The IEM (in ear monitors) Bible thread - a guide to help every musician

[Muzz]

That very much depends on the mixer - some will let you do this, some won't. I've worked with both; it does add another layer of faffing before the gig (tho this can be reduced by saving scenes, etc), so it's all about On The Day.

 

Another example of this is stereo monitor feeds: my inear setup will do stereo, but I've yet to convince a BL to give me two channels and send them to a stereo out...

Edited 8 hours ago by Muzz

[dave_bass5]

9 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Are you managing to put the reverb just through the IEM feeds and not FoH?

This is what i do for my IEM mix. We use one reverb for FOH, and a separate one for IEM mixes. I have a bit on the bass and a bit more on the vocals. 
While we can just have the reverb to FOH or IME, or both, i prefer to keep the two separate. I prefer a shorter reverb in the IEM mix. 

[Al Krow]

16 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

This is what i do for my IEM mix. We use one reverb for FOH, and a separate one for IEM mixes. I have a bit on the bass and a bit more on the vocals. 
While we can just have the reverb to FOH or IME, or both, i prefer to keep the two separate. I prefer a shorter reverb in the IEM mix. 

 

Interesting, as a lot of the received wisdom is not to have much, if any, reverb on bass for FoH? 

[dave_bass5]

3 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Interesting, as a lot of the received wisdom is not to have much, if any, reverb on bass for FoH? 

We dont ever put reverb on bass for FOH.

[Al Krow]

8 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

We dont ever put reverb on bass for FOH.

 

Thanks for clarifying that.

[dave_bass5]

33 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Thanks for clarifying that.

Yeah, it’s just for IEM, as i agree with you, it just add’s a bit of air to the sound, especially nice in stereo. 

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

Yeah, it’s just for IEM, as i agree with you, it just add’s a bit of air to the sound, especially nice in stereo. 

 

Thank God for digital desks eh?! i wouldn't have a hope of doing this with my old analogue desk!

 

Just as an aside:

This level of flexibility combined with the better pre-amps on our A&H CQ18T (vs my old Soundcraft MTK12) and the ability to give everyone a tailored feed that we're already benefitting from, seems to me to make a quality digital desk the single most important factor in getting a band to successfully adopt and accept IEMs in place of backline? With quality in ear headphones running in a very close second - one of our singers tried got a set of KZ ZARs from Ali Express for £30 recently. She's over the moon with how good they are!

Edited 4 hours ago by Al Krow

[dave_bass5]

My old drummer was a real Luddite, and in a way still is, but the tribute band he is in have just invested in an XR18 and a few bits just for IEM/stage monitors. 
They always use a house PA but have struggled with monitors. It took me a while to explain what can be achieved these days, and they (he) built a small IEM rack, based on the XR18 and a couple of splitters. 

For less than £500 they will never really have to worry about monitors again. 
 

Even the drummer in my band, who admits he is a dinosaur and refuses anything to do with IEM, has just brought a P-16 for his floor monitor. 
The downside to this is he had it really loud at the last gig and i had no control over it. I’ve banned anyone else getting one.  We use 3 powered floor monitors and i shudder to think how loud they will be pushed. 

[TimR]

I've scrolled quite a few pages. Is the Lekato wifi what a lot of people are using to power their IEMs?  

 

 

[dave_bass5]

My last post just got me thinking. 

Does anyone know if i can add a fader in Mixing station to control the overall level of a monitor being controlled from a P-16, or better still, just mute it? 
 

i had to play music between sets at the last gig and on stage it was really loud, but out front hardly anything. He had left his monitor on and i just couldn’t tell if the FOH was even on. 

At the moment the music is streamed  from my laptop, which is also my sound source, so he has to have this in his monitor while we are playing. 
If it were a separate device then obviously he could have that always muted.

Edited 5 hours ago by dave_bass5

[dave_bass5]

24 minutes ago, TimR said:

I've scrolled quite a few pages. Is the Lekato wifi what a lot of people are using to power their IEMs?  

 

 

They seem to be a good budget choice. I have a set as a back up, and have used it a few times without issues.

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, TimR said:

I've scrolled quite a few pages. Is the Lekato wifi what a lot of people are using to power their IEMs?  

 

3 of us have been using Xvive U4s for a while, which seems to be a decent mid-price range. 

 

Drummer has recently got a Swiff WX520 from Ali Express (they're currently just under £75) which he's really liking.

[Woodinblack]

10 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Drummer has recently got a Swiff WX520 from Ali Express (they're currently just under £75) which he's really liking.

 

Oh interesting - I have a U4, but I have been using the cheap £20 wireless because it is stereo and having got used to stereo it is hard to go back to mono. I hadn't seen those, I was trying to find something that was stereo that was somewhere between the £20 and £300 range!

[javi_bassist]

I am using and abusing (for 6 months, at least 3 gigs a week) the Xvive U45. The rest of my band has the U4s and we are all happy with them. I have to say that I have mine attached to my pedalboard because I have a Rolls PM351 before it to level my bass myself (I had horrible experiences with soundguys). Except for ona project that we make our own mix using an app, for the rest I use the Xvive.

 

I have used the Sennheiser XSW in the past with good results. Some droputs sometimes, but it was all good overall.

[Muzz]

Ooooo, yer all posh: for a good while (maybe 30 gigs?) I've been using a pair of £62 Lekato MS-02s - super light, tiny and handy, battery lasts hours (never got down to even half the charge lights on them with 4-hour gigs (start to finish)), 5ms latency, no dropouts and even a stereo option that, as mentioned above, I've never got to use...you'll need an XLR to 3.5mm jack adaptor, but that's it...

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Oh interesting - I have a U4, but I have been using the cheap £20 wireless because it is stereo and having got used to stereo it is hard to go back to mono. I hadn't seen those, I was trying to find something that was stereo that was somewhere between the £20 and £300 range!

 

Yes, that's a key point to note re. the U4s that they are mono transmitters. Our lovely, and very capable, little desk has 6 monitor outputs, not quite enough for us to go down the stereo route which would require 4 x 2 = 8 monitor outs for our 4 piece set up. Has going stereo really improved your gigging experience, Woody? If so, maybe something for me to consider for my crew down the line at some point!

 

43 minutes ago, javi_bassist said:

I am using and abusing (for 6 months, at least 3 gigs a week) the Xvive U45. The rest of my band has the U4s and we are all happy with them. I have to say that I have mine attached to my pedalboard because I have a Rolls PM351 before it to level my bass myself (I had horrible experiences with soundguys). Except for ona project that we make our own mix using an app, for the rest I use the Xvive.

 

Is the U45 a decent step up from the U4 for you? I note that it's a 5.8 GHz, whereas the U4 is on the more crowded 2.4 GHz.

 

"The Xvive U45 is a significant upgrade to the U4, mainly moving to the less crowded 5.8 GHz band for better interference resistance, adding USB-C charging, an auto-scan feature to find clear channels, and minor physical improvements like stiffer knobs for durability, making it a highly recommended buy for new users despite a small price increase. While the U4 is a good budget system, the U45 offers more reliability, especially in crowded venues, through its improved tech and dedicated channel scanning."  

 

Hmmm...does sound good! Not come across too many wireless IEM transmitters in the 5.8 GHz space (although the cheaper Swiff WX520 our drummer is using is also 5.8 GHz).

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Al Krow

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Our lovely, and very capable, little desk has 6 monitor outputs, not quite enough for us to go down the stereo route which would require 4 x 2 = 8 monitor outs for our 4 piece set up. Has going stereo really improved your gigging experience, Woody? If so, maybe something for me to consider for my crew down the line at some point!

 

Absolutely - I wouldn't want to go back to mono. In my metal group we have P16 so you connect via the network like plug and you can adjust your own personal mix. Live, there are only 2 of us with IEMs, so I just use two channels of that.

 

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Is the U45 a decent step up from the U4 for you? 

 

No, I didn't have a problem with range or bandwidth, its just mono.

 

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Muzz said:

 I've been using a pair of £62 Lekato MS-02s - super light, tiny and handy, battery lasts hours (never got down to even half the charge lights on them with 4-hour gigs (start to finish)), 5ms latency, no dropouts and even a stereo option that, as mentioned above, 

 

Thats the one I use instead of the U4, although mine cost me £32! But the switch can be a bit intermittent, sometimes the quality can slip and after a lot of gigs and practices the receiver battery life is starting to get close to the end of our gigs if I forget to plug it in at half time.

[EBS_freak]

8 hours ago, Muzz said:

It's generally called 'the occulsion effect'. the two easy fixes are a room mic you can mix in, or there's a whole lot of newer IEMs which allow ambient sound in, like these: https://acscustom.com/uk/products/ambient-series/evoke2/

And there goes all your bass.

[javi_bassist]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

Is the U45 a decent step up from the U4 for you? I note that it's a 5.8 GHz, whereas the U4 is on the more crowded 2.4 GHz.

 

 

In my case, I never had a U4. However, I had some interference with some wireless going in 2.4 so I bought directly the U45. My other bandmates (3 people) uses the U4 without any issue.

 

Open question for the guys who use stereo. How do you setup? My Sennheiser XSW is capable of stereo, but I just used it to mix the bass in one channel and the rest of the band in the other.

[dave_bass5]

4 minutes ago, javi_bassist said:

 

Open question for the guys who use stereo. How do you setup? My Sennheiser XSW is capable of stereo, but I just used it to mix the bass in one channel and the rest of the band in the other.

I use stereo and have a full stereo mix of the band in my IEM. Each guitar panned to opposite sides, bass in the middle, kick in the middle and overheads/rest of kit as a stereo spread. Lead vocal in the centre and BV’s panned off centre. I love this set up.