IEM Monitor Rig Tips | Interfacing With a House Sound System
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ธ.ค. 2022
- Tips about working with an IEM rig. How to package the components and how to interface with the FOH sound system.
Live sound reinforcement tutorial. In ear monitors are becoming increasingly more affordable for musicians and provide many benefits over live speakers / wedges. With an analog microphone splitter and stage mixer, a compact rack can be all packaged together, and along with a band's own mic package, give them consistent monitor mixes.
Touring acts, club bands, praise and worship bands all are using IEM packages these days.
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I use a very similar setup with my band, but with an XR18 as our mixer. I love using it because soundcheck goes so much easier now.
I work in a Live Club with ALOT of Cover Bands.. THIS IS THE WAY TO GO! I've even taken the time to Label THEIR Tails to save 'the next guy's some work.
Heh, I thought I was the only guy to do this. I always label an acts tails if they come in unlabeled.
Thank you for sharing. It’s great to see all the hard work that goes into these setups.
Top advice Alan. As you know I built my bands new IEM and mixer rig based on your earlier videos. Rather than have a snake hooked up the the "thru" side of the splitter (the isolated output with no phantom power, as opposed to the "Link" side which has phantom power from our mixer) I've got a labelled patch panel. Each output is labelled with the source, as well as the channel number.
Another outstanding video! Labeling the tails as I type this! We’d already been moving in this direction with our gear but this video demonstrates the best way to streamline the process of setting up and striking. The key to success in 2023 and beyond will be determined in large part by a band’s ability to be organized. Thanks so much!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks!
Great equipment and wiring arrangement. Easy to connect and trouble shooting if any problems happen. I like it's this arrangement and technical ways recommended
Thanks.
Elipto from Michigan. I love your videos bro, keep em coming!!
Appreciate it!!
I’ve got a classical guitar , a Shure 58, a Beringer condenser, and I run it all through a 2 channel JBL ION. Load my car and set up in 20 - the same gettin’ home. I make a ton and work all the time.
Great setup, my band does it almost exactly like this, just with an X32 rack as we run 31 channels over four 8-channel snakes from the splitters to the house. Looming the drums and labeling the channels on the snakes are fantastic ideas, thanks for highlighting them Alan!
Very cool!
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks! I appreciate all the knowledge you’ve shared, it’s filled in a lot of my gaps.
Good job Alan!
Great video bud looking forward to more content
Thanks 👍
Thank you sir for your packaged information
You're welcome!
This video is a real-world look at a band carrying an IEM rig and interfacing with provided FOH sound. Interspersed are tips and explanation along the way.
As always, leave any comments or questions... Feel free to share the video link.
Sweetwater Sound affiliate link:
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My band will have to improve our in-ear rig at some point. Our mixer doubles as my keyboard interface with MainStage. So I can actually use midi controls to add effects any channel in our board. Example one song we are writing right now I’m playing with adding tons of reverb/effects to vocals in specific parts of the song and side-chaining that vocal into a vocoder. Which will be a problem when we have a FOH engineer, not enough outputs available when the interface is no longer the house mixer.
I don’t know what I just saw so I have to watch it several times to understand it. I definitely want to learn it.
If you haven't seen this other video already, it's about building a similar rig to the one in the current video using a Behringer XR18. It literally gets into the nuts and bolts of the setup and building of it. It might dovetail nicely with this video to help you understand more about what is going on.
th-cam.com/video/xT9gTBFxvZk/w-d-xo.html
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thank you, I’ll watch it.
Great video!
Thanks!
Have a in ear system is a game changer
That it is!
I like ur cobtact details
What band is this that's so organized... wow
i still like and use good old fashion montier and sub behind my drums iem make me dizzy for some reason plus my band and i love major stage volume
Sometimes you just wanna move some air and feel the vibrations.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio oh ya baby
My band does exactly this. Having everything labeled with it's source instrument is key! We play small bars and venues and not many bands use an in ear set ups, so having things generically labeled also allows us to "back line" the in ear set up so its ready to go when we go on. The sound tech can pre run everything through our passive splitter for the other bands and then we just turn on our IEM rig when it's time to play. It saves so much time and we hardly have to sound check our monitors from gig to gig.
The key with in ears live is to have a split y cable to send dry signal to front of house and have the other go to iem rig mixer so the band is in control of their own sound and the sound man does not have to do anything to the musicians just make it sound great out front greatly easing their work load and allows them to do their job even better
Definitely.
Hey Al!!
Hey Hunter!
Great Setup! I need your advice on what to do when there will be 2 or more bands playing at an event and each of them have their own IEM and Splitter/Mixer setup, how will I patch things up to the FOH? will I just manually remove the first band's setup and replace it to the other ones or there is another way to do this with less hassle? Thanks
It depends on channel count and somewhat how many bands there are. If both bands can fit on the same console, just pin one band, and then pin the other starting on the first open channel. That's probably only practical for 2 bands. Or two bands and a solo or duo act on the bill. 3 more more full bands could easily eat up the channel count. Even on a 40 or more channel console. In some cases, there might be a secondary FOH console for the headliner, and in that case, a separate snake. But that's not likely except on larger events.
So, in the case of one FOH console, one snake, and multiple bands... That's where the "festival patch" comes into play. The snake and console are prepped for the largest band of the day... There is a master input list (with multiple copies floating around), and then each band's tails are connected (when needed) based on that festival patch. You might also keep a patch sheet that can be written on for each band that day to show where they fit within the festival patch. The festival patch could have several toms, a bass SR and SL (even 2 lines for bass per side for mic'ed and DI'ed), 2 guitars per side, keys for each side, DS acoustics, etc... Things NOT needed for EACH band, but things that could be needed in one location or the other depending on the lineup and stage positions of members of each band as the event goes on.
You just have to track the inputs each band will be using, but their shouldn't be massive resets at the console(s) because the kick will still be the kick, the bass will be in a bass channel, the elect guitar in an elec guitar channel, vocals in vocals... So, while they'll needed tweaked for the changing sources, they're all similar TYPE sources so they will be 'close'. This is also where digital comes in handy because things can be saved at soundcheck for each act. Or if it's a throw and go scenario, presets can be recalled for a roughed in start.
Great video. Curious about something. When the band supplies their own drum mics do they also bring the mic cables, stands etc or do you supply that for them? Thanks
It depends. In this case, they supplied all their own cables and stands and claws. I'd say that is the situation that happens the most... IF the band is supplying their own ear package then they are usually supplying all their own mics, cables, and stands.
BUT... sometimes they will supply only some of that. In that case, it's usually spelled out on the stage plot, input list, or a cover letter included with their stage plot and input list. Like it will say something similar to: "Band needs 4 tall tripod boom stands, and 4 short boom stands"
Or it'll have a note on the input list where on certain lines on the form for mics/DIs it'll have their preferred mic or DI and say "Band supplies" ....except for the ones the band doesn't supply and expects us to have ;)
It's not absolutely unheard of for the tech rider to say "Band is providing all their own mics, monitor console, and IEMs but needs the promoter/sound company to provide all stands and cables as listed..."
So, you always want to read the tech rider closely and not assume. And doublecheck in an email or phone call when the show gets advanced.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Ok cool that makes sense. Thanks for taking the time with a detailed answer. This is very helpful.
@@mistacoo No problem!
Super helpful. Is it common that a band doing an in ear rig would NOT have a splitter? I am guessing no... it serves them well to own their own, just curious.
Bands with their own mon rig almost always have their own splitter.
Usually mic package too. Keeps signals consistent.
On my xr18, can you tell why my linked aux 5&6 coming out of the headphone jack will only pan left and right when the selected channel is in solo mode?
I think the problem you're describing is related to needing to be panned on the channel send pan vs channel pan:
th-cam.com/video/UNO-dACc7YY/w-d-xo.html
...But I might be misreading the question.
I’m just now figuring that out. I guess when I used to use the channel pan, I was monitoring l/r rather than aux 5&6. This make total sense for monitoring the busses. Thanks so much.
Hey guys how do you solve the problem of not hearing what is not miced? Things like talking to each other on stage etc.. Should I use extra mic for ambient in the middle of stage?
This band puts an SM58 onstage just in front of and to the side of the drums, and they use that to talk to themselves without the audience hearing. I don't know if they use a switched mic or it just stays on, but I ASSUME it's a switched mic so they don't hear TOO MUCH drums being picked up by that mic.
A SDC or even SM57, or two, at the front corner or corners of the stage works well to blend in some ambience to hear the crowd better. And hear a bit of ambient mix coming back at them. A little goes a long way.
That said, many times the vocal mics onstage, particularly for smaller stages, picks up plenty of ambience themselves. So extra ambient mics aren't necessarily something you HAVE to have, until you're playing bigger stages.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio Thank you! ❤️
Alan do you have any experience with the Behringer MS8000 splitter? They come in around a 1/3 of the cost of the ART version. I know the ARTs are highly recommended but was curious how the Behringer stacks up?
I've used and used the ART and the EWI... I haven't used the Behringer myself.
I have a pair of the Behringer MS8000 splitters in my IEM rack to give me 16 channels. For context my band plays in (UK) pubs most of the time, 1-2 gigs a month with the occasional larger venue. I find that a lot of the Behringer stuff is slagged off as being worthless junk by a lot of the pros here, but we are using their X-Air 18R mixer and their Mics for vocals, guitar amp mics and drum overheads. In a live setting the difference in sound quality isnt discernible and the robustness is good enough for the amount of use it gets with us. If we were a touring band playing multiple shows a week however, this would change things. I'd want better quality gear simply to handle the increased wear and tear. The cost reductions are made by using plastic connector housings and other less expensive components.
@@AndyWragg I too use the XR18 with no complaints. I've often found it counter intuitive that many on various forums recommend the XR18 and X32 but won't give anything else made by Behringer the time of day. I suspect Behringer is using the same XLR connectors for both and the innerworkings of a splitter is much simpler than a digital mixer. Glad to hear yours are working out. You use it more than I would so I may give the MS8000 a try.
@@dwhitney31 Be careful with the switches they can be reconfigured really easily (by accident) and will cause headaches until you figure it out.
My band has been using four of them for over a year. Aside from checking the buttons at every setup as Andy mentioned, they're rock solid. Just make sure they're isolated properly in the rack. I use Mid Atlantic rack screws with an integral plastic washer on the head, and 00 rubber plumbing washers between the rack ears and the rails to make sure I'm 100% isolated and I never have ground loop issues. The plastic "Humfrees" you can get from Sweetwater work great for this as well if they're in your budget.
We also use the Behringer DI4800 units for keyboards and guitar modellers, and they work great as well as long as you keep an eye on the buttons. Like the MS8000, they have a tendency to get pressed accidentally, especially if you store your tails in the rack for transit. I've left glowing reviews for both units on Sweetwater.
What if we just wanted to have everything in our ears except drums? Would we just provide a snake that has vox, bass, gtr L, gtr R and stereo track?
Technically, you only need a split for the things you DO want in your ears and the house. So, you'd want your input list and info to specify if you're carrying drum mics or not, and that you need the house system to take a home run from the drum mics, and to take tails from everything else.
Some people would just supply their own drum mics too, and split everything anyway for simplicity's sake. Or a modified version of that where your mics hit a pass-thru in the ear rack and don't actually split to your mon console, but DO hit the tails (fan out) that feeds the house system.
So you could, for example, buy an 8 channel rackmount splitter (assuming 8 channels is enough for everything you want sent to your ears) and a 16 channel fan to fan snake. Get some XLR pass throughs and mount them to a rack panel. Then connect the first 8 (or how many ever channels you need that doesn't go to your mon console) of the XLR fan to fan snake to those pass thrus. Label them kick, snare, hat, Tom 1... etc...
Then everything else would connect to your 8 channel splitter which would feed your mon console. Meanwhile, the 16 channel tail would effectively carry 8 channels of splits, and 8 channels of homeruns (since the drums would hit the rack input panel pass thrus and feed thru to the fan to fan snake that is your tails to the house.
But the cheapest way to do it is just to make sure the provider knows your drums home run to the house system, and your vocals, bass, gtrs, keys, etc all land at your monitor console and split to the house.
They can run a subsnake to the drums and their mics (or you could provide the subsnake and/or even the mics), and then supply the tails just from the items that you are splitting from your ear rack to the house.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio THank you so much for the reply! That all makes sense.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio This is the way our band are going to do it - supply everything but the drums. The sound engineer is expecting to mic up the drums anyway unless told not to. The only thing you might need is a separate mic on the kit to pick up something for your ears but that's easily patched into the monitor mixer if needed.
What analog splitters are using in this video? Thanks!
I'm not really sure what they were using. I just went back and looked at some of the raw video to see if there's any identifying marks that didn't make the video and I don't see anything there either.
@@AlanHamiltonAudio thanks anyway!
Yea
had a sad episode last saturday while using this method with my band
the sound guy said he wouldn't accept this method even with my splitter sending him his dry signal because he wouldn't want to unplug his mics, cables and usual routing to work with me like this... even refusing to send an extra patch of cables
quite sad as a musician to work with people who sometimes totally refuse to be open to work with you out of their usual methods
needless to say it worsened the bands performance on stage a lot
That's a bad deal. You're going into the gig with a totally professional setup, and the event/venue supplier is NOT operating in a professional way. Sorry you ran into someone like that.
❤😊
Hiiiii Al… 🙋🏻♀️
Hey Cindy!
What a wet dream for amateurs musicians like us 😭😭😭
If you shop sales and have a bit of band income it’s very doable as a amateur band, especially if you do wired in ears which cuts down the cost significantly. I’m in around $1000 for my bands full setup, and the plus side is we also use the iem rig for rehearsals so volumes can be kept lower, a blessing when practicing in a basement.
@@brandonpelletier2494 true, but in my country, prices are (even in outlets or discount) like 3 times than USA/EUROPE more. For example, minimum salary is like 1/8 of a gibson les paul standard (and you have to LIVE with that, so no money for "hobby"), buying stage/monitor system as these is way more expensive than in other countrys 🥲🥲🥲
God knows how hard we work to even pay a demo, or a mixer to record ourselfs.
But every effort should have a reward someday, i hope 🥲
@@wizardito7741 that’s fair I wasn’t even considering other countries. It’s bad enough here in Canada compared to the US, luckily there is an alright used market here, so almost everything in my rig I picked up for a fraction of new price.
@@brandonpelletier2494 yep, the most cheap and easy way to get good audio products is from used market!
I even think it's better, because those stuffs are "venueproof", after years of use in extreme conditions, live and studio situations, those things are tested and ready to go&play.
Real smarr
Get a combiner and antenna
A combiner is a great upgrade suggestion.
We're those mic cables "loomed" with duct tape? Well, I guess that could considered loomed... better than nothing.
Heh... I need to go back and look and see if I have anything showing it better. I never noticed it being duct tape, but I wasn't really paying attention to how the cables were loomed... just that they were.