or seen your favorite musicians performing live on TV,

you may have noticed that they were wearing these, in-ears.

But what are they listening to through them?

And, are they really necessary?

Well, a year back, I did a short video on these

and you guys had so many questions

that I thought I'd give you a more in-depth view.

(roar, roar, roar, roar, roar)

Rawr!

When you are singing or performing

it is really critical that you can hear yourself clearly.

And traditionally, this was done with wedges.

Wedges, as the name suggests,

are a wedge shaped loudspeaker floor monitor.

These are placed on stage facing the performers

and play the music back to the musicians

so they can hear themselves clearly.

Legend has it that The Beatles were the first people

to use onstage monitors when they couldn't hear themselves

over their screaming fans in the 1960s,

at the height of Beatlemania.

Their sound engineers decided to simply turn

some of the speakers that were facing the audience

around to face the band so they could hear themselves.

For a long while wedges were

the only way of doing this effectively.

But they presented other problems

in the form of hearing health, sound quality,

and the mobility of the musicians.

Something smaller and more effective was needed.

And this came about in the form of the in-ear monitor.

The first basic homemade in-ears were made in the 1970s,

and they were essentially earbuds attached to a radio pack.

Now, these weren't very good quality

and were certainly not available to the everyday musician.

More effective in-ear monitors were made by Chris Lindop

on the Stevie Wonder tour in the 1980s.

These were better sound quality, although not perfect.

But they did allow sound to be fed

directly into Stevie's ear.

However, these were not made with hearing health in mind,

and didn't protect the wearer

from the loud noises from the band or audience.

And they weren't for sale in the public forum.

So it would be more than a decade

until any significant development occurred.

Then, in 1995, a sound engineer called Jerry Harvey,

who has an amazing CV, he's worked with people like Kiss,

Motley Crew, Morrissey, The Cult, KD Lang,

and Linkin Park to name a few, was working with Van Halen.

The drummer, Alex Van Halen,

felt the noise from the monitors was hurting his ears,

which he was probably right.

And he didn't feel like he could

communicate with the band properly.

He went to Jerry for a solution.

After researching current in-ears,

Jerry realized that there was nothing

that really solved the problem,

nothing created complete isolation from external sounds.

And the sound quality was tinny,

and didn't give the musicians an accurate representation

of what they were producing.

Jerry decided to do something about it.

He created the first ever dual speaker custom in-ears,

which he molded to Alex's ears himself.

This allowed a greater frequency of sounds to be heard,

so it was much better quality, and it had true isolation.

Skid Row were touring with Van Halen at the time

and was so impressed by it that they offered

to pay $3,000 per pair for each member,

including Sebastian Bach, the singer.

The custom in-ear was born.

Since then, the work of many sound engineers

has evolved and improved the in-ears.

And, since the early 2000s,

they became accessible to the everyday musician

for a fairly reasonable price.

So let's have a look at in-ears,

and what they do, and what makes them so great.

So, much like an earbud,

they sit in the structure of your ear.

But, unlike an earbud,

they create a seal between your ear canal

and the in-ear monitor themselves, creating isolation.

So, here are eight reasons why they work.

Number one, superior sound quality.

Because the in-ears fit really tightly into the ear,

the seal between the in-ears themselves and your ear canal

blocks out the outside noise.

It also means that the sound coming from the monitors

goes directly into your ear canal,

which means you can hear things

with more detail, at less volume.

Which leads me on to number two, hearing health.

It's no surprise given the loud environment

that they're constantly in,

but musicians are four times more likely

to deal with noise induced hearing loss,

and 57% more likely to develop tinnitus.

Listening to anything above 85 decibels for

an extended period of time can damage your hearing health,

and musicians often have to hear things at that level.

In-ears block out the sound of outside noise,

whether it be amplified instruments, drums, or the audience,

which all can be really, really loud.

They also allow you to have the mix at a lower level,

protecting your ears.

Number three, individual mixes.

Because the sound is isolated to each performer,

rather than the entire stage,

then the performer can choose the mix that they want.

So everything is completely personalized.

It also means that you can put on things like click tracks,

and cues, and the audience won't hear them.

Number four, reduced vocal strain.

This one is a great one for singers, of course.

Because you have that lower mix in your ears

it reduces that urge to push.

You don't have to fight against the band,

you don't have to sing louder.

You can hear yourself clearly and sing with more precision.

Number five, elimination of feedback,

and clean sound for the audience.

If you've got speakers on stage blasting sound back at you,

some of this can get picked up by your microphone.

And this gets amplified, and makes this horrible noise.

(feedback screeching)

Even without the full effect of feedback,

some of those lower frequencies still can

bleed into the audience mix, which really muddies the sound.

With everyone having their in-ear monitors,

this shouldn't happen.

And it allows the audience mix to be clean,

and the sound engineer to do what he is best at doing,

making the best sound possible

for the audience and for the musicians.

Number six, mobility.

Stage monitors take up a lot of space,

they've got loads of wires, and they are also directional.

So that means you have to stand

in front of them to hear your sound.

This means that if you wanna run around on stage,

you're pretty stuck.

With in-ears you can move around, there is no stage clutter,

and you have fantastic sound

even when you are crowd surfing.

Number seven, portability.

In-ears are small and portable.

On stage speakers are 45 pounds.

So you have two choices.

You can take your big old speakers with you,

lug them to every venue,

and have your sound set up how you want to.

Or you can use the venue speakers that they have

and configure everything around those speakers.

With in-ears that completely solves that problem.

Number eight, stereo sound.

In-ears empower the singer to set the mix that they want.

But also, nowadays, in-ears are generally in stereo,

which means you can have more of one sound

in one ear than in the other ear.

So you could have a bit more drums here

and a bit more guitar here.

This is much more natural for the ear.

It sounds as if you're being surrounded by instruments,

rather than mono,

where you're getting the same thing in both ears.

And this is great for a few reasons, clarity,

general enjoyment, and of course hearing health.

So, this all sounds awesome, you want some,

what are your options?

Well, as you can see,

I'm not gonna go into massive detail here,

but I have my own custom in-ears,

which are made to the shape of my ear.

It's kind of weird being able to see

what the inside of your ear looks like.

These are a little more expensive

than the average on the market,

but there are pros and cons to this.

Because it does fit to my ear

it fits really, really snugly in,

which means they're really durable,

and I'm definitely not getting any bleed from outside noise.

So my hearing is really, really protected.

Personally though, I really like my Sennheiser IE 400 Pro.

Now, I'm not even being sponsored by these guys,

but there is a specific reason that I like them

that may be different to the general musician.

The one con for these guys for me

is they're quite fiddly to take in and out.

These are really, really quick and easy.

So, as a vocal coach, I will go to gigs,

and I will have to listen to the mix

that the performer is listening to,

and then quickly switch over

to the mix that the audience hears out front.

So I'm gonna have to take them out

really, really, really quickly.

And for me, this gives a great sound,

and I'm able to take them out really quickly.

However, hearing health is so important,

and you do get a little bit of bleed

from the outside noise.

So if you're gigging regularly in loud settings,

I would really recommend going to pay that little bit more

for a pair of customs because your hearing

will thank you in the long run.

Okay, so this sounds great.

But sometimes you see that singers aren't wearing them,

and sometimes they take them out during performances.

Why would that be?

Well, of course, there are always problems.

There could be interference,

there could be a problem with the mix, mistakes happen.

But there are also some important things to consider

when you're looking into getting in-ears.

Sometimes in smaller venues there is only one sound desk.

This means there just isn't the option

of having your own mix.

But the most common reason is that it does take

a little bit of getting used to in-ears

because that isolation makes you feel

a little bit disconnected from the audience.

Sometimes in smaller, more intimate gigs

where you're playing something like an acoustic set,

which isn't very loud,

it's much better just to have your ears free,

to be able to get that direct connection.

But, in bigger gigs where it is really, really important

sound engineers do get around it.

Often sound engineers will set up ambient microphones,

which pick up the sound of the audience

and send the sound directly back to the singer.

Then the singer gets to pick how loud they want

the audience to be within their mix as well.

Having said that, no matter the size of the venue,

how big or small it is, sometimes you just want

that direct connection with the audience.

And, as any performer will tell you,

it's all about the audience.

(upbeat music)

(people singing)

(person roars)