Chris, I’m a tech guy who has set up our bands rig for years. We’re going down the IEM route and aiming for a silent stage (electric drums) and DI’d guitars. I’ve been exploring/working out what to do / buy. You have simplified the whole process. Great video, very clear. Very professional. Please tell me you’re doing this sort of thing for your day job! Brilliant. Thanks. David.
Hey Chris, this is the most comprehensive video about the essentials for a selfcontained in ear rig I have seen so far. Very clear and professional. Thanks.
This video is fantastic. A lot of videos explain how to put a rig together without touching on how it works at a venue. Thanks for explaining it simply.
as of 2023, PSM200 is discontinued, you'd be looking at PSM300. They have a two different beltpack options, a plastic one and a metal one. It's capable of stereo, two mono, or mixing two mono inputs.
I would add that Seismic Audio has a prebuilt rackmount splitter for less than the cost of the two behringer units. They comes in as little as 8 channels and go up to 32 I believe. The benefit is that there are XLR / TRS 1/4" Combo Jacks on the box end so you can plug in either type of cable. Just an option.
Finally getting around to doing this for various 4 pieces I play with and this made setup so easy for me. Thanks a ton! I wish I had the cash for a X32 but the XR18 is solid for 4-5 piece bands!
Great video and very informative. The next step for anyone doing this would be to learn basic EQing so that you know where to apply low cuts, remove excessive low end, etc. this will take your in ear mixes to the next level and you will hear everything better even in mono and won’t need as much volume
friend, your video was the one that most elucidated me in relation to the connections, about the spllitter that wonderful equipment. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge, success and live the music Brazilian greetings ...
Another thing about the X air system, as well as other similar systems such as Soundcraft's UI (which apparently has a really good router, no experience with it from my side tho so I can't confirm) is that, if you tour with your own sound engineer, they can connect to a bigger mixer to mix the front of stage while you mix your own in-ears. I've been asked as a FOH engineer to do this for a band : just mix with a tablet or laptop. One of the band member also use 22" touchscreen monitor, and it's the size of a regular small board! Pretty neat. Just place a computer in the rack itself! You could even go without FOH engineering for smaller venues, just throw an ipad in the mix and you can do both.
that is the beauty of digital can mix from anywhere in the house and no need to run cables to the stage, the FOH engineer can mix on a 22" touchscreen or control surface with real faders and buttons and each band member can mix their own monitors on their ipad.
I just watched a different video with a guy saying there's no way to do it on the cheap and here you are explaining exactly how you do it on the cheap! LOL great video!
Wow. One of the most helpful TH-cam videos I've come across! Thanks so much, this answered so many of my questions, as well as a few I hadn't thought of!
This is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thank you!! I had some of the core concepts in mind, but kept bumping on how to make sure the FOH sound person got their own set of signals.
Nice. I have an additional XLR snake connected so I can take both the send and return XLR for each channel to the FOH stage box. I have both sides labelled and we use whatever mic channels the venue has available (if they only mic snare top then the snare bottom channel isn't used). Great video.
Quick question, our drummer usually takes 7 mics for his kit, then we have a guitar, bass and 2 vocals. I assume I'd need a 12 channel mixer, but I wanted to make sure I'm correct
Thank you! Your video was so helpful for me to understand what I need to consider/get when I plan to get an IEM system. That yes you can get the IEM system but you also need to think about these other things as well. Up until now, I didn't really know all that so now I do and it helped me so much!
Hi bro, thank you for this vodeo. Currently I’ve got a Presonus 16.02 the FireWire version and a behringer xr18 My question is how do I create these separate mixes for the artistes to make their own personal mix. This needs a short and in-depth video so we can follow along. Thanks much Thumbs up on this video.❤
Great video! Not sure if I have to connect the in-ear mixer to the "link out" or "out" of the Behringer splitter (when using phantom power). Help would be appreciated. Thank you!!
Amazing vid! So many unanswered questions from previous research being cleared up very well. Seems like a much more plausible goal to reach! Thank you 🤘
Hey Chris, great video!! question about the setup: I'm playing in a band with 8 members, how many In-ear transmitter & receiver do we need then? - Option A: 8x full set Shure PSM200 (transmitter & receiver) + 8x earplugs - Option B: 1x Shure PSM200 (transmitter only) + 8x individual receivers + 8x earplugs? Also any suggestions on the best price to value (e.g. LD Systems)? I see 1x receiver of Shure PSM300 costs around 300 pounds (meaning 8x 300 = 2'400).
If you all want wireless. And you all want different mixes, then you need 8. You need one transmitter per mix, so if people are sharing a mix, you can have less. You also need to make sure the mixer you're using has enough outputs!
Chris, great video mate. I am just starting to look into this. Where does the XR16 site in your rack? In the parts where you show the rack all setup, I can't see it. The ears on the XR16 look like all the inputs are out the outside of the rack, so is it facing the back and you need to plug in all the loom from the splitters every time you setup, or are the rack covers large enough to keep it all plugged in?
Hi Chris, what is the phone app you are using to control your own in-ear mixes? And is the same app used to set the system up or do you need an iPad to do that? Thanks for a great vid!
I take a different approach to get by with only one mixer (Soundcraft UI24R - 22 in, 10 AUX out). I use 6 of 8 XLR-AUX paths plus the 2nd headphone out (AUX 9/10) The 6 AUX paths also go into a Behringer Ultralink MS8000. (Did you notice the difference in level of the link outs? This is not a 1:1 split. The link outs are up to 7db louder than the input signal) I go from the splitter with one line to the musicians' stage monitors. I send the split as a mono signal into a LD Systems headphone amp. The AUX 9/10 is send directly to the headphone amp as a stereo mix. In this way, 6 musicians can receive an individual monitor mix and work either via stage monitor or IEM. Over IEM they can add the Main Stereo-Mix as much as they like. I then connected radio systems to the headphone amp and also use the cable route for the drums here. In addition, I pick up the main mix for the vocal effect devices here, which use it to determine their harmony.
Hey I loved the video - just curious what the need for the 1/4" jack inputs on the mixer is? Is it just to have more options or is there a better reason?
How have you gotten around the use of wireless mics?? What I mean by that is when the venue is supplying the microphones and they're all wireless and the receiver packs are in a rack of their own right beside the house mixer. My band has had an experience where the live production staff just put it in the "too hard" basket and we had no vocals whatsoever in the in ears. Our singer just went off wedges instead to hear himself. I had an idea for next time considering that in theory the house mixer is no longer needing to send monitor mixes, that said monitor mixes could instead by used as "sends" . So for example lets say Aux 1 is usually used for lead vocalists wedge monitor. What you do is you remove all instruments out of Aux 1 except the lead vocals. Then you would simply unplug the cable from the house stagebox to the monitor wedge speaker and simply plug it in to the XR18 and wallah that wireless mic is now in your ears. You then just repeat the process with the backup singers(eg the other instrumentalists in your band who may also sing). You could also do this to get drums in your ears if the house mixer has all the drums you want mic'd already going into the house mix I can foresee though house engineers getting a bit anxious when you say "I'm gonna unplug this"
Great Video. I use the XR18 and a Kemper. How do i get a seperate mix from the monitor out of my kemper to my IEM without affecting the main out that goes to FOH?
Hey Chris, I know im a few years late to the party here but your video was incredibly helpful. I just wondered if hopefully you had another good recommendation for the wireless systems. unfortunately the one you linked, is unavailable to ship to the US and I would love a good budget recommendation
Great video! I'm a little confused about the "wireless" part of in ear monitors in the UK: what UHF frequencies should The system work on or would you only suggest 2.4ghz digital? Do they do systems on 5Ghz as I have heard 2.4 can be unreliable for drop outs? I would be buying a system just for myself (vocals and guitars) to go through my Zoom Livetrak L-8 Mixer, not all the band and it would be secondhand so I dont want to buy an old sennheiser or shure unit who's frequencies are no longer "legal" or suffer interference. Finally, as it is just for me until I persuade the rest of the band, could I put my guitar and my vocals into the mixer and then use the master outs (one left one right) to go to front of house Mixing? I could also put a FOH mix of the rest of the band into the mixer and run it into my monitor out without it going through the master outputs. :-)
This is a great video, so informative! Do you have a diagram of the full setup? My band has the Behringer xr16 and we are considering taking the plunge. Thanks!
Thank you Chris!! Brilliant video and great explaination of everything so helpful and useful! I am about to start running in ears with my weddings band / doing some live sound work so your video has saved me so much time thanks again.
Hey chris! Love this video so much. Currently putting this together for my band. Wondering if you have a new link to the 16 channel loom. Because the eBay one is broken? Or do you know how long the cable is on the 16 channel loom?
I noticed you have two splitters. If I have only one, (four vocalists, two guitars, one bassist, and a drummer) it won't be effective right? Since it is ideal to hear every mic on the drum kit correct?
Amazing info bros! So well organized, we can clearly see all your experience standing out! Thanks so much! Any tips on what best software to use for backing tracks? (Apple Mainstage, FL, Logic...). I want to use backing tracks for a Rock Opera project and wanted to stay away from exporting stems and remixing everything at every show. Was thinking of exporting stereo tracks with a click on one side, and many exports with different options if a musician does not show up. Any experience with something like that? Anyway, it might be another video idea for you! Thanks man!
I have a question about backing tracks. Do you need a separate interface or something because how else can you get backing tracks to FOH through the USB of the XR?
Hey bud! Love the video, really broke down the jargen for peeps like myself 😅 My band is looking into building a rig just like this but I just have a few questions regarding our gear. So we are a 5 piece, vox/bass/guitars x 2/drums, drummer can have the wired stereo mix like you run and the rest of us can run mono. My drummer has a EAD10, would he just plug that straight in instead of using drum mics? As it's a mic/trigger unit. Also I use a kemper stage and the other player uses a Helix, both unpowered units, would it be best to have a power amp in the rack? Or use our FrFr to power our gear? Just trying to make this as clear as possible in mind 😅 also we are running backing tracks, how would we do that with this system? Many thanks in advance dude!!
Thank you so much for this video! I wish I could have come across this a few years back. I had a very similar setup for my band running an XR18 I can into several issues that I'm curious if you or anyone else has ever encountered: 1. As you said the internal router is terrible on the XAir. I purchased an additional router and unfortunately still ran into issues that could never be resolved and would have to think quick on a gig (so many blown soundchecks and shows running click into one ear with last minute FOH wedge mixes...true nightmare stuff. I even tried wiring the XAir via ethernet to my MacBook and it worked about 50% of the time. I ended up selling the unit and ditching IEM's ENTIRELY. Now a fear years later I'm thinking about getting back in but I want none of that previous stress. Is a wired analogue mixer at all a solution or do you recommend I give the XAir series another try? 2. I had issues with FOH receiving extremely low signals from the DI's in the split. Engineers would tell me they'd have to crank channels almost wide open to get enough signal. Since the split was analogue there was nothing I could do. Did you ever have this issue? Apologies for the long post this is an issue which is close to my heart haha
Hey Desmond, sorry for the slow reply! I think it depends on the router you buy and how congested the WiFi signals are in that venue. Most good routers adapt frequencies automatically but you may have been stuck on one WiFi channel that could have been pretty busy. I'm not sure why a wired connection would only work 50% of the time is I've never had a single issue when wired. The only thing I can think of is that you had a dodgy unit? As far as the signal drop goes, you always lose a tiny bit by splitting but it shouldnt be that bad, so there may ahve been an issue with cables / signal sources or the DI boxes themselves (maybe having a pad turned on the outputs?) Let me know what you ended up doing!
I had a humming and clipping issue. I was advised to keep the router away from the console at least 6 feet. This solved my problem. I don't know if this relates to your problem.
Great video Chris and the best explanation I've seen so far as have just started thinking about this for my own band. One thing I'm struggling with is how it is practical when arriving for soundcheck lets say as the second or third band of the night and needing to ask the sound tech to unplug everything from their stage box and plug it all into ours. Changeovers are often very tight and this just seems like I might encounter a lot of eye rolling and the soundcheck taking much longer while we have to faff about. Then there is the changeover before we actually go on, I suppose if we can leave everything in the splitter then it's a bit simpler but still feels like a lot to think about in 15 -20 mins as well as setting up pedal boards, amps etc. In my case it doesn't help that we use a lot of channels with two drummers, 2 guitars, bass, keys and 4 vocals, what would your advice be there, just perhaps stick to kick and snare for the kits, then instruments and vox? It makes a lot of sense and would love to have a self mixed in ear stage sound but seems tough to achieve, for my band's set up at least. I guess an alternative might be to send the monitor mix (rather than FOH) to wireless boxes? Obvs I realise you're at the mercy of the local sound tech but just thinking as they often will do a mix for the drum fill and then separate ones for stage wedges whether it's possible to just get those mixes in ear instead? Sorry, long post! If you have any advice would be a great help!
Hey Graham, the best practice I've found is to leave your rig in place thoughout the whole evening, with all the drum / guitar lines heading through your splitter for the whole night. The engineer can use your splitters as their stage box for those lines instead of the venue box. This speeds things up SO MUCH. If another band has a splitter system, you can run your split lines, through their splitter as well, so both bands can stay mostly patched in, depending on how much the channel lists match up. I hope that makes sense! As a bonus, when the other band is playing through your splits, you can whack your IEMs on and have an interesting listen ;)
My band has not played live yet and we are just now starting the process of getting the materials to do so. We would have a stereo backing track and a click track for our show. I've looked at the focusrite 4i4 as a cheap interface with 4 seperated outputs, we aren't worried about a mix yet for our in ears so would we just be able to run the 2 lines for the backing track to front of house and then the 1 for the click track straight to an in ear system(s)? Thanks and great video!
Chris, I’m a tech guy who has set up our bands rig for years. We’re going down the IEM route and aiming for a silent stage (electric drums) and DI’d guitars. I’ve been exploring/working out what to do / buy. You have simplified the whole process. Great video, very clear. Very professional. Please tell me you’re doing this sort of thing for your day job! Brilliant. Thanks. David.
Your comment made me check out more of his vids, I'm doing the same with my band now. I'm far more advanced with music tech than they are
@@cravingmuffin45 and more humble too? 😉
Bro how is this your first TH-cam video...this is phenomenal. Great, helpful content, and awesome video production. Well done!
Hey Chris, this is the most comprehensive video about the essentials for a selfcontained in ear rig I have seen so far. Very clear and professional. Thanks.
+1
Thank you so much!
This video is fantastic. A lot of videos explain how to put a rig together without touching on how it works at a venue. Thanks for explaining it simply.
A no BS explanation. The best explanation and demonstration of IEMs on TH-cam! Thank you
as of 2023, PSM200 is discontinued, you'd be looking at PSM300. They have a two different beltpack options, a plastic one and a metal one. It's capable of stereo, two mono, or mixing two mono inputs.
I would add that Seismic Audio has a prebuilt rackmount splitter for less than the cost of the two behringer units. They comes in as little as 8 channels and go up to 32 I believe. The benefit is that there are XLR / TRS 1/4" Combo Jacks on the box end so you can plug in either type of cable. Just an option.
Really great recomandation!
The quality of information is insane. Thank you so much!!!
Chris. Very cool. I've been wondering how to do this WITHOUT letting a stranger who runs FOH do the mix. Thanks for clearing this up. ♥️♥️♥️
Out of all the videos I've watched on this, you explained it clearly and the best. Thankyou!
Dude, this was the video I was looking for two years ago! And I still learned so much! Best IEM video on YT, keep going like that!
Finally getting around to doing this for various 4 pieces I play with and this made setup so easy for me. Thanks a ton! I wish I had the cash for a X32 but the XR18 is solid for 4-5 piece bands!
Glad I could help and sorry for the slow reply haha
Great video and very informative. The next step for anyone doing this would be to learn basic EQing so that you know where to apply low cuts, remove excessive low end, etc. this will take your in ear mixes to the next level and you will hear everything better even in mono and won’t need as much volume
friend, your video was the one that most elucidated me in relation to the connections, about the spllitter that wonderful equipment. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge, success and live the music
Brazilian greetings ...
Best in ear video out there from what I have found
Eyyy thank you for being so visual and explaining things so well man, best video I've found so far 🤘
How have I only seen this now Chris! I've just started using IEMs in my new band
Another thing about the X air system, as well as other similar systems such as Soundcraft's UI (which apparently has a really good router, no experience with it from my side tho so I can't confirm) is that, if you tour with your own sound engineer, they can connect to a bigger mixer to mix the front of stage while you mix your own in-ears. I've been asked as a FOH engineer to do this for a band : just mix with a tablet or laptop. One of the band member also use 22" touchscreen monitor, and it's the size of a regular small board! Pretty neat. Just place a computer in the rack itself! You could even go without FOH engineering for smaller venues, just throw an ipad in the mix and you can do both.
that is the beauty of digital can mix from anywhere in the house and no need to run cables to the stage, the FOH engineer can mix on a 22" touchscreen or control surface with real faders and buttons and each band member can mix their own monitors on their ipad.
I just watched a different video with a guy saying there's no way to do it on the cheap and here you are explaining exactly how you do it on the cheap! LOL great video!
Thanks a lot. Glad I could help!
Define "cheap?" How much did you spend on this rig?
Wow. One of the most helpful TH-cam videos I've come across! Thanks so much, this answered so many of my questions, as well as a few I hadn't thought of!
This is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thank you!! I had some of the core concepts in mind, but kept bumping on how to make sure the FOH sound person got their own set of signals.
Glad I could help!
Finally, a video that breaks this down and won't break the bank
Thank you!!
The most clear explanation on TH-cam! Thanks for this.
I know this is 2 years old but TY! It demystified in ears for me and I’m looking to get a similar setup.
Let me know how you get on!
With this set up, the main mixer (Venue mixer) would not have to be digital in order for you to control your own mix, correct?
The best in ear run down not too complicated. Its time to build a rig thanks
Great video, lots to think about. Looking to get my first wireless mixer and in ear set up for the band. Many thanks Chris
Nice. I have an additional XLR snake connected so I can take both the send and return XLR for each channel to the FOH stage box. I have both sides labelled and we use whatever mic channels the venue has available (if they only mic snare top then the snare bottom channel isn't used). Great video.
That's great!! Thanks mate
Effing incredible. I have an XR16 and was gonna sell it to get the XR18. But now I might keep both. Thanks for sharing what you've learned.
Good choice! Especially with how they've gone up in value now!
Been looking for a video as straight forward as this! thank you!
No worries! Glad I could help
🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
Wow did not know that there is so much to these in ears monitors.
Thanks for the video
Quick question, our drummer usually takes 7 mics for his kit, then we have a guitar, bass and 2 vocals. I assume I'd need a 12 channel mixer, but I wanted to make sure I'm correct
Thank you! Your video was so helpful for me to understand what I need to consider/get when I plan to get an IEM system. That yes you can get the IEM system but you also need to think about these other things as well. Up until now, I didn't really know all that so now I do and it helped me so much!
You're very welcome! I'm glad I could help!
Hi bro, thank you for this vodeo.
Currently I’ve got a Presonus 16.02 the FireWire version and a behringer xr18
My question is how do I create these separate mixes for the artistes to make their own personal mix.
This needs a short and in-depth video so we can follow along.
Thanks much
Thumbs up on this video.❤
Great video! Not sure if I have to connect the in-ear mixer to the "link out" or "out" of the Behringer splitter (when using phantom power). Help would be appreciated. Thank you!!
phenomenal video and explanation, huge thanks
Great video! Thanks for slowly breaking down everything, specially the wiring and patching. Thank you!
Thanks a lot
Amazing vid! So many unanswered questions from previous research being cleared up very well. Seems like a much more plausible goal to reach! Thank you 🤘
No worries at all!
Well done Chris. Really informative and really well put together. Love you always homie.
Thanks Shane! I'm hoping to do a lot more of this style :)
Hey Chris, great video!!
question about the setup: I'm playing in a band with 8 members, how many In-ear transmitter & receiver do we need then?
- Option A: 8x full set Shure PSM200 (transmitter & receiver) + 8x earplugs
- Option B: 1x Shure PSM200 (transmitter only) + 8x individual receivers + 8x earplugs?
Also any suggestions on the best price to value (e.g. LD Systems)? I see 1x receiver of Shure PSM300 costs around 300 pounds (meaning 8x 300 = 2'400).
If you all want wireless. And you all want different mixes, then you need 8. You need one transmitter per mix, so if people are sharing a mix, you can have less.
You also need to make sure the mixer you're using has enough outputs!
This was your first video? Fantastic stuff. Very helpful explanation, thank you.
This is an amazing series and a great video, excellent illustrations and breakdown. Well done Sir, well Done.
Chris, great video mate. I am just starting to look into this. Where does the XR16 site in your rack? In the parts where you show the rack all setup, I can't see it. The ears on the XR16 look like all the inputs are out the outside of the rack, so is it facing the back and you need to plug in all the loom from the splitters every time you setup, or are the rack covers large enough to keep it all plugged in?
well done. Can not believe this was your first TH-cam video.
Class video Chris mate, not many people out there explain things as clearly as this! Well done lad!
Cheers dude!
i wish you made more; great job
Hi Chris, what is the phone app you are using to control your own in-ear mixes? And is the same app used to set the system up or do you need an iPad to do that? Thanks for a great vid!
Really wicked video dude, super informative and easy to follow. haven't seen a video like this at all anywhere on youtube!
I take a different approach to get by with only one mixer (Soundcraft UI24R - 22 in, 10 AUX out).
I use 6 of 8 XLR-AUX paths plus the 2nd headphone out (AUX 9/10)
The 6 AUX paths also go into a Behringer Ultralink MS8000. (Did you notice the difference in level of the link outs? This is not a 1:1 split. The link outs are up to 7db louder than the input signal)
I go from the splitter with one line to the musicians' stage monitors. I send the split as a mono signal into a LD Systems headphone amp. The AUX 9/10 is send directly to the headphone amp as a stereo mix.
In this way, 6 musicians can receive an individual monitor mix and work either via stage monitor or IEM. Over IEM they can add the Main Stereo-Mix as much as they like.
I then connected radio systems to the headphone amp and also use the cable route for the drums here.
In addition, I pick up the main mix for the vocal effect devices here, which use it to determine their harmony.
🎹 keys in stereo available for iems?
Yes mate! You're a natural!
hahaha Cheers dude
Great job Chris
Wow for a first video this was very nicely done!!
Hey I loved the video - just curious what the need for the 1/4" jack inputs on the mixer is? Is it just to have more options or is there a better reason?
How have you gotten around the use of wireless mics??
What I mean by that is when the venue is supplying the microphones and they're all wireless and the receiver packs are in a rack of their own right beside the house mixer.
My band has had an experience where the live production staff just put it in the "too hard" basket and we had no vocals whatsoever in the in ears. Our singer just went off wedges instead to hear himself.
I had an idea for next time considering that in theory the house mixer is no longer needing to send monitor mixes, that said monitor mixes could instead by used as "sends" .
So for example lets say Aux 1 is usually used for lead vocalists wedge monitor. What you do is you remove all instruments out of Aux 1 except the lead vocals. Then you would simply unplug the cable from the house stagebox to the monitor wedge speaker and simply plug it in to the XR18 and wallah that wireless mic is now in your ears. You then just repeat the process with the backup singers(eg the other instrumentalists in your band who may also sing).
You could also do this to get drums in your ears if the house mixer has all the drums you want mic'd already going into the house mix
I can foresee though house engineers getting a bit anxious when you say "I'm gonna unplug this"
This was Golden thank you
Great Video. I use the XR18 and a Kemper. How do i get a seperate mix from the monitor out of my kemper to my IEM without affecting the main out that goes to FOH?
Hey Chris, I know im a few years late to the party here but your video was incredibly helpful. I just wondered if hopefully you had another good recommendation for the wireless systems. unfortunately the one you linked, is unavailable to ship to the US and I would love a good budget recommendation
Yo Chris this vid is sicc I’m self learning how to band mix and this vid was a lot of help I’m subscribed LoOl thanks 🙏🏾
This is the exact video i needed to find! Thanks Chris, you explained everything!
Great video. This is exactly what I needed for my band.
We've been doing this for years for our ZZ Top Tribute band, LegZZ - A Tribute to ZZ TOP. Works great!
Hi Chris, please do a video of how to use a loudspeaker management for beginners. Thanks
Great suggestion! I'll add this to my list as I hope to get back into creating this content ASAP
Amazing Video man! ♥️
Couldn't have explained any better!🙌🙂
Amazing quality and very helpful, thanks!
Great video! I'm a little confused about the "wireless" part of in ear monitors in the UK:
what UHF frequencies should The system work on or would you only suggest 2.4ghz digital?
Do they do systems on 5Ghz as I have heard 2.4 can be unreliable for drop outs?
I would be buying a system just for myself (vocals and guitars) to go through my Zoom Livetrak L-8 Mixer, not all the band and it would be secondhand so I dont want to buy an old sennheiser or shure unit who's frequencies are no longer "legal" or suffer interference.
Finally, as it is just for me until I persuade the rest of the band, could I put my guitar and my vocals into the mixer and then use the master outs (one left one right) to go to front of house Mixing? I could also put a FOH mix of the rest of the band into the mixer and run it into my monitor out without it going through the master outputs. :-)
This video is great! You answered all of my questions without me having to ask them 😂
Chris, how is the Behringer MS8000 splitter holding up?
Very helpful thanks. Amazing what it takes to setup in-ear monitoring.
Nice and easy... 😬
Great video, clear and precise
Cheers Martin! That was my aim with this :)
Good video mate, clearly-articulated. Thanks.
No problem 👍
Thanks for the helpful video! Only thing missing is explaining how awful that companies service department is. I
Are multiple transmitters necessary for everyone to have their own mix?
This is a great video, so informative! Do you have a diagram of the full setup? My band has the Behringer xr16 and we are considering taking the plunge. Thanks!
Thank you Chris!! Brilliant video and great explaination of everything so helpful and useful! I am about to start running in ears with my weddings band / doing some live sound work so your video has saved me so much time thanks again.
Thanks! Let me.know how you got on!
Hey chris! Love this video so much. Currently putting this together for my band. Wondering if you have a new link to the 16 channel loom. Because the eBay one is broken? Or do you know how long the cable is on the 16 channel loom?
Ayyy shoutout to Harris Heller stream beats in the background. Love his tracks
Yes he is an absolute legend!!
Great video, extremely helpful. About to build my system. Question: did you need to add an IEM antenna combiner? Did you consider one?
Great and informative video! Maybe I missed it, but what app do you use on your phone to control your individual in-ear mixes? :)
Thanks for the informative video!!
That was one heck of a first youtube video haha!! Amazing thanks so much!
I noticed you have two splitters. If I have only one, (four vocalists, two guitars, one bassist, and a drummer) it won't be effective right? Since it is ideal to hear every mic on the drum kit correct?
great video Chris
Really good video dude. Love the format and production.
Well thought through and will help a lot of folk!
Thanks mate!!
This is the best video!
This was brilliant! Very helpful and informative. Cheers Chris!
Great presentation & useful information!
Amazing info bros! So well organized, we can clearly see all your experience standing out! Thanks so much! Any tips on what best software to use for backing tracks? (Apple Mainstage, FL, Logic...). I want to use backing tracks for a Rock Opera project and wanted to stay away from exporting stems and remixing everything at every show. Was thinking of exporting stereo tracks with a click on one side, and many exports with different options if a musician does not show up. Any experience with something like that? Anyway, it might be another video idea for you! Thanks man!
Awesome video Chris. 👏👌
Awesome! Do you have anything for in ear AND playback? I wanna be able to send 808s and samples through the PA as well with a setup like this.
I have a question about backing tracks. Do you need a separate interface or something because how else can you get backing tracks to FOH through the USB of the XR?
Hey bud! Love the video, really broke down the jargen for peeps like myself 😅
My band is looking into building a rig just like this but I just have a few questions regarding our gear.
So we are a 5 piece, vox/bass/guitars x 2/drums, drummer can have the wired stereo mix like you run and the rest of us can run mono.
My drummer has a EAD10, would he just plug that straight in instead of using drum mics? As it's a mic/trigger unit.
Also I use a kemper stage and the other player uses a Helix, both unpowered units, would it be best to have a power amp in the rack? Or use our FrFr to power our gear?
Just trying to make this as clear as possible in mind 😅 also we are running backing tracks, how would we do that with this system?
Many thanks in advance dude!!
Great video, I learnt alot touring with you!
Aww thanks dude. I'm gunna do a lot more about sound and TM'ing so that one day, you can TM me please thanx
I'd go x32 to have all stereo mixes that investment is worth it in future
Thank you so much for this video! I wish I could have come across this a few years back. I had a very similar setup for my band running an XR18 I can into several issues that I'm curious if you or anyone else has ever encountered:
1. As you said the internal router is terrible on the XAir. I purchased an additional router and unfortunately still ran into issues that could never be resolved and would have to think quick on a gig (so many blown soundchecks and shows running click into one ear with last minute FOH wedge mixes...true nightmare stuff. I even tried wiring the XAir via ethernet to my MacBook and it worked about 50% of the time. I ended up selling the unit and ditching IEM's ENTIRELY. Now a fear years later I'm thinking about getting back in but I want none of that previous stress. Is a wired analogue mixer at all a solution or do you recommend I give the XAir series another try?
2. I had issues with FOH receiving extremely low signals from the DI's in the split. Engineers would tell me they'd have to crank channels almost wide open to get enough signal. Since the split was analogue there was nothing I could do. Did you ever have this issue? Apologies for the long post this is an issue which is close to my heart haha
Hey Desmond, sorry for the slow reply! I think it depends on the router you buy and how congested the WiFi signals are in that venue. Most good routers adapt frequencies automatically but you may have been stuck on one WiFi channel that could have been pretty busy. I'm not sure why a wired connection would only work 50% of the time is I've never had a single issue when wired. The only thing I can think of is that you had a dodgy unit?
As far as the signal drop goes, you always lose a tiny bit by splitting but it shouldnt be that bad, so there may ahve been an issue with cables / signal sources or the DI boxes themselves (maybe having a pad turned on the outputs?)
Let me know what you ended up doing!
I had a humming and clipping issue. I was advised to keep the router away from the console at least 6 feet. This solved my problem. I don't know if this relates to your problem.
Chris - Figure this is obvious, but how do you hook up a wireless guitar through the system (I need to have my mic and guitar as the primary)?
I think I understood maybe half of that. Really wanna get more into sound tech though. It's very interesting.
Also great video!
Thanks Ally, glad you understood at least part of it haha
Great video Chris and the best explanation I've seen so far as have just started thinking about this for my own band. One thing I'm struggling with is how it is practical when arriving for soundcheck lets say as the second or third band of the night and needing to ask the sound tech to unplug everything from their stage box and plug it all into ours. Changeovers are often very tight and this just seems like I might encounter a lot of eye rolling and the soundcheck taking much longer while we have to faff about. Then there is the changeover before we actually go on, I suppose if we can leave everything in the splitter then it's a bit simpler but still feels like a lot to think about in 15 -20 mins as well as setting up pedal boards, amps etc. In my case it doesn't help that we use a lot of channels with two drummers, 2 guitars, bass, keys and 4 vocals, what would your advice be there, just perhaps stick to kick and snare for the kits, then instruments and vox?
It makes a lot of sense and would love to have a self mixed in ear stage sound but seems tough to achieve, for my band's set up at least. I guess an alternative might be to send the monitor mix (rather than FOH) to wireless boxes? Obvs I realise you're at the mercy of the local sound tech but just thinking as they often will do a mix for the drum fill and then separate ones for stage wedges whether it's possible to just get those mixes in ear instead?
Sorry, long post! If you have any advice would be a great help!
Hey Graham, the best practice I've found is to leave your rig in place thoughout the whole evening, with all the drum / guitar lines heading through your splitter for the whole night. The engineer can use your splitters as their stage box for those lines instead of the venue box. This speeds things up SO MUCH. If another band has a splitter system, you can run your split lines, through their splitter as well, so both bands can stay mostly patched in, depending on how much the channel lists match up. I hope that makes sense! As a bonus, when the other band is playing through your splits, you can whack your IEMs on and have an interesting listen ;)
I am among the Xtuga vs Phenyx ptm-10, leaving aside the price difference, what do you think is the best option?
Solid explanation!
Thanks Josh!
My band has not played live yet and we are just now starting the process of getting the materials to do so. We would have a stereo backing track and a click track for our show. I've looked at the focusrite 4i4 as a cheap interface with 4 seperated outputs, we aren't worried about a mix yet for our in ears so would we just be able to run the 2 lines for the backing track to front of house and then the 1 for the click track straight to an in ear system(s)? Thanks and great video!