Help This Singer Save His Ears and His Voice!!!

[Matthew Murray]

I'm lead singer of a band and we're about to begin to promote our new album, starting next year. In the past, I've been bare-eared. Of late, in rehearsals, I've found myself encountering two major issues:

•*My ears ring after rehearsals and shows. It's time to take care of my ears.

•*I have a great voice, and yet my live chops aren't nearly as good. I find myself straining and pushing my voice too hard just so that I can hear it. As a result, the vocals end up sounding kind of lame, compared to what I can do in the studio.

I've decided I really want to try to integrate some kind of in-ear monitoring into my live setup. The problem is that I play small to midsize venues (at this point ) and many engineers at these places don't like to be bothered with "high-maintenance" setups. Hell, even asking some of these guys for the three vocal mics we require seems to annoy them.

I'm not very well educated with regard to live engineering and what it takes. At these tiny clubs, will an engineer just scoff at me when I ask him to patch my wireless transmitter into the system?

And further to that, is that the process? I buy my in-ears and the wireless transmitter/belt pack -- and the transmitter sits by the engineer and he plugs my monitor mix into it? He can still adjust everything to my taste, correct?

In brief -- will engineers have the capacity to integrate this into their setup? Will I get shit for it every time I ask? Are there certain situations where it won't be possible? I don't want to rehearse with them in, get used to them, only to find out once I get to a show that I have to play without them ...

Thanks for any advice, all of you live guys and gals.

[Matthew Murray]

Anyone?

[aussie_techie]

IEM are the way to go
take the time long before the show to talk to in house sound guy and sort out what you need. i cant stress time enough if you walk up to them right before you are ment to go on you will have no chance of making it happen (this happens to often and is why in house guys get annoyed) if you talk to them before the show there shouldnt be a reason it cant happen. even if the extra sends arnt available they should be able to sacrifice a wedge for your set. oh and except a mono send

[dkatz42]

Originally Posted by Matthew Murray

•*My ears ring after rehearsals and shows. It's time to take care of my ears.

Long since time! If your ears are ringing, you're doing permanent damage. Beethoven might have written the Ninth Symphony while deaf, but he was better than most (and I bet he was really frustrated that he couldn't hear the result.)

Many years ago my ears rang for three days after a gig (nothing like standing a foot from a crash cymbal for three hours) and I decided to start wearing earplugs. It wasn't much fun, but I got used to it. Now I'm pushing 50 and still have decent hearing.

Do whatever's necessary to take care of your ears and your voice. You can easily blow out both of them if you're not careful.

[max cooper]

Originally Posted by Matthew Murray

•*I have a great voice, and yet my live chops aren't nearly as good. I find myself straining and pushing my voice too hard just so that I can hear it. As a result, the vocals end up sounding kind of lame, compared to what I can do in the studio.

How soon are you going out?

You mention that your live chops aren't as good, but usually singing every night, being exhausted, going through all kinds of weather, staying up late to talk to people, waking up early to talk to people, not so good food, etc. can really make it harder.

Is it possible that seeing a coach for a while would be a good idea?

Just thought I'd mention it.

[Jim vanBergen]

What can work really well (if you're ready for the investment) is a small monitor desk like a Crest XRM (rackmount) that has a splitter built into it. If you bring your own vocal mics, stands, and XLR into that console, then the house guy plugs into the SPLIT side for FOH and you control your own monitor mix. This is the best way to maintain a mix that sounds the same night after night. It's no small investment, but will travel with you everywhere and will WORK and save your ears.

Oh, get custom molds made for your ear. in the meantime, use a plug that seals your eustation tube well!!!

[T.RayBullard]

Get a voice teacher.

Read The Four Voices of Man by Jerome Hines.

Get a voice teacher.


Realize that your voice will never even realize a 3rd of its potential without a teacher to aid in development. Voice lessons arent just for classical types either. The same basic principles that make a fantastic opera singer also make for a great rock vocalist. I know a lot of guys that say "well, I dont want to sound like a opera singer" ..which is just a ridiculous statement. the principles/core are all the same. Stylistic variations grow out of a solid foundation.



get a voice teacher! stike

[max cooper]

Originally Posted by T.RayBullard

I know a lot of guys that say "well, I dont want to sound like a opera singer" ..which is just a ridiculous statement. the principles/core are all the same. Stylistic variations grow out of a solid foundation.

I knew a guy who said this.

I told him I'd stop him when he was halfway there.

[Matthew Murray]

Ha!
yes, I do have a vocal coach and yes we are working on it. But it's less about vocal abilities (I'm able to do everything right when it's me and a microphone). It's more about being able to HEAR the monitor mix and sing at the same time. I don't know how some rock guys do it. I mean, our music is especially unique because it can get very loud and rock n' roll, but it's not necessarily standard rock and gets very melodic and the tone of voice matters greatly.

All in all, it's more about me hearing my voice in the mix properly without strain. I suppose I should have clarified that..

[bionicears]

How about getting yourself a good powered monitor and take that to gigs? Maybe split your vocal mic signal between the monitor and the PA? When I was still playing in bands we went to an in ear monitor system--great if you have time to set up and a proper soundcheck, but can be a pain in the ass if you're playing small clubs with short set times and other bands on the bill. The in ear monitors were also great for rehearsals (small room, loud drums--no worry for PA feedback, etc). Also, if the monitors are hot and working well and you still can't hear yourself--then stage volume is your problem--turn it down and let the PA do the work. Good luck--I know this can be frustrating!

[Zack]

I've been using in-ears for the last year and I love them. No muddy on-stage sound and if mixed right you can hear everything perfectly. I got custom moulds done for my E3s, but I found the stock sleaves that come with these particular earphones are extremely good for isolation!

If you do go in-ear, make sure you see the sound guy ahead of time and you will find that you need to have a soundcheck to be able to get a good mix. If you show up and play without soundchecking the engineer can only guess, and because the in-ears isolate so much you need to have a lot in there.

The other thing to be weary about is drop outs. You want to be able to run your transmitter at the stage end if possible. Even in a small venue with an average crowd you may find that by leaving your transmitter down at the desk you experience cut outs.

And, GET EAR PLUGS. There is one piece of equipment you CANNOT afford to break and that's your ears. If you do enjoy loud volumes I'd like to remind you not to crank your in-ears right up. Im a drummer and I love hearing a full-on huge sound in my ears when I'm playing, but by using earphones you run a much higher risk of damaging your ears. I think I heard something about people damging their hearing more scince Ipods came out because of the earphones that everybody chooses to use and then they crank them nice and loud and because they're right up in your ear they're that much worse.

[RyanPitch]

Matthew,

I'm in a similar situation. I'd love to hear what you've learned since your first post and what you guys chose to do.

I used to need my vocal stage monitors cranked in order to hear myself over the loud stage volume. One time, the opening band couldn't make it (to the show) and the venue asked us, "Could you guys just play 2 sets?" And we said yes.

I got permanent hearing damage that night because of the time-integrated exposure to sound. Remember, everybody, it's what you're exposed to over time. In other words, swinging a hammer and hitting a nail once might not expose you to anything painful. It might be quite bearable.

But you do that for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, and all of a sudden, you've been exposed to too many 88 dB blasts in too short a time and there you have it; permanent damage.

So, for the people who say, "Turn down and get a lower stage volume," I ask you this: what do you do when you're in a rehearsal space where the drums are not even mic'ed up, you've got a hard-hitting drummer who loves his cymbals, and you have to turn up the bass rig and half stack just to hear them at all along with the drummer?

I did that tonight for a practice that lasted less than 2 hours and my ears are killing me. Would in-ears for a practice situation be a good idea?

[dkatz42]

Originally Posted by RyanPitch

So, for the people who say, "Turn down and get a lower stage volume," I ask you this: what do you do when you're in a rehearsal space where the drums are not even mic'ed up, you've got a hard-hitting drummer who loves his cymbals, and you have to turn up the bass rig and half stack just to hear them at all along with the drummer?

You use gobos or some other kind of barrier to contain the drummer's sound, you tell the drummer to back off, or you find another drummer. Seriously, destroying your hearing is not worth it, no matter how good the drummer is.

Early in my musical career, standing next to my young, ham-fisted drummer, I came back from a gig with my ears ringing for three days, and I knew enough to say "this isn't good." I started playing with earplugs, "rubbers for music," which I found unsatisfying at first, but eventually I got used to them, used them ever since, and am glad that I did. 25+ years later I still have good high end response.

In-ear monitoring could go either way--if it isolates well enough so that the stage levels are blocked out and you can keep the volume down, that's good. But if you end up blasting them, it could be even worse.

Work on that drummer. If you can get the stage volumes down, you'll not only save your hearing, but you'll make your FOH mixer a happier camper and you'll sound better.

[DCtoDaylight]

I'll just toss into the mix what my voice teacher told me....which is that the real solution to monitoring is to just know what it feels like when you're singing in tune. His point was that if you're listening (via IEMs or whatever) and then correcting, it means you're not getting the note right in the first place.

His premise was that you have to learn to relax yourself to get control over the tiny muscles in the larynx that determine your pitch, and that once you can do that, you can just sing your notes.

There's more to it than that, obviously, and it does take practice, but it helped me a lot, and he's worked with some pretty big names.

[pianoman]

Absolutely true, one of my own mantras, and not very widely understood. Intercostal diaphragm breathing/breath support coupled with forward placement to get the production off the vocal cords and into the soundboard of your head are universal requirements to getting proper sound and protecting vocal health, independent of genre. Full stop.

Sometimes people tend to push in performance, and I've even heard FOH guys telling performers to push. Bad plan. Assuming you have decent vocal technique, do what your muscles have been trained to do, let the mic and the amps do their job and you'll almost never get voice fatigue. 99 times out of 100 in my experience, voice fatigue comes from bad breath support and/or bad placement.

Originally Posted by T.RayBullard

0The same basic principles that make a fantastic opera singer also make for a great rock vocalist.... the principles/core are all the same. Stylistic variations grow out of a solid foundation.