Why I'm looking forward to IEMs with ambient mics...

In a welcome development for current and prospective in-ear-monitor users, ACS have recently launched their Live! versions of their T-series custom IEMs.

IEMs from ACS are made from medical grade soft silicone, which gives unbeatable comfort and a perfect fit in the ear, ensuring that external sound is reduced by the maximum amount possible. This is an unmentionable bonus when listening to, for example, an mp3 player on public transport. Earlier this year, on a flight to the States, there were not one but two babies making themselves heard most of the way across the Atlantic. Plugged into the aircraft's entertainment system with my ACS T2s, I was only even remotely aware of the screaming when the movie I was watching went silent.

However, for musicians playing in a live environment, this almost total exclusion of external sound can be a problem. While the mix in your ears is carefully controlled and balanced, there is a deadness to being shut off like that which is difficult to describe, and fairly disconcerting. Shutting out the onstage noise from drums and guitar amps is nice... but it also removes the sensation of being connected to what else is going on on stage, and in particular, with the audience. Up to now, being a keyboard player in a band from time to time, I have got round this either by taking one monitor out, or if it was available, setting up a condenser microphone somewhere near me and feeding that in to my in-ear mix. The microphone solution is the better of the two, although it adds hassle and cost to the experience. Removing a monitor from one ear re-connects you to reality and returns you to the 'live' experience, but, perhaps particularly as a keyboard player playing stereophonic samples, ruins your in-ear mix, subjects your ear once again to potentially dangerous levels from drums and amps, and leaves you wondering why you spend a sizeable chunk of cash on a pair of in-ear-monitors.

This is why the built-in mics in the new ACS Live! series are so promising. A beltpack control unit will be available soon (estimated March 2012) allowing you control over how much external sound you get in the mix, which will inevitably be a different amount for different musicians, and differ from gig to gig and from venue to venue. Until then, the ambient mics will be disabled.

The second important feature in the new range is a removable cable. With IEMs being inserted and removed regularly by gigging musicians, the cable can be put under a fair amount of strain, most especially at the point it joins the monitor shell. With a recessed socket preventing damage to the contact pins, this should translate into more reliable and robust performance from the IEMs.

Hats off to ACS.