Another common yet overlooked phenomenon is the effect that the 1.2 millisecond delay (and thus a 16-inch delay) of digital consoles has on the sound of in-ear monitor systems.

When singing, a performer hears the sound of his/her voice from two primary sources:
A) The voice itself and natural resonance of their body.
B) The ear buds jammed into their ears.

With analog, the sound of one’s own voice/body and the ear buds are pretty much perfectly timed. So perfectly, in fact, that you can actually and easily determine whether the mic is in polarity or not by singing and listening while flipping the console phase switch.

With digital, things get more complex. The absolute minimum time delay to the ear buds now becomes 16 inches, so perfect time alignment of the natural voice/body sound with the in-ear sound is no longer possible.

The result is that the singer hears his or her own voice sounding “farther away” than with an analog console.

About now, I expect that some of you are saying, “This is silly. There’s no way that running in-ear mixes through a digital board causes this problem, and even if it does, no one even notices.”

But how do you think I discovered it?

First, by hearing it and then investigating why my voice sounded so far away from myself.

Second, by running one in-ear beltpack from an analog console and another beltpack from a digital console, and then with ear buds in my ears, plugging in back and forth between the two belt packs, using my own voice.

Every engineer I have demonstrated this to has heard it clearly.

Whether these types of time delay issues are a big deal or irrelevant depends on the expectations of the performers, the quality of gear, and several other factors.

Regardless, I’m confident that someday, somewhere, that by being aware of these time issues and having a clear understanding of what’s actually happening, you will save yourself some grief - and maybe even a gig.

Until next time! (Pun intended…)

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