the MX-206

my mix and the ambient.

Triton Extreme 76, Kawai ES3, GEM-RPX, HX3/Drawbar control, MSI Z97

MPower/4790K, Lynx Aurora 8/MADI/AES16e, OP-X PRO, Ptec, Komplete.

Ashley MX-206. future MOTU M64 RME Digiface Dante for Mon./net

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Try them both and see which you prefer. There's no comparison for me -- stereo piano makes a huge difference to how I hear myself and play.

Yamaha Montage M6, Nord Stage 4 - 88, Hammond SK-Pro 73, Yamaha YC-73, Mainstage, Yamaha U1 Upright

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Whether you choose mono or stereo, make sure you have BOTH monitors in your ears. Don't do the 'take one out to get more ambience' thing. That leads to turning up the monitor too loud and can contribute to hearing loss / tinnitus.
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I run my ears stereo simply for the glory of the sound :)

 

Yup. I want it to sound like a record in my ears, and when we get it right.... it does! Happy ears. I wouldn't know where to find a mono patch, and would likely delete it so I couldn't find it again!

 

I definitely pan the band out in my IEM mix so that things have a "space" and aren't all piled in the center. It helps in hearing what others are doing. Kick, snare, bass, lead vocal center. other things panned. Keys in stereo - always.

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As already said stereo - when we have passages with acoustic guitars I have them panned hard left or right so I can hear them better if I'm playing an organ/Mellotron sound
Yamaha CP70B;Roland XP30/AXSynth/Fantom/FA76/XR;Hammond XK3C SK2; Korg Kronos 73;ProSoloist Rack+; ARP ProSoloist; Mellotron M4000D; GEM Promega2; Hohner Pianet N, Roland V-Grand,Voyager XL, RMI
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First gig with the IEMs.

 

It went pretty well. It will take some adjusting to get the mix down. The Westones have a -12 dB filter and I quickly found I didnt need any bass or drums in my mix. I do mostly back up vocals and I felt that it helped me stay in tune being able to more clearly hear the lead singer and myself.

 

And as advertised, the ambient filters prevent the sense of isolation that seems to be a complaint for some.

 

I popped one ear piece out during a song to get a sense of how much protection I was getting. The 12 dB drop is plenty, but I was able to hear conversations. I sit stage right in front and tend to be the one who gets requests, questions, etc. from people.

aka âmisterdregsâ

 

Nord Electro 5D 73

Yamaha P105

Kurzweil PC3LE7

Motion Sound KP200S

Schimmel 6-10LE

QSC CP-12

Westone AM Pro 30 IEMs

Rolls PM55P

 

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Stereo. We use two short gun mics aimed at audience L&R. Guys with vented IEMs or non-vented can dial in amount of audience. Vocal and OH mics pick up enough stage wash.

Barry

 

Home: Steinway L, Montage 8

 

Gigs: Yamaha CP88, Crumar Mojo 61, A&H SQ5 mixer, ME1 IEM, MiPro 909 IEMs

 

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