This seems like a good place to ask about something related to singing and headphones – I remember back when I was a teen (late 70s) asking a singer why he practiced using a speaker playing his backing music instead of headphones, and being told that “headphones make you sing flat”. I thought this was unlikely, and asked around, and this was apparently something everybody knew was true, that headphones make you sing flat. Obviously this isn’t true, but why did they believe this?
It’s not true, but back then any sort of reverb or echo was either expensive, crappy, unrealistic or all three. When I started recording music back in the late 70s, the technology we had was limited to tape echo units (literally a bin filled with a loop of tape and multiple play/record heads), spring reverbs or the echo chamber in the basement with a speaker at one end and a microphone at the other. So adding a little bit of echo to the feed for the singer’s headphones wasn’t usually an option. If you can hear your own voice reflected off the walls, you’ll tend to sing more expressively - maybe that is what they meant by “flat”.
Now, digital echo/reverb units are cheap, and a good digital board will have one for every channel, and it’s easy to add ambiance to the singer’s feed.
Gaffa:
Thanks, that’s exactly what I wanted to know, particularly the part about how they can harmonize with all the noise and “distraction” of playing going on. They are talented indeed not only to do it but do it all together. One of the things I like most about this DVD is how thoroughly involved the audience is by the performance: everything from young girls on dad’s shoulders to grandma clapping and singing along with gusto. A professional has unbelievable power over an audience.
Roadie Note:
In Shania’s Grant Park DVD (which was edited from a national TV special, I think), a stage hand dressed in black hustles out to the semi-darkened stage to grab the stool Shania has used for her last song, as she addresses the outdoor audience (of 50K) prior to the next song. In semi-darkness, he races to move the stool up 3 or 4 stairs for one of the other performers to use in the coming song–TRIPS on a stair, and crashes to the stage with a loud grunt. You can hear it clearly in the backgroud as Shania speaks if you listen closely, and you can see him start to go (they edited the DVD to remove the entire pratfall, I think). He recovers and places the stool properly. Shania doesn’t miss a beat or turn her head to see what happened.
What a fascinating thread. I knew about IEMs from others who play on big stages, but I never had a group which wanted to buy a system. For most of us clubbers/grinders, our own monitors plus (one hopes) a send from FOH works fine, with (low-ish) stage volume, but I know singers in particular can get picky. I just never knew (or cared!) what they were picky about, since they never could seem to articulate what it was they wanted.
Quite an education, this thread.
It might be worth saying in-ear monitors are not the same as the big over-ear cupped headphones you see people in ‘We Are The World’ using – you don’t usually see IEMs. I’d bet every one of the acts on SNL or a late-night show uses the true in-ear monitors. I’d sure want my own volume control, so as to not have my tympanum blown out by some “sound” guy/gal. And a hard limiter.
FWIW, though, lots of keyboardists, including me, carry some cheapo ear-buds in case our personal monitor + send driven through our personal mixer blows – just jam one in the ear and you can control your own volume and be able to hear what you’re playing. I’ve heard the horror stories of people who can’t hear themselves while playing a set, but it doesn’t work with improvised music, unless you’re a savant or something. One ear in, and nobody can even see the difference from FOH (not that anyone’s looking at the keys anyone, unless they make some major clams).
That was my visual, too. :p:p:p
I vote that Gaffa <gaffer? 
> hasn’t started an ‘Ask the Roadie’ thread, that s/he do so asap. This is interesting as hell.
There are probably more qualified people.
I started doing sound when I was 15, but that was 35 years ago. Concert sound, recording studios, etc. But I discovered that I didn’t want to spend time on the road and moved away from it, getting into video instead. I still keep my hand in, reading the trade magazines like Mix and EQ, and hang with sound engineer friends, and occasionally mix concerts.
But I like that I can come in, shoot a concert with 3 cameras with the equipment that I can carry in the back seat of a car, or even a backpack, rather than humping speaker cabinets and amp racks around.
At this point, I’m more of a dilettante in the field.