Hard rock band Little Caesar is currently in pre-production for an extensive European tour starting in early September, with the band’s founder and frontman Ron Young as well as bassist Pharoah Barrett and drummer Tom Morris standardizing their personal monitors with ASI Audio x Sensaphonics 3DME Gen2 active ambient monitoring systems.
Young has been traveling with his own wireless in-ear system since the components first became commercially available decades ago, and he began his relationship with ASI Audio parent company Sensaphonics for more than a decade. “They were the only manufacturer that was doing soft silicone molded earbuds,” he notes. “I found that the isolation and the seal, combined with their armatures and drivers, gave me the best product. I learned very quickly, especially when you play in a hard rock band, that earbuds serve two functions. Besides monitoring, they also provide ear protection by isolation.”
The 3DME system is designed to enable users also blend stage ambience with their personalized IEM mix while offering DSP control via the 3DME BT app that runs on any current Bluetooth-enabled iOS or Android device. At the urging of Young, Barrett started using the ASI 3DME system.
“Ron turned me on to the 3DME system and I loved the fact that I could dial in my own mix including adding ambience. I just run vocals through it – his vocal and mine,” Barrett says. “My vocals are slightly louder than his. And with the 3DME setup, I can add the ambience wherever I want it. For a smaller room, obviously, I wouldn’t need quite as much ambient sound because it’ll just be too much. But the ability to adjust the ambience really works great on large stages where I’ll actually turn them up a little bit. With other systems I’ve tried, if I couldn’t hear the ambient sounds on stage, I would basically pop out one of my in-ears, which honestly was not great, but it did the job.
“But now with the 3DME, it’s totally cool. I have the ambience all around me whenever I want it. So it’s easier to deal with, and I don’t have my left in-ear flopping around over my shoulder the whole show.”
Drummer Morris, who has been with the band since its inception in 1987, recalls becoming aware of regarding protecting his hearing and what he did about it: “I’ve always played with earplugs. Back before drummers were using plugs, I went to an ear doctor and had my hearing checked in my twenties and he scared me so much about what could happen, that at that point, because I was still really young without damage, I started wearing earplugs. I used the little foamy plugs that they sell at pharmacies. I didn’t mind that there was a sound compromise, I just wanted the maximum amount of protection. And I got used to hearing music like that.
“I personally believe that drummers suffer more hearing damage than anyone else in the band. Particularly on whatever side your snare and hi-hats are set up on, you’re going to get more hearing damage. Ron had started using in-ears a while back before we got to the Sensaphonics stuff. And I did that for a couple of tours and I enjoyed it – it was different. But I found since we were all running our signal/mix though a central place, if things got glitchy if would affect all our feeds, even though our sends were all different to a degree. That lack of independence wasn’t ideal, and if something happens with the rig live, we’re all going to be in trouble. Now, with the 3DME, it’s completely independent. I have my own control. It’s super-easy to set up. Very user-friendly.”
The 3DME system consists of active ambient earphones with embedded binaural MEMS ambient microphones, a bodypack mixer/controller/DSP processor/headphone amplifier and the Bluetooth-enabled ASI Audio App for control for adjustment of the system’s 7-band stereo EQ and limiter threshold. The app also offers an Audio Seal Test to confirm optimal IEM fit and allows the saving and recall of User Presets to ensure repeat access to preferred sound signatures.
