Ask someone who has successfully made the switch to in-ear monitoring what they think of the experience, and you'll likely hear words like "accurate," "controlled," and "clear." Let them talk a bit longer, and you may also hear words like "sterile," "artificial," even "isolating." Truth is, in-ear monitoring does a terrific job of giving you what you need to hear to perform: separation, clarity, detail. It's far less adept at giving you everything else you need to feel immersed in a performance.
Even with ambient mics added in, in-ear monitors create a stereo soundstage that essentially sits inside your head. Contrast this with what you hear on a stage with traditional monitoring (or no monitoring at all). You hear the strings and percussion behind you, piano far right, acoustic guitar to the left, and background vocals at about 4 o'clock. Sounds are coming from all around you, with space in between. When you turn your head, the soundstage spins to match. The sound is natural, familiar, spacious—everything in-ear monitors are not.
A New Approach
German company Klang decided to take a high-tech approach to eliminate the sterile, unnatural sound of in-ear monitors. Drawing on scientific research in how we localize sounds, its Klang:fabrik technology allows sounds to be placed in 3D space so they appear to be coming from anywhere around you—even above or below. The stereo field that sits between your ears no longer constrains the mix, so sounds appear to be coming from outside your head (where they belong).
Let that sink in for a moment. Imagine being able to recreate in your in-ear monitors the actual location of musicians on stage with you. Imagine being able to perceive the space and separation you'd hear just standing on stage without gadgets in your ears. The Klang system makes this happen.
"You may not believe your in-ears."
Impeccably designed hardware and custom DSP do the hard work, and the whole wonderment is controlled by the Klang:app. The app is available for iPhone, Android and both computer platforms. With it you can mix, meter and position sounds. A nifty graphical display shows a top-down view of a person with icons floating around it to represent the input channels.
Sitting dull and drab between the person's head is a line that represents the basic stereo field, on which you can put inputs that sound better anchored in one place (i.e., bass). A single purple ring around the head allows you to drag sounds from the stereo field to the 3D space, something that's guaranteed to bring a smile the first time you hear the sound move out of your head.
Icons for each input are multi-colored for easy identification, and even have a small level indicator. Dragging them around the circle moves them through 3D space—a task more easily done on a tablet than a phone. When multiple icons get stacked into one area, it can be a trick to select the one you want. Thankfully, you can create icon groups to reduce the clutter and to access only the channels you need.
Not content to simply pluck sounds off the stereo field and sprinkle them into space, the folks at Klang decided the 3D sound field needed to move to track the rotation of your head. Attach the Klang:vektor system to your in-ear monitors, and a wireless motion-tracking system makes your 3D mix swing around as you move. If you turn around on stage, the drummer that was behind you is now in front of you. What you see with your eyes is confirmed by your ears, and the illusion is complete.
This i3D mode adds a second purple ring around the KLANG:app's mannequin, on which you place sounds that will track head orientation. That makes three layers of positioning: stereo, static 3D, and orientation-tracking i3D. The i3D mode is a bit ahead of its time, [since] the Klang:vektor won't be released until later this year. Until then, you can use a phone or tablet for the motion tracking.
The Boring Stuff
Although it's more fun to read about 3D in-ear sound, you need to know the other details as well. Klang:fabrik interfaces with Dante and ADAT, with MADI in the works. In addition, Klang:fabrik creates eight 3D mixes for $5,995, while the smaller five-mix Klang:vier costs $3,495. Klang:vektor price is TBA.
Is the 3D audio world perfect? Not quite. First off, it's expensive. Secondly, the localization must filter the sounds noticeably to steer them around. This tonal tweaking may offend certain purists, especially in the higher frequencies. Some people may have to learn to "suspend disbelief" to hear the front-to-back placement, [since] it isn't nearly as pronounced as the side-to-side. I found that when I closed my eyes and rotated a sound it could be hard to tell whether the sound was moving in front of me or behind.
I've been testing audio products for more than 30 years, and I'm not easy to impress. The Klang system impressed me. I understand how it works and what it's doing, but it still seems like magic when I switch from stereo to 3D modes. The resulting change is as profound as the jump from mono to stereo. The Klang system is virtual reality for your ears, and it needs to be heard to be believed.
So you should hear it. Download the Klang:app and take the comprehensive demo mode for a test spin (literally). You may not believe your in-ears.
