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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > Hearing myself
Hearing myself
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Fil
441 posts
Aug 26, 2019
5:52 AM
Last evening I played in a small acoustic group in a neat little venue, Densmore Church, that has a summer series of local and regional performers. As usual, there were times I had difficulty hearing myself, particularly when I was playing softly behind the vocalist. I have a hearing deficit anyway, that hearing aids don’t completely fill. So need some advice. I have two ideas. First, use the ‘shooters’ ear muffs I have that filter excessive volume (>85db) but let lower sound thru. They work when I’ve tested the concept with my maps dialed up in the woodshed. Not a great look, tho. The other, where I need advice, would involve splitting the signal from my mic, one to PA and other to my small battery amp placed like a monitor. I have a DOD 240 resistance splitter that perhaps I could reverse, ie input into the out jack and use a couple of the ins to run cable to the PA and amp. The muffs probably are the responsible choice.... I could joke about them.
Any other ideas?


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Phil Pennington
Littoral
1700 posts
Aug 26, 2019
6:20 AM
Not sure I have any short answers except to yell about how important hearing well is to being able to deliver. Suggestions, perhaps...
Clean articulation of notes, solid, in tune and time deliver frequencies efficiently. This isn't discussed much, I think, but it's critical. The rest of the band too, in tune and in time. Gear. A few things have helped me with sound over the last 2 years. First, good gear is like having a great stereo at home. It sounds better. My main gig these days is also an acoustic duo. My Harp mics are a 57 or a Bulletini in a JT shell. Those help. My Xotic EP Boost is a good tool for packaging the harp sound - for delivery. I keep it on about 20 percent. My Carbon Copy Delay is also important because it's clean. Most recently some compression added on the xlr line on our Yamaha board was a real nice bit of clarity.
Littoral
1701 posts
Aug 26, 2019
6:20 AM
dp

Last Edited by Littoral on Aug 26, 2019 6:21 AM
dougharps
2004 posts
Aug 26, 2019
7:00 AM
I vote "NO!!!" on the ear muffs. You might try a foam ear plug in one ear and see if that helps. It depends upon your specific hearing issues. You need to hear the band and yourself.

It is a monitoring issue. If your group uses monitors, ask for more of you in the monitor nearest you. If you don't use monitors, you should try, even if it is just a personal, "spot" monitor.

For monitoring just your signal you could use the DOD 240 splitter as you mentioned. I would probably use a passive DI and take the DI's XLR out to the board and the parallel 1/4" out to the battery amp or to a powered monitor. If the PA has headphone output you could try earbuds.

Most mixers have a monitor line out you could use with a powered monitor or perhaps with your battery amp.
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Doug S.
Littoral
1702 posts
Aug 26, 2019
9:31 AM
Default not to turning up but down.
barbequebob
3610 posts
Aug 26, 2019
9:43 AM
I think the one you have Fil is the off the shelf ones which tend to take off way too much and you're better off getting something more custom made that will do a better job of balancing things out. Too many of the off the shelf ones take too much across the board and what you need is something that is prescribed by a reputable audiologist that has done a proper check on where your hearing is and so the ear plugs are properly set for your needs.

85 decibels downward is fine if yo're playing extremely large venues with ridiculously loud volumes like a Madison Square Garden, Wembly Stadium but for your situation, those are the wrong things to be buying.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
dougharps
2005 posts
Aug 26, 2019
10:26 AM
Phil, you said it was a "small acoustic group in a neat little venue". You indicated that you were having trouble hearing yourself despite hearing aids.

Based on that, my assumption was that your issue was not the "loud band with screaming guitar amps" syndrome, but more an issue of correct monitoring and hearing yourself.

If the other instruments and vocals make it super loud on stage and THAT is why you can't hear yourself, then I did not address the correct issue. It never occurred to me that a "small acoustic group" would have a loud stage issue.

If the issue is that it is too loud on stage playing with your acoustic group, but you are in the PA I am still confused about monitoring for your playing, but understand that you want to protect your ears.

barbequebob's answer about custom ear plugs would apply to that situation.
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Doug S.
Fil
442 posts
Aug 27, 2019
9:23 AM
Thanks very much to all of you. I’ll try different approaches described here and see what works. Basic issue is I need the hearing aids to pretty much hear anything, so have to work around those. I’m using mostly an ultimate 58, or else a bulletini, both with volume controls. That may have been part of the problem. My solos and fills were no problem. It was mostly when I was adding some stuff under and behind vocals (Americana type tunes) that I had the problem. Thinking about it last evening, I maybe could have turned the VC back and played a little louder, hear myself but not step on anyone. I was, per another string here on the site, just breathing thru the harp. It’s not a matter of the band being too loud. We don’t play together again until next summer.
So much to learn beyond just ‘moving air at the proper pressure and velocity in the appropriate direction’ thru the harp. Just kidding....
Thanks again.
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Phil Pennington


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