With the System 3, in-ear monitoring pioneers Garwood Communications have added an affordable, fixed frequency system to their range. DAVE LOCKWOOD is all ears.

In-ear monitoring has been one of the hottest topics in live sound circles over the last few years. The advent of more affordable systems plus the ever increasing number of high profile users, has meant that more and more bands now seem willing to explore the potential benefits of IEM. These benefits include not just higher quality and more consistent monitoring, of course, but also better out-front sound as well, as there is no longer any monitor spill into the front-line mics (even if you decide to use a combination of IEMs and wedges, the conventional monitors can usually be run at a lower level). Plus, of course, with IEMs there is the possibility of actually monitoring at a more controlled and therefore generally lower level, thus reducing ear fatigue and potential long-term damage.

Garwood Communications have been at the leading edge of the in-ear monitoring movement from the outset, and now have four systems on the market. Their original Radio Station wireless system has since been joined by the lower cost System 2, the non-wireless M-Pack (at just £299, a remarkably economical route into IEM for those who don't need to move around on stage, such as drummers or keyboard players); the distinctly upscale new Radio Station IDS, with its on-board library of international legal operating frequencies and switchable compander noise reduction; and finally the new unit I tested for this review, designated System 3.

The System 3 transmitter unit is housed in a 1U rack chassis (System 21 uses a half-rack), with a short, detachable RF antenna connecting to the front panel via a sturdy BNC connector. The antenna can swivel on its mounting, but appears to be best left in the upright position unless multiple units are being employed in close proximity, in which case adjacent antennae can be tilted in opposite directions. Controls are kept to a minimum, with just a Power On switch, Input Level — adjusted with the aid of a fairly rudimentary 'signal present peak clip' LED ladder — and Local Monitor pots. With the first LED consistently illuminated, and the Peak LED only occasionally flashing, you will achieve both the lowest noise floor and optimum performance of the integral protective limiter system. Running the system in this way, I was never aware of the limiter coming into action, although with the combination of live sound sources and transducers mounted a few millimetres from your eardrums, it is good to know that it is there!

The Local Monitor pot feeds a mini jack socket on the front panel, allowing signal quality (or indeed signal presence or absence, in the event of problems) to be checked independently of the RF link to the beltpack.

Round the back, a standard IEC accepts mains power input, and a pair of Neutrik Combo balanced connectors (combined 3-pole jack and XLR) handle the audio input to the two channels, but insertion of a single pole (conventional mono) jack has the desired unbalancing effect without any rewiring required. A stereo/mono switch is provided — handy for summing both sides of an input that is true stereo or comprised of two different sources, when the performer has a preference for using just a single earpiece. And that's your lot on the transmitter — nothing to fiddle with, only the input level to set up, and more importantly nothing that you can really get wrong. Just plug your desk's foldback send(s) into it instead of (or as well as) your usual foldback amplification system, and you're transmitting!

ARE YOU RECEIVING?

Whether you are receiving or not depends on what you have done with the distinctly cool-looking beltpack receiver unit. If you have screwed in its 2.5-inch flexible aerial, put a fresh PP3-type 9V (heavy duty alkaline) battery in it, switched it on, and advanced the single control (volume) to around the one third/halfway mark, you will be able to connect a pair of headphones, in-ear phones, or best of all, proper custom moulded in-ear monitors to the on-board mini jack socket and listen to what you are transmitting in all its glory. Well almost all its glory, for inevitably there is a little background hiss introduced by the transmit/receive process, but nothing compared to that produced by a heavyweight stage monitor speaker system at full tilt. And nothing that you tend to notice at all at stage performance levels where backline amplification is involved.

The beltpack unit receiver has a cast metal chassis that looks as if it would survive being run over by a Transit (hopefully this will never be part of your act), so it should certainly survive being dropped and maybe kicked around a bit, which it probably will be at some point in its life. The belt clip is wide and comfortingly grippy, and the receiver's rounded edges make it less prone to catching on clothing or cables. One small point for guitar and bass players to bear in mind, however, is that whilst the natural inclination is to mount the receiver to your right so you can operate the volume control with your right hand (while still holding a note, if necessary), I found my guitar strap was surprisingly prone to operating the volume control as I moved around, with it in this position. Unfortunately, switching the beltpack to the left meant abandoning at the outset a line of sight between transmitter and receiver, for I needed to be standing stage right, and the transmitter and monitor console were also on that side. For the most trivial of reasons, I had abandoned at the outset one of the first principles of using a radio system in this type of environment — the volume control on the receiver unit really should be either recessed or stiffly mechanically detented (perhaps both) to make it impossible to operate accidentally. Once you have found the right volume level to work with, you can't afford to have it change significantly whilst actually performing.

The radio performance of the system, however, was entirely unaffected by loss of line of sight — in fact, I was unable to provoke a radio drop-out of any kind during the test period. Wandering off to a stage-side dressing room actually caused my guitar radio system to mute, but the Garwood stayed working. The system spec claims a limit of 100 feet, but that would have put me across the street at this venue — suffice to say, you can go a lot further than you can with wedges and sidefills, and probably a lot further than you would ever want to.

Admittedly, nobody else on stage was on IEMs, or indeed, apart from myself, even using an instrument transmitter, so test conditions were not arduous from the point of view of inter-system interference, but System 3 was nonetheless, faultless, and you can ask no more of it than that.

FAVOURABLE IMPRESSIONS

Which type of earpiece you will need probably depends on the the instrument you play and the type of music that you are involved in. But for anything beyond just vocals and acoustic instruments, I would strongly recommend the use of proper custom moulded in-ear monitors. It is the seal that these provide against the outside world, attenuating by over 25dB in some cases, that enables the in-ear monitor (rather than the combination of on-stage and PA spill level, plus the earpiece monitoring) to be the determining factor governing both the mix and the listening level.

I primarily used Sensaphonics custom-moulded monitors, made from precise impressions of my ears taken by Andrew Shiach, one of the foremost audiologists working in this field and also MD of Elcea UK (manufacturers of the Elacin ER15 Musicians' Earplugs). The Sensaphonics units are rather larger than a typical Walkman-type earpiece, filling more or less the whole of the outer ear, and sticking out a little on either side. The flesh coloured plastic housings are all but invisible at anything beyond about 25 feet, but if you're planning on trying them for a pub gig, be prepared for a few remarks if you keep them in when you go to the bar! The highly flexible, but tangle-free cable is fairly flesh coloured too, which also helps with the visual side.

The cable attaches to each IEM via a neat miniature two-pin connector, with the end of the cable having a stiffening sleeve so that you can bend it to precisely the shape required to train the cables away, up and over the top of your ear, and down your back to the receiver unit, connecting via a stereo 3.5mm jack. It is important, I found, to support the spare cable adequately, leaving yourself sufficient freedom of movement, but also preventing yourself from rubbing against the bit hanging down, for mechanically borne noise is even more noticeable with in-ears than with conventional headphones.

Although the bulk of the Sensaphonics custom moulded earpiece sits just outside the entrance to the ear, there is a substantial projection well into the ear canal, placing the apparent source of sound well inside, much closer to the ear drum than we are normally used to hearing things. In order for this to sound natural, the earpiece and transducer assembly needs to fairly accurately replicate the resonant frequency of the ear canal itself. The extent to which this is successful is reflected in the fact that familiar CDs listened to via the IEMs sound exactly that, familiar. They also, however, sounded extremely bass-heavy at first.

"... I soon found myself absolutely revelling in the fact that I could both control my overall listening level and hear more or less the balance I wanted."

The plastic IEM shell has a small hole in it which acts as a port, tuning the bass response of the system, as well as affecting the overall level of attenuation of outside sound. As part of the Sensaphonics kit, you receive two sets of small, clear plastic bungs for progressively reducing the size of the port down to almost zero. To my ears, the most balanced response, and the one that I preferred for stage use, is obtained with the smallest amount of port area, which also gives maximum isolation, although I am told that many users prefer a boosted LF for performance. My system was also fitted with Sony drive units, which, whilst fairly decent sounding, I suspect aren't the finest to be had in this field.

THE COMFORT ZONE

Fitting the custom moulds into your ears is a doddle once you've done it a couple of times, and they stay put too without further assistance. Comfort far exceeded any other earpiece I've ever tried, presumably because they are such a perfect fit for my ears — I happily wore them for hours at a stretch in rehearsal. The only thing that does get annoying is occasionally tangling things in the hanging cable (guitar machine heads are a particular favourite), but perhaps this is just a necessary hazard.

I also tried the Garwood IEM II earpieces, which are supplied as standard with the system. These are fairly conventional outer ear types, mounted within a clear, flexible plastic housing which helps them to remain rather more firmly fixed in your outer ear (I don't know about you, but ordinary Walkman types seem to have a tendency to fall straight out of my ear if I so much as think about doing anything more energetic that sitting down and keeping very still!). The plastic widget will also work with any other conventionally shaped earpiece should the Garwood model not suit your taste or requirements in this direction.

SENSIBLE CAUTION

I tested the system in rehearsal before attempting to perform with it, naturally — sensible caution, I'm sure you'll agree, but this also allowed me to control my own monitor balance using a little sub-mixer by my side. I used the custom moulded sealed earpieces first, and later tried moving over to the standard earpieces. The sense of detachment and disorientation using the sealed models was nothing like as intense as I had anticipated, and I soon found myself absolutely revelling in the fact that I could both control my overall listening level and hear more or less the balance I wanted.

Standing some 15 feet from the drum kit I found that, with no other instruments playing, I really only wanted the merest hint of kit overheads to restore sufficient presence to what I was already hearing by way of leakage. This was an immediate advantage as on all but the largest of stages, it is the kit that normally sets the lower limit of an acceptable monitoring level. With the kit perfectly audible, but significantly quieter than I would have been hearing it acoustically, I was free to build the monitor balance I wanted, at whatever level I found to be comfortable.

The bass drum posed slightly more of a problem than the rest of the kit, however. To some extent, even at the distance I was standing, I could still feel plenty off the drum itself, but having the signal in my in-ear mix was a case of "inaudible... inaudible... ouch, rattling cones... back it off a bit... oh, inaudible again", seemingly with nothing in between. The pragmatic solution lay in some radical EQ to take out all the real low end which was using up all my headroom, leaving just some clicky middle in there for me to latch onto for timing. This wouldn't be practical, of course, if the same monitor channels were being used for other purposes, such as sidefills and wedges for other performers not using IEMs.

The same problem arose when I tried the system briefly on bass guitar. I could feel quite enough to play, if I stood in the right place, but there was no chance of my hearing enough bass to perform with, unless I was within range of the cabinet.

REVELATION

The bass end limitation aside, and a few difficulties with electric guitar notwithstanding (see sidebar), I encountered no other problem sources — it was simply a revelation to hear the acoustic instruments on stage with such clarity, and vocalists must find it a godsend. Despite not being much of the latter myself, I nevertheless soon got used to the characteristic 'finger-in-the-ear' in-head resonance caused by the IEMs and actually found it easier to pitch accurately.

Some in-ear users prefer to employ a single earpiece, and given decent wedges and sidefills, and a reasonably controlled backline level, I can see the attraction. The world still sounds normal, and you can still move around a bit to alter your monitor balance, but you can also have the advantage of guaranteed clear monitoring of key signals, usually yourself.

When I ditched my custom moulded earpieces in favour of the Garwood IEM IIs, I found I simply could not get enough isolation from the on-stage level for the in-ear signal to be useful. Anything short of painfully loud (which is obviously defeating one of the objectives of IEM at the outset) was pretty much a waste of time, and I can only see the system being used with these earpieces by an all acoustic act. In that context, they seem to work well, and of course, you don't have to use the supplied earpieces — you can choose anything that will stay in your ear and which sounds good to you. Garwood tell me that the IEM IIs are included so that every purchaser of a System 3 is guaranteed to have at least something to get them started, but if you play something loud, get the real thing.

NIGHT AFTER NIGHT

All in all, testing Garwood's System 3 proved to be a fascinating experience. The great attraction is consistency — the same monitoring environment night after night, entirely independent of venue acoustics. The positive effect that this can have on the confidence with which your performance is delivered is inestimable. It is as if you can take with you wherever you go one of those nights when everything is just right. Also, your monitoring goes with you wherever you move to on stage — a must for big shows where it is difficult to achieve adequate stage coverage. The downside is that it does take a bit of getting used to, and in the end, some people will simply not be able to accept the compromises involved. It is also almost certain to make far more extensive demands of your monitor mix setup (and operator), and mixed in-ear and traditional wedge/sidefill setups can throw up conflicting signal processing requirements. Surprisingly, after a lot of messing about trying to build my own mix from all the individual sources, I found I could actually get away with monitoring just the front-of-house mix plus my own instrument treated with some dedicated processing. Even without everything on stage actually being miked, there usually seems to be enough spill into frontline vocal mics to keep you at least as in touch as you are with the fairly poor monitoring that most bands playing small pub/club venues have to endure. And even though levels may be going up and down a bit in the FOH balance (it is normally a key feature of monitor mixing that levels should remain consistent), so long as my own signal level remained the same, I found I could quite comfortably work with it. If you are considering IEMs, it is worth checking out whether this works for you too; for if you can work with FOH mix plus your own signal going into a little IEM sub mixer, many of the monitor mixing complications seemingly inherent in adopting an IEM system can be avoided.

If you play at your local pub just for fun once a fortnight, don't even think about in-ear monitoring — it's not at all fun to play around with, it won't really impress anyone, and it's just one more thing to go wrong and spoil your gig. If you take your music more seriously, however, and especially if you play an acoustic instrument and you often have trouble hearing yourself, do try to check out a system using standard earpieces — hire one (about £45 per day; details from Garwood) or borrow one, but make sure you get to use it in a full performance rehearsal situation, at stage volume. Anything else is completely meaningless. If you are a singer, you will either love it or hate it, whatever size of venue you are used to playing — and it just might transform the whole experience of performing on stage. If you play an amplified instrument, you are probably used to hearing yourself OK anyway, so you will need another reason to switch to IEMs. Either you now feel you need to hear the rest of the band a bit better (this does not suit some people at all!), or you are starting to play bigger venues and finding that your monitoring environment varies more than you would like. And if you have the beginnings of a hearing problem, adopting in-ear monitoring, under correct medical supervision, could be the one thing that enables you to prolong your career.

Would I use IEMs from choice? No, but I would certainly use them if I needed to. In-ear monitoring is not a panacea, it is a problem solver, albeit a very effective one. The combination of the Garwood System 3's rock solid RF performance plus the custom moulded in-ear monitors adds up to an extremely viable and effective monitoring system for professional and serious semi-pro use, at a price which those who need it will not baulk at paying.