Why I am obsessed with In-Ear-Monitors (IEMs)
October of 2024 was the first time I started using In-Ear-Monitors (IEMs) for performing. Prior to IEMs, I was just listening to my sound from the speaker, without any monitor at all. Monitors help performers hear their sound better, but also create more noise. And when you get too much noise with a microphone, you are going to get feedback.
Very simply, a microphone takes sound and puts it out through the cord and out of the speaker. If that speaker or monitor is pointed in the direction of the microphone, you get a noise loop going that sounds horrendous and could possibly damage your ears, equipment, or both. How do you solve that problem in 2025? Put the monitor in your ears, with IEMs.
IEMs allow so many more possibilities for bands. Not only do they take feedback out of the equation, IEMs open the conversation of playing to a metronome. I have been performing on stage with a metronome for about a whole year. No one in the audience knows, because they can’t hear it. Some really fun looping takes place when you can feel and play a groove that no one else can, until the song is put together and then the groove make sense to everybody.
IEMs can be used for communicating. Bands like Phish, have a closed circuit in their headphones where their bassist, Mike Gordon, communicates to the band with a microphone dedicated to their IEMs. That microphone also communicates to the Sound Technician for any sound issues that need to be addressed.
I don’t loop with pre-recorded tracks, but I have the ability to with my IEMs and the metronome. Some bands and artists fully perform with pre-recorded tracks and metronome, while the Sound Technician mixes in whatever sounds best into the Front of House (FOH). You’ve seen it on Saturday Night Live, most Halftime Performances, and most large arena performances.
If you’re working with a BOSS RC-600 like me, you can program RHYTHM out to PHONES only, which is where the IEMs connect. This way the metronome from the RHYTHM isn’t going out of the MAIN or SUB outputs (only you will hear it with your IEMs). I have now successfully performed 100% of my solo gigs in 2025 with a metronome - and I gotta say, it sounds better than before. I am rhythmically more accurate, and that screams confidence on every instrument. I am hooked and hope that I can find more musicians using IEMs, for everybody’s sake.