Harman Buyout Dead - FOH Online

26
Road Test
By BillEvans
Anyone who has been paying attention
already knows that I am a big
fan of personal monitors. I have
tried probably a dozen different models
from at least four different companies,
and using them as a performer has really
helped me understand how to handle
personal mixes as a sound guy.
The Gear RT
You may already know this, but let’s
start at the beginning. There are two major
formats of personal monitors: universal
fit and custom fit. Pretty much anything
under $500 is going to be universal
fit, which means anyone can use any pair.
All of them use some kind of silicone or
foam sleeve to “couple” the driver to
the ear canal. Until recently, universals
sounded universally OK, at best.
The other format is custom fit, which
requires going to an audiologist and having
impressions taken of your ear. This
involves have a silicone goo injected into
the actual ear canal and letting it harden.
That representation of your ear is used to
make a custom product fitted to your ear
only. This is significant because when it
comes to both sound quality and attenuation
of other sounds around you (a major
advantage to personal monitors), fit
is everything.
Within the formats of universal or
custom there are a number of ways to
approach actually making sound. Because
they are inserted in the ear, most
companies have gone with hearing aidbased
technology that uses vibrating
rods called armatures to produce sound.
Armatures were developed specifically
to best reproduce the frequency range
of the human voice — like I said, hearing
aids. Some armature-based personal
monitors use multiple rods with
or without a crossover to assign certain
frequencies to specific armatures. This is
one reason the Shure E5 was considered
— for a long time — one of the best and
most “pro” choices for universal fit monitors.
I have a set of custom fit Westones
that are three-way armature devices that
sound really good.
Future Sonics, on the other hand, started
and has stuck with “dynamic drivers”
— basically very small speakers — and the
result has been that their products have always
had a reputation for greater warmth
and better low-end response. Starting
with a consumer product they designed
that was aimed at the iPod crowd and
OEM marketed, Future Sonics has used a
new driver, which has very much upped
the game for personal monitors across the
board. A more refined version of that driver
was used in the Atrio Series, and further
refinements have gone into the mg4plus
drivers found in this latest iteration of the
Future Sonics Ear Monitors brand series.
My pair came in black (flesh tone and
custom colors, even wild finishes like the
Future Sonics EarMonitors
platinum ones Justin Timberlake was
sporting on the recent MTV Video Music
Awards and HBO special, are available).
All Ear Monitors are full-range devices
that sport an easily replaceable 50-inch
cable designed to reduce microphonics.
The isolation factor cuts down ambient
sound by a whopping 20 dB — great for
protecting your hearing on a loud stage
— and with a sensitivity rating of 112 dB,
they put out a lot of volume with a small
amount of input power.
The Gigs RT
I first tried them with some recorded
music just to get an idea of how they
sounded. Like every other Future Sonics
product I have tried, I was impressed.
I wore them for about an hour and was
very happy with the sound. Highs were
crisp (a problem for me as almost 25 years
of playing in rock bands has taken its toll
on the upper end of my hearing in one
ear) and, while it should be impossible to
“feel” bass with an in-ear device, I felt like
I was feeling the bass.
The most notable part of this initial
test is that over the hour, I kept turning
the music down because I did not need
to have them loud in order to “feel” the
music. I ended up with the volume a full
third lower than I usually use with other
in-ear devices and heard everything and
had a very good listening experience.
This is very significant because lower
volume means your ears hold out longer.
It may also help with the problem
monitor mixers have with some singers
who start using in-ear devices and stop
projecting. I have both mixed and heard
a number of singers who were lost in
the house mix, and there was nothing
the FOH guy could do because the
singer was just not hitting the mic hard
enough. (I was out at a Collective Soul
gig not too long ago, and despite the
FOH guys’ efforts, the lead singer spent
the entire show buried in the mix. When
I talked to someone on the crew who
shall remain nameless, I got just the
story I expected. Since moving to personal
monitors — which he had cranked
— he had sung softer and softer, as he
did not have to fight the band to hear
himself in wedges. This is a pretty common
problem.)
I took them into a rehearsal situation
with my own 10-piece horn band. This
is always a tough gig because I have to
set up and run the system in addition to
playing. We use a Hear Technologies Mix
Back and Hear Back system, which gives
individual players a “baseline” stereo
mix, and then six “more me” controls.
In a full band situation, the increased
low end helped me “feel” the all-important
kick-drum without sacrificing vocal
clarity. I got a better baseline mix and
— even with the rest of the band on various
universal fit products — that better
starting place meant less bitching and
moaning about individual mixes.
OCTOBER 2007 www.fohonline.com
Finally, I A/B’d a set of the universal
fit Future Sonics Atrio Series earpieces,
a couple of other universals and another
set of custom fit pieces along with the
new Future Sonics Ear Monitors brand. I
used a couple of tunes I am familiar with
and that have lots of layers of sound:
“The Keys to Her Ferrari” by Thomas Dolby
and “Black Cow” by Steely Dan. While
each device has its own sonic signature,
and these kind of comparisons are massively
subjective by their very nature,
I found that the Ear Monitors gave me
an added level of detail and clarity that
was very noticeable. And once again, I
found myself turning the Ear Monitors
down by about 25%.
The Bottom Line RT
It all depends on your situation. If you
are doing MON for an act where your main
gig is to make the “star” happy, then you
had best be using whatever the star is using
so you hear just what they do. In more
“varied” situations, you have a bit more leeway.
Either way, the new Ear Monitors are
worth a listen. They are accurate enough
that I can get a really decent basic mix with
a lot less effort, and that makes the rest of
the job easier. And if you have any input
at all into what your star uses, these are a
great choice. Just the fact that you can mix
more quietly can make a world of difference
for your star. It might get that person
who thinks they no longer have to sing
with any volume to open their mouths
again. And the guy at the other end of the
snake will love you for it.
What it is: Custom-molded personal monitors.
Who it’s for: Monitor engineers and
performers.
Pros: Great sound at lower volume. Well built.
Cons: None.
How much? $798 plus cost of impressions.
Web site: www.futuresonics.com