A good in-ear monitor is first a good ear plug. With most in-ear monitors offering -26 dB to -30 dB of noise reduction, it's pretty easy to feel isolated from the team and the congregation we are leading. The most often expressed challenges to using in-ear monitors is that performers feel closed off to the team and the congregation.
One of the signs that a performer is feeling isolated is that they will take one of their in-ear monitors out, using just one to hear the music and the other to hear the stage and the congregation. This is dangerous to their ears and can lead to long-term hearing health risks, so we want to do what we can to make it a smooth transition.
Our ears are incredibly tuned instruments and we get so much information about our surroundings from the reverb that bounces all around us. Ambient is defined as “relating to the immediate surroundings of something.” When we use in-ear monitors the sound immediately surrounding us is reduced and we miss most of those reflections that tell us where a sound is in relation to us.
We want to bring that back to the performer in their monitor mixes. There are a few ways to do this, but really only a couple of ways to do it correctly.
Ambient mics help musicians feel like part of a band rather than a solo performer playing with other solo performers.
The two incorrect ways are what I see used most often in churches. I'll explain them here and why they are less than totally effective.
The first method I see most often and that is placing a microphone at the mixing position facing toward the stage. This is the easiest to implement and seems like it would work. In reality, it misses in a number of ways. One is that you are getting mostly the congregation, and a little bit of the stage. It also picks up a lot of the reverb from the room. This tends to end up making mixes muddy and not really giving the performer what they need.
When a single mic is used in this manner, you are only getting a mono signal. It may help the performer hear the audience, but it does relatively little to help them hear the stage and to get that sense of “where” they are. Two mics in the back will be marginally better, but still misses the stage ambience which helps the performer feel a part of the team.
The second method I see is dropping a mic or two from the ceiling above the congregation. This only a slightly better solution. Two mics will deliver a stereo mix which helps reduce the mud and feel more natural. You are often closer to the stage so you get some of that stage proximity. Usually, I find that performers in this case hear too much of the congregation. It would be like stepping down from the stage and performing in the middle of the aisles. It's just not where a performer is used to performing. So while it has a couple of benefits over a front of house position, it still doesn't locate the performer on the stage.
The most effective method is to place two condenser microphones on the edges of the stage pointing toward the congregation. This helps in a number of ways. It places the audio source close to the performer on the stage, giving them the ambience and natural reverb of the stage itself. It also allows them to hear the congregation in the same way they would if they didn't have in-ear monitors, with both ears and in front of them. The stereo signal keeps mixes cleaner and can be panned hard so the ambience is not interfering with hearing the band and themselves.
Some personal monitor systems have built-in ambient mics. When these are built into the personal monitor mixer, it can be very effective since the mixers are usually located very close to the performer. So it simulates not having in-ear monitors. This is a great option, especially if they are stereo ambient mics. In this scenario, you might not get the amount of congregational feedback that you need, so the above method is a great supplement to these systems.
Adding ambient mics to a performer's in-ear monitors help them hear and perform better. It will reduce their sense of isolation, helping to protect their hearing, and help them feel like part of a band rather than a solo performer playing with other solo performers. It will connect them with the congregation and the feedback we like to get when leading people in worship of our Creator.
The things a performer needs to hear are the stage around them, stereo to help place them on the stage, and the congregation so they get good feedback as they lead. Think about these three things as you develop a monitor mixing strategy that works for you and your church.
