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What are "inner ears"?

ThunderPower

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Michael said after I Want You Back that he was trying to adjust to the "inner ears". During the movie we see them hanging from his shirt sometimes, such as during Beat It. What does he mean? Ear plugs? In-ear monitors?
 
I had a hard time understand what he was saying. I dont think he really knew what he was trying to say haha Well, I think he knew what he wanted to say but just couldnt get it out.
 
L.T.D said:
I had a hard time understand what he was saying. I dont think he really knew what he was trying to say haha Well, I think he knew what he wanted to say but just couldnt get it out.
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Actually I find it very funny cuz' he's just trying to explain it very detailed and after the whole thing being explained, Kenny is tellin' Mike to repeat it again, please cuz' he couldn't hear him! :D
 
eStyle said:
Actually I find it very funny cuz' he's just trying to explain it very detailed and after the whole thing being explained, Kenny is tellin' Mike to repeat it again, please cuz' he couldn't hear him! :D
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Haha yeah, must have been very frusrtaring for him.
 
I think what Michael meant was, he is used to rehearsing using his open ear, like how we listen to his CD. "His own auditory ear."

But he was having to use his inner ear to hear the music in his ear-plug, and he wasn't used to this for a while and had to "adjust to the situation..." :)

"Maybe take it down a little...!"
 
We gotta understand Mike, remember guys, this dude performed his whole life listening with his own ears the songs & his voice life. Damn what an ear. To sing the way he did live just depending on his ears in huge stadiums where people could barely hear themselves is simply amazing
 
what exactly does he hear with those ear plugs?? what difference does it make to a singer having these or not?
 
nakkiel said:
what exactly does he hear with those ear plugs?? what difference does it make to a singer having these or not?
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When Michael performs, we, his fans, tend to get.... a little over-excited. To say the very least. The screaming and roaring often deafens the music on stage, so Michael has his own loud music feed so he can keep the tempo spot on with his singing and dancing!
 
mc8755 said:
When Michael performs, we, his fans, tend to get.... a little over-excited. To say the very least. The screaming and roaring often deafens the music on stage, so Michael has his own loud music feed so he can keep the tempo spot on with his singing and dancing!
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:yes: :)
 
knunez said:
We gotta understand Mike, remember guys, this dude performed his whole life listening with his own ears the songs & his voice life. Damn what an ear. To sing the way he did live just depending on his ears in huge stadiums where people could barely hear themselves is simply amazing
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Michael always had the stage monitors turned up to a blistering level when he performed. Over 100 decibels. He liked to have the music onstage really loud so he could feel it as well as hear it. Switching to in ear monitors must have been particularly hard for him. He probably couldn't have the in ear monitors at the same equivalent volume. Or when he did, it was like a "fist" in his ear.
 
callmerose said:
Michael always had the stage monitors turned up to a blistering level when he performed. Over 100 decibels. He liked to have the music onstage really loud so he could feel it as well as hear it. Switching to in ear monitors must have been particularly hard for him. He probably couldn't have the in ear monitors at the same equivalent volume. Or when he did, it was like a "fist" in his ear.
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Isn't it too loud then?
My ears would fall off... :D
 
callmerose said:
Michael always had the stage monitors turned up to a blistering level when he performed. Over 100 decibels. He liked to have the music onstage really loud so he could feel it as well as hear it. Switching to in ear monitors must have been particularly hard for him. He probably couldn't have the in ear monitors at the same equivalent volume. Or when he did, it was like a "fist" in his ear.
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Yeah, in some shows you can hear him say something like "HURT ME!" meaning, hurt me 'cause it's so loud.
 
eStyle said:
Isn't it too loud then?
My ears would fall off... :D
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Seriously. My ears start killing me when I listen to my iPod on full blast for more than 5 minutes. I'd imagine the sound coming out of the things he was wearing was at least 10x louder than a full volume ipod. Ouch.
 
We do have inner ears, by the way! They are (among other things) what enables us to actually hear. But he was talking about his in-ear-monitor.

Try a little experiment: Hold one ear closed with one hand and sing something. Then take your hand away and sing the same thing with both ears open.

They first time holding one ear closed gives you an idea of how your own voice sounds different with an in-ear-monitor. Intonation etc sound a whole lot different. It is something that you have to learn. Most people are a bit upset to hear their own voice recorded somewhere versus the way they experience their own voice in their head. That about sums up the difference.

MJ was born in the 50ies and as child at home learned how to sing in a natural acoustic environment. Of course he was literally somebody who witnessed progress of technology etc. He went through it.

But explained pretty well the difference between what natural acoustics are and what artificial are.

In the 70ies it became extremely popular for classical music concert places to build venues with an artificial acoustic- the sound would be picked by microphones over the stage and the audience would get speakers playing the stuff at them in addition.
There are "natural acoustic venues" just like most traditional opera house are.

He obviously preferred natural acoustics- and in addition seemed to have sensitive ears that simply didn't like it an in-ear-monitor turned up to top volume- that's a completely different sound that stage speakers turn up to top volume. He was always going for a strong bassline, to literally feel the bass in his body.

Compare that to "The way you make me feel" where he chastising the pianist to make it sound "the way I wrote it, I want to hear it the way the audience hears it." He had a certain preference and made that known.
 
I did have a link here but in the light of the current discussion about our you tube account being removed, I decided to come back here and remove the link I put up!

Hope it's ok to post this?
It's to do with what is being discussed............Mike having probs with what 'feels ' like something is pushing in his ear......... :-(
Oh bless him!
So professional and gracious!
xxx
 
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Just remembering an article i read from someone who claimed to be on the set whole time and did an article about what 'really happened on these rehersal days'..

Now i don't know how muc is any of it is true, it might all be or might all be rubbish.But i do remember a part of the article saying how michael and kenny did argue quite a bit about various things including mj not turning up and things of that nature ( who knows the reality)

But one bit said they argued about these inner ears michael had to use.Kenny was insistent on it because of the size and structure of the o2..and michael simply did not want to wear them for reasons already discussed..Now I always looked upon that discusiion at the end of iwyb as very frosty and full of tension.You can just hear the coldness, distance and anger in their voice imo..and when you hear how they speak and what words they use.Plus the fact that they are actually disputing the ears (again?)...

We see this whole film in segments and have no idea what happened before or after...They might have had blazing rows about it and never come to a compromise..I wonder how insistent kenny was on michael having them in because mike sure as hell stodd by his view, If you look..Kenny says basically ' ok , when you put the ears back in for stlys..tell me if there is anything wrong.'....But if you look...mike kept the inner ear out for that song and iwbt...So michael was not budging on this becauase I don't personally think he could take it..It was too big a change..If he really thought he could give it a go, surely he would keep it in for the next few songs?

I don't wana say this disagreement was a big factor of anything but imo i clearly was something they could not agree on...I never like hearing the way they talk in that section, just doesn't feel right to me...I might/hope i am wrong
 
^ Yeah I dunno how much of that is true either. When I saw Mike and Kenny going through this 'inner ear' issue in TII, I didn't feel it was a fight or arguement. When you work with a lot of strong personalitied people who know what they want, you debate like that. I actually think it's the best way to get great results. Mike knew what he knew and Kenny knew what he knew and they probably went back and forth on it and maybe still would have during the concerts but it doesn't mean they were fighting it was just a working arguement. You know what I mean? Most of us have probably gone through that in our jobs/class projects/ etc. People just don't always agree.

I enjoyed seeing it... becuase it reminds me of myself at work :p

PS: Was the big issue for Ortega that the 02 was a closed venue that would have more echo back at the stage... vs. those big outdoor arenas where there may have been less echo? I don't know so much about acoustics that way.
 
michael4eva said:
Just remembering an article i read from someone who claimed to be on the set whole time and did an article about what 'really happened on these rehersal days'..

Now i don't know how muc is any of it is true, it might all be or might all be rubbish.But i do remember a part of the article saying how michael and kenny did argue quite a bit about various things including mj not turning up and things of that nature ( who knows the reality)

But one bit said they argued about these inner ears michael had to use.Kenny was insistent on it because of the size and structure of the o2..and michael simply did not want to wear them for reasons already discussed..Now I always looked upon that discusiion at the end of iwyb as very frosty and full of tension.You can just hear the coldness, distance and anger in their voice imo..and when you hear how they speak and what words they use.Plus the fact that they are actually disputing the ears (again?)...

We see this whole film in segments and have no idea what happened before or after...They might have had blazing rows about it and never come to a compromise..I wonder how insistent kenny was on michael having them in because mike sure as hell stodd by his view, If you look..Kenny says basically ' ok , when you put the ears back in for stlys..tell me if there is anything wrong.'....But if you look...mike kept the inner ear out for that song and iwbt...So michael was not budging on this becauase I don't personally think he could take it..It was too big a change..If he really thought he could give it a go, surely he would keep it in for the next few songs?

I don't wana say this disagreement was a big factor of anything but imo i clearly was something they could not agree on...I never like hearing the way they talk in that section, just doesn't feel right to me...I might/hope i am wrong
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I wasn't sure. I also contemplated the possibility that MJ is maybe that serious when in full blown professional mode. He literally knew how to turn stage presence on and off at the push of a button. Some people seem almost cold when fully focussing on something.

But, then again, this might have been a reoccurring issue between them.

But I am leaning toward this inner ear monitor being the lead in to something bigger and this issue was just the expression of it. But on a musical level I understand the frustration on both sides. I hate inner ear monitors with a passion, it is the most awkward wearing of trying to assess something that usually by nature works different.
 
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