mcnach

Sorry, I just saw this. I'm far from being an expert in these matters, so take my comments with that in mind. Whenever my bandmates and I brought up the subject of IEMS there was usually some confusion between two different aspects: 1) how to get a personal monitor mix, and 2) how to send that to our ears (often the assumption is this is done wirelessly, but it doesn't have to be). I've tried a few different things in order to get some kind of monitor mix. The best is, of course, when you can get a dedicated mix from the desk, but this is only guaranteed if you're having your own band mixer. We've had a Behringer XR18 and lately an X32 as a 'band mixer'. When we're doing our own sound, that's the core of it. As a 6-piece band, the XR18 is enough as it can provide 6 individual mixes (more if you use the Ultranet system). When we have a house engineer, we use a couple of 8-channel splitters (Behringer MS8000) and that way one half goes to our mixer (controlling just the monitor mixes) and another half to the main desk for teh sound engineer to do their thing. However, that requires the most £££ investment and also has to be a bit of a band effort, in order to get everything into the monitors, so I've tried other ways that are not as 'nice' but can still work pretty well, in fact I'd say they all work better than having wedge monitors and a loud stage. Basically I use a small mixer (Behringer Xenyx 302/502) to blend two signals: my bass, and "whatever I can get". With earphones with a good seal you get a good amount of isolation, as if you were using earplugs (comparable or better than my ACS 17db) so you still get a LOT of sound from the stage, just attenuated. All I do is add a bit more 'me'. The 'whatever I can get' signal varies a lot... I've used a microphone stage (Zoom H2), placed strategically so that I can capture guitars/vocals strongly, as drums I can hear enough anyway, and vocals and guitar is the only thing I really need to hear clearly, as we go 'off-script' a lot). That works, but it's better when I can get a feed from one of the wedge monitors. Most places have active monitors these days, with a 'thru' XLR connection. Take an XLR from a monitor, into the mixer, done. Many PA systems have the same on the main speakers, so you can often get a feed from there too. Yes, I'm not getting a dedicated mix there, but it can still be very useful, and it'll still sound way better than a loud stage does. I'd recommend ensuring you can EQ the 'whatever I can get' channel, as I find it's often better to turn down the low end in there, makes the mix clearer with my bass. This is not going to give you a "CD listening experience", but that's not what I am going for either, I want something that allows me to monitor what's going on, which it does. When we use the XR18/X32, you can use a PM-16 connected via Ultranet, which does not use the standard monitor channels, so you get better easier control, but also free a monitor channel for others, which can be useful. The PM-16 is basically a little 16-channel mixer connected to the main XR18/X32 via a single network cable using Ultranet. The output from that can feed your earphones. If you use a small mixer for my ghetto approach described above, its output can then feed your earphones. You can use a Behringer P1/P2 too. These are basic 2-channel mixers designed to be worn on your person. I have used a P1 to blend my bass with the "whatever I can get" signal, but I like the minimixer more, as it gives me more controls, EQ, etc. Again, the output from that goes into your earphones. Now we have a mix. We can use a wired method to send the signal to our ears, in which case we're done. For a drummer or keyboard player, wired is probably the simplest and easiest, and you don't need to worry about anything else, interference, dropouts etc. For others... it will depend. I have used a combined cable that carries both my bass and earphone signal (Ernie Ball,£45 or so) which sounded like a great idea, but the cable is thick and heavy and a bit of a faff. Ok in a small stage where you can't move much, but not comfy if you're moving around. I'd use separate cables. If you don't want cables... then there's wireless, which is a different subject. For wireless, live I've only used the MiPro58 system, which was around £400 (stereo, very low latency, 5.8GHz). At home I've tried the ultracheap Lekato WS-1 (£40, also stereo, but higher latency and operating on the 2.4GHz band that is more prone to interference), which didn't sound as good as the MiPro, but in all honesty, for a band mix it would do the job. My only concern is the higher likelyhood of dropouts and the high latency. The latency on its own is unlikely to be noticed, but the problem is we're using a lot of digital devices and they all add some latency... so it adds up: it can work very well for some people, but if you have a lot of additional digital processing it can get tricky... but you need to try and see. Wireless is nice, but I'd still prefer a wired IEM over no IEMs, in general. On a big stage, wedges can be great. With a considerate band who understands noise, wedges can be great in a smaller stage too, but my personal experience is that I encounter stages that are too loud too often, and IEMs just give me a combination of a quieter & clearer sound for the bits I need in order to play well. I hope that makes sense! I'm not claiming any of this is THE WAY, but it seems to work. Other methods may exist

elaborate a bit?

you need to give us a better prompt 😄

I suspect we'll be disappointed. "Justice" really is a joke. 😠

I just bought an A4 sheet on eBay, lots of sources: sheets of different sizes, rolls...

Good way to find out that everybody in the band was a closet polka fan... and then what?

Earphones with teh right tips can provide a lot of attenuation. The KZ something or another (sorry, I forget which) quoted 26db reduction, which sounds a bit optimistic but it would depend largely on the tip material and how they fit your ears. The idea is not to provide all your sound via IEMs (that would be ideal, but in reality...), but to provide as much attenuation as possible and just add what you need, and no more. Keep it sensible. In my case, I typically add a bit more 'me' and depending on the situation I may get a bit of rhythm guitar and main vocals, that's it. I started using IEMs because one of the bands I play in tends to be way too loud onstage and no amount of chat persuaded anybody to change their ways... that, couple to the fact I rarely get my own monitor in that band made me research the IEM ways. I think the problem I see with lots of people considering IEMs is that they either want it to be perfect, or nothing, while the truth is that almost any IEM solution sounds better than wedges and a loud stage. I had assumed it had to be expensive and that it would be too much faff and overkill for pub gigs (which are the ones I had most trouble with, music venues are largely ok)... in the end I have invested in decent wireless, but that's just 'decoration'... the actual function/sound is no better than when I used a simple wired system (in some ways wired is actually better). I just wish I had done this years ago instead of getting frustrated gig after gig.

very good solution 👍

Maybe consider some basic IEM solution? Even if you don't have your own mix, you can typically get AT LEAST a feed from one fo the wedge monitors or the PA speakers themselves. Most are active these days and will have a 'thru' output. You can use a cheap Behringer P1 personal headphone amp, and plug into it whatever mix you can get in one XLR, and your bass on the other. With good sealing earphones (no need to spend hundreds, a KZ with the right tips would be fine) you can get a very reasonable balance. The main thing is that the earphones have a good seal. No need to go wireless, but that would be an improvement if the solution works for you.

If you do so, make sure you KNOW what was being said and not rely on 'apparentlies'

are you trying to use logic? are you new to bands?

I used to be a one strap kind of guy. The temperature was a comfortable 24 degrees, very slight breeze. I had more hair on my head than the rest of my body combined. Life was sweet. Then a strap broke about a third into a gig, and no replacement on sight. I ended up playing sitting on a stool And the very next day I made sure I always had an extra strap in every gigbag and every tools case I'm likely to bring to any gig. But maybe it's just me... I just realised I do the same with extra batteries, strings, cables. When any hardware/cabling needs something, I'm the first one they ask, as I often have something useful in my magic box

Ah, I hadn't read this yet. Is that the radio frequency one? I think I was looking at that a while ago, just not sure if it was the 75 or another one. I was interested because the latency on radio units is really low, but the sound quality can vary a lot (there's a lot of processing going on and bass response can be reduced). Please let us know what you think once you've got it

I've only had to return an item once, and it went to some address in the UK too, I forget where. AliExpress gets a lot of negative comments, but their customer service is very buyer-friendly in my experience, far more than eBay. Are you getting another set? I haven't used mine much, but they work well enough (when they don't malfunction, that is! :D) as long as you're mindful of the relatively high latency (for a simple setup like I use, without tons of digital processing units in teh signal path, it seems fine enough).

I've just ordered a little rigid case for it. Hopefully that will be it... fingers crossed! I only have one gig this weekend, on Saturday, so I'll see how they perform (with a cable set ready to swap if needed). I hadn't paid enough attention, clearly, I only realised this past weekend that the charger box has an OUTPUT USB-C as well, so it can be used to charge other devices. I've never liked pointing my finger at myself and proclaim "here's an idiot", but it's looking like I'm about to do it again Happily, 'though, this time, for aside from this worry I like everything about this wireless system.