me no understand Bono's movements

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mad1

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Angie Jolie lover from Belfast Norn Ireland. I LO
that I've notices on two diff award shows, the moment he starts singin, he removes his ear pieces........like I still will never understand how they work.......I need to be taken into a studio and hear to know...
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why is this?

I remember one woman who wore ear pieces to a kids school, she removed them and nearly got blown back by the screams of them!!!!!!

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ach I just wondered does he do it to hear the audience or what?
 
Things like in ear monitors are very difficult to mix, add that to the fact that at awards shows there are numberous bands performing which means either the house sound guy, or U2's sound guy has to take control right when the hit the stage.
My theory is that there is not much time during a live awards show and if the mix is not right (too loud band, or too quiet band) it is hard to hear anything else.

Many times the mix in the ear is independent for different band members i.e. Bono may only have drums in his ear, as the Edge has bass etc.

very difficult...
 
So Bono is not listening to the live music as we hear it? He's listening to just certain aspects, like you said Larry's drums or the baseline or something? Hmmm, I am not a singer so I dunno. Does this help them stay in tune? To me, that would kind of suck, because then he doesn't get to appreciate the full band sound. But then again, he's the singer, so he doesn't get to appreciate his own voice.
 
The in ear monitor has drastically changed the way bands can play music. At first the bands would just have big speakers at their feet playing what the band was playing (yes, live.)

Then with mix desks, the band members were able to have certain sounds at their feet louder than others. It may be important for Bono to hear Larry more than it is the Edge, to keep the beat of the song.

With the in ear monitors, they can do just about anything. I know that Larry often listens to "click-tracks" which are basically metronomes. This gives him a clicking sound to the beat of the song they are playing. Some say this is cheating, but some say it just makes the band sound better. I believe the latter. Imagine having to start the songs of a 21 year career with different beats and tempos all the time.

So yes, they are listening to live music(what they are playing), but they listen to different mixes in their ears. I read somewhere what each band member listens to, but forgot where.

I know Adam does not like to use them at all.

During the Elevation tour you would notiice that there were no speakers on the "heart." Due to this the band needed in ear monitors to hear themsleves when they went out there. Because Adam does not use them, he would not go out onto the heart, except for the acoustic sets where he would be standing next to Larry to hear him.

Now you can see why a mix at an awards show would be so hard. Imagine U2 playing after, let's say, Metallica. The mix guy would have to know what each band member in each band wanted to listen to inside thier ears.

This is also why you many times see Bono (or anyone else in a band) look at their mix guy and yell things like, "more guitars" or "less drums" and many times they actually point to their ears.

Lastly many musicians use these to simply listen to themselves play. If Bono was standing on stage singing and playing let's say an acoustic guitar, he may just want to listen to his guitar over the rest of the music.

I think the whole thing is very interesting.
 
...Oh, and they mostly use these because they cannot hear the speakers above the stage that give us the sound...
 
Wow, thx ouizy! That is really interesting.

I remember seeing footage of them in Toronto, Bono comes out at the beginning of Elevation tapping his head and looking at the sound desk, then tapping the monitor pack on his leg. You could tell he was clearly making some sort of gesture to them to change what he was hearing. It was interesting. I find it quite fascinating really, all of it. The amount of skill it takes bw so many people to put on a show like that.
 
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