[Paul Hurt]

I’ve used a pair of Shure E4 in-ears for monitoring in high-volume situations… ooh, for about four years now. They work great, as long as you use the triple-flange ear-tips (and figure out how to get them into your ears properly – usually involves gently pulling on the outside of your ear as you put them in).

They sound great, and aren’t short of frequency response… but like any headphones or in-ear monitors, you have to learn how the sound you hear in your in-ears/cans translates to the “real world”, because the presentation is not the same when heard over a pair of speakers.

But most of the time I think you’re just listening to check that your audio is clean and strong, and for that, in-ears work great. You can worry about tone balance more when you get to the mix stage.

The only downside to in-ears is they’re slow to put in and take out… compared to a pair of headphones which you can whip off your head at a moments notice when you need to talk to someone. With in-ears it’s a bit more of a palaver… and you also learn to keep a hand close to your monitor level control…!

[Paul Hurt]

Hi Jim, without meaning to pull this thread off-topic, I’m looking for a pair of 816s… If you still have them, can you message me somehow?

I agree with the approach suggested. I also find that if you can get in fairly tight with a mic, then it’s a close-run thing between a good short shotgun and a good hypercardioid… Usually coming down on the side of the hyper. I find that the tone is more natural.

For me, the shotgun starts to win out when the distance to the mic goes over perhaps three or four feet, or when there’s ambient noise that I need to overcome.