Robben Ford Discussion

[Richard Harris]

Any recomendations on these. Our lead singer is considering buying IEM's but we really dont know anything about them. We would want some kind that we could expand to the rest of a 5 piece band.
On another note Robbin is coming to Nevada City and the venue he is playing is pretty much run by our lead singer so we are very excited about meeting Daved (first time) and Robbin again. They have put in a new sound system in the Foundry and Rich (Increadable live sound tech) should be handling the board. This is one not to miss.

Richard

[telefunk1]

Hi Richard:

A couple of months ago I subbed for a friend of mine in a C&W band. They use the in ear's and love them. The just roll their monitor rack on stage, plug them in and are set in a matter of minutes (they have been using them for a few years so they have it down by now). The sound people they meet also love them for it since it makes their job a lot easier.

Now, for my experience... it worked well but it would take a few more times before I would be comfortable with them. It is a major difference from on stage wedges. Basically each player sets the volume on whatever they want to hear in their ears. Each of the other players in the band had their levels all set so they stuck the monitor rack near me so I could tweak mine as we went along. After a few tunes I had a pretty good mix dialed in - lead vocals and acoustic gutar and a little keys were all I needed to keep track of what was going on. The drums were loud enough on stage as was the bass. I was stage right so ended up taking out the left ear piece to hear/feel myself (1969 Deluxe Reverb on 5) and drums with the right ear piece supplying the vocals and acoustic guitar. Worked well and I was very pleased.

I observed two things as a result of this gig - I got lots of compliments from the band because I played a lot quieter on stage than the regular guitarist - just did not need to be loud. I found the sweet spot with the Deluxe and let the sound guy do the rest out front. Second, the sound guys treated us a lot better than the headliner because we had the in ear system, knew how to use it, and let them concetrate on the front of the house.

Hope this helps.

[frank0936]

Try doing a search on this. We had a similar discussion a few months ago. I remember Daved talked about using them with GA&F and how he added ambient sounds through the use of house mikes to make it a little more real sounding - for lack of a better term - for the band.
Frank

[Daved]

Sorry to miss you at the Nevada City gig, Richard, but I'm not involved with that one. Perhaps next time around.

(FYI... I HAVE been asked by Dal about my availability to work with Robben for some L.A. and San Francisco city and coast shows coming up in March.
Oh, BTW, for you ABB fans... Allman Brothers will be playing 2 nights in April at the Wannee festival in Live Oak, Florida and the usual March Month-At-The-Beacon-Theater-On-Broadway in N.Y.C. will be held in May this year.)

Anyway... In-ears... Gregg Allman's audio techs tried for years to get him to give up his floor monitors and go to in-ears. A little over 2 years ago we finally got him to seriously test them out on a Gregg Allman & Friends run and now he panicks if he thinks they won't be available for him and lauds their praises to all the musicians he works with.

Within GA&F regular members, percussionist/vocalist Floyd Miles, drummer Steve Potts, and keyboardist Neil Larson regularly use them.

Within the Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks uses them and the other drummer, Jaimoe, probably would if he weren't using the individual monitor/mixer setup he has favored for years (almost the same thing as in-ears, actually, only external).

As for Gregory, our audio techs went with FutureSonics (www.futuresonics.com).
They started Gregg out with a belt pack and a set of foam inserts to test them out. After a week of nervously popping them in and out of his ears while performing, he decided he actually DID like them, so they had him make ear-molds and FutureSonics made him up a couple sets of custom molded in-ears and those are what he's used and loved ever since.

Custom ear molds provide the best control over what one hears but are expensive, as you would imagine. However, once they've been made, more earplugs can always be made from them in the future.
The less expensive, but often still satisfactory method, are using foam earplug monitors.

Gregory has one regular use unit and one back up unit, for each his belt pack and his custom molded in-ear monitor.

It took ME some time to build Gregg's confidence in that he kept worrying that the audience couldn't hear his amp, tho it was loud and clear in his ears... LOL. He kept wanting to tweak guitar and amp volumes untill I finally managed to assure and instill in him the confidence that I was there to insure that the amps worked properly and to adjust anything that might need to ambiently be addressed.
I had to ingrain in him that Big E (our monitor man) and I had gone over all of Gregg's rigs and meticulously set up sounds and levels that worked well on stage for the band and audience... and if he needed something adjusted for his own personal listening preferences, he should NOT touch any of the on board controls (as that affects the overall mixes for everyone else... band members and audio techs... onstage and throws everything out of kilter).
Instead, if he needs a volume or EQ adjust, he should signal Earl (Big E) in monitor beach of his in-ear needs and Earl would make the proper monitor adjustment for him, thus leaving everyone else's mixes as they wish them to remain. *

Once he gained the confidence that though he was not listening directly to his gear, we techs were making sure his equipment worked and sounded good to the audience... he lost his nervousness and now loves his in-ear monitor setup.
If he has severe problems hearing something (like when a D.I. or mic line goes down) he can always remove one of the in-ear monitors so he can hear a mix of monitor and ambient sound till the problem is corrected.

I, myself, often used the backup belt pack with my set of Bose headphones to monitor exactly what it is Gregory hears, though I have just ordered a pair of the foam phones ($200) from FutureSonics for my own use this year.

In monitor beach, the techs have transmitters in a rack with a blade-antenna near by.
Gregg wears a belt pack transmitter with his molded ear packs and both the transmitters and the receivers are frequency adjustable to correct for interferrence from local sources and other personal equipment/gear/monitor transmitters.

When doing fly-in/rental gigs (where we leave our own equipment behind) I always carry Gregory's in-ears with me. Big E brings the transmitters and belt packs if necessary, but often more and more these days the providing audio company has their own that we can use, as long as I have Gregg's molded in-ear monitors for him to wear.

---------------------------------

* Incidently, this is one of the really nifty benefits of in-ears, especially when all or most of the band members wear them... You can set up all the gear to individual ambiently tolerable & sonicly ideal levels.
Then, when the band performs and the room or stage sonics seem to change, if they need anything louder or EQ adjusted, the monitor person does it for them within each individuals own ears, leaving the room and stage sounds alone for the Front-Of-House and monitor engineers to more efficiently and consistently handle.
This way you avoid the inevitable volume war that always seems to start on stage as each player's ears fatigue and they start competing with each other by turning their amps up because someone else is now louder and they "can't hear themselves".
You just leave the amps alone, and turn up whatever you need louder in your own ear.
Voila! Happier band members, happier road crew, happier venue managers, happier audience... overall better sound for everyone involved.
_________________
B C-ing U!
( }:-Daved
"This boy's diseased with rhythm!" -Bing Crosby (Road To Rio, '49)

[Richard Harris]

Daved, as always you give more than just a pat answer, stellar, stellar, stellar job, thanks so much.
Sorry, I missed you at the show. I wanted to give you one of our dics, I know you collect alot of music and thought you might like it. Kind of early 70's all original stuff. I gave one to Robben and Patrick, can you send me a pm with an address and I'll send you one .

Thanks,

Richard