New guy here. Hi. Very interesting discussion, including people who know what they are talking about and/or have real experience and/or qualifications in the various related fields. Nice.
A bit of background on me:
I'm an IT guy, for a communications radio company, a guitarist & vocalist who mixes from stage, radio ham, radio servicing trained, one-time line inspector at Racal, so I have a mix of related experience/s and knowledge but not expert in any one thing here.
I play in a band and 2 duos and I’m heading for 70 years old, if that makes a difference to anything, and been playing electric rock&roll and covers guitar for more than 50 of those, mixing as well for 25 or so. Tinnitus began 20+ years ago and I began trying various earplugs. One pair of those, perhaps almost before there were ‘musicians’ earplugs, succeeded in making my voice (occlusion problem) go away. Sadly, I didn’t realise the significance back then because I supposed my experience was the same as everyone else’s. I’ve had in-ears more recently, maybe 10 years, since moving to a silent stage. They are/were great, in many ways but it seems I have big occlusion problems, so bad that singing causes ever-increasing tinnitus. That's still getting worse and I need a solution fast or I have to quit playing.
Right ear is a bit deaf, so left is favoured but that one (significant tinnitus) is very sensitive and increasing tinnitus is a real problem, so vented plugs will presumably let too much stage ambience in, and therefore probably wouldn’t do the job, I guess. We do have a ‘silent stage’, with no amps or drums – it’s all out front - but that's still too much, despite running just a few hundred watts out there and not very loudly.
I’m now using a £1,200 ($1500 ?) Bose noise-cancelling aircraft headset, sending almost nothing to that ear, to get by at the moment but somehow my voice is still very loud in that ear. The noise cancelling in there is pretty good but they are clearly still not doing the whole job for me.
I’ve seen a couple of health service ENT’s and audiologists but all they do is measure what I CAN hear, rather than assess my perception of what I DO hear, without addressing the sensitivity or occlusion issues at all. I did get a Hyper-Acusis form to fill in but something tells me that’s about an imagined or psychological over-sensitivity. My left-ear tinnitus actually gets louder, very easily. Right does not. I was given a hearing-aid-like device, intended to make a small noise, apparently for brain-training. I don’t really need to learn to ignore it; I need to stop it getting worse but I can’t persuade those people to step outside their ‘normal problems’ training.
I currently imagine that I need deep, tight in-ears on stage. Finding someone to make those is not easy.
SO - thanks if you've kept up so far.
Speaking from the bad side of the fence, it seems to me that pretty much everyone's experience of IEM's is different and you can't even analyse what they hear. You all well know that it's affected by occlusion, certainly, and mixed in with latency, therefore phase difference, IEM quality, level and very much fit, as well as their hearing issues. Because of that, the ambient, whether intended or leaked, where on the stage or in relation to FOH you are, and therefore whether in- or out- of phase, makes for endless combinations of variables. My bass player complains that he can't hear enough bass in his in-ears. I plugged mine into his pack and was blown away by the bass level, so, at a guess, he must have a bad seal and/or they are antiphase with the sub on his side, which he stands behind. His IEMs are not vented, not deliberately, anyway.
On the point of reversing the mic phase, that will affect both FOH and monitoring phase. I wonder about reversing the IEM signal and then trying it (both ways). I do wonder what phase we are presented with, when standing behind FOH. That probably changes with frequency and the directivity of the cabinet(s) and more. Add room reflections and it's surely a muddle and not simply a 'fact'.
As for those who leave out one earpiece, they must surely want the other to match the level of the open ear. I've seen it said that they often want 4x the normal IEM level, in that case. Not a great idea.
My experience with the Bose headset is that excessive 'head voice' is perhaps not solely about occlusion, for me anyway. In fact, I played a completely unamplified duo gig recently, just my acoustic guitar (not a loud one) and our two voices, which still caused me increased tinnitus trouble for several days. No ear candy of any kind was used. Bizarre.
I hope my contribution adds something for you folks and maybe I'll pick up a new angle or confirmation of an old one.
Jerry
