Inner Ear Monitors - Torpedo Live

[Bryan122]

My band recently went to inner ear monitors so I started using the Torpedo Live. I'm very happy with the tones I'm getting but what I hear through my studio monitors is not the same as what I hear in my ear buds. I can only describe it as too pointy with a lack of low end resonance. I'm using a pair of high end buds that sound great when listening to reference music. I also had this problem when running my mic'ed amp prior to purchasing the Torpedo Live so I'm not blaming the unit. Does anyone else experience this?

 

[guillaume_pille]

Hi Bryan,

are you (or a monitor engineer) doing the mix for your own IEM or are you listening to the FOH mix? it's common to cut a lot of low end frequencies on the guitars for FOH, if you can have your own monitor track you definitely should setup a specific sound just for your monitors.

having a different sound depending on the listening source is perfectly normal, here in our studio we have 3 pairs of studio monitors and many different headphones to explain that fact.

The good news is that you can setup presets specifically for when you're on stage and other to play at home, but having something that will work anywhere PERFECTLY is a dream.

 

[K-Roll]

Great question actually! What we hear most often is a perceived acoustical pressure and the mass or body of the sound moving in a larger space. Been there just like you man - using in ears trying to have my main sound fed through FOH and in ears sounds way different. That's only because we perceive sounds in different environments and different distance differently.

Have you ever noticed that you have a slightly different sound in your rehearsal room and on stage? I did. Each time I'd fire up the amp on stage I start lowering presence/treble and sometimes mid control and that's just because sound in an open space behaves differently than in a smaller one.
Also hearing your sound whether that's a real cab or a torpedo is a way different experience from a distance and then straight into your ear canal.

What helps here is if you used a bit of a room reverb with some advanced tone control that you can set to a lower tone setting, rounding it up. This will warm it up and behave in a way that your ear and brain is used to and what you like.

 

[Bryan122]

The band has their own monitor mixer. I'm running my guitar flat in my IEMs. My theory is that we are all used to hearing the "resonance" (rumble) of a room as well as the sound being diffused with some of the highs absorbed before it hits my ears mixed in with the direct sound of my amp. The same goes when listening through studio monitors. Once I put the direct signal in my buds it doesn't sound like what I'm used to hearing. To me its not a subtle thing where I can just roll off some top and give it a bump in the bottom to fix. I find myself choosing cab irs based on ones that sound the fullest in my buds over cabs that sound great in the studio monitors but scooped in my ears

It also feels different, almost like all the sag from the amp goes away. The natural compression of the amp is perceived differently moving through 6 feet of air vs a centimeter when I have ear buds in.