16 channel splitter - how much! 😮

[JPJ]

So, as we’re all using IEM’s and we have a gig coming up at a venue that has in-house PA and engineer, we were thinking of adding a 16-channel splitter so we could run our IEM’s from our XR18 leaving the house engineer free to do his thing with the FOH sound. But these things are bloody expensive in the UK with most we can find coming from the USA. Yes we have considered the MIDAS unit but that leaves control of the analogue gain with us, potentially getting in the way of the in-house guy. We’re now thinking of a couple of Behringer MS8000’s and a short loom to hook these to our XR18 for a full analogue split. My question, is anyone here doing the same or have a source for a reasonably priced splitter here in the UK?

[Phil Starr]

Have you considered insert leads which can split the signal at the stage mixer. Not possible with a lot of digital mixers but most large analogue stage mixers have an insert in every channel. How many channels do you need to split? Will it actually be 16 or is that just future proofing for something you'll use again? There are plenty of DI boxes that can split a signal and if you have multifx for instruments they may give you a stereo out. Depending upon impedences and signal levels you might even be able to split with Y leads. It's probably only worth chasing these options if you have some of this stuff anyway, I know I have all sorts of of s**t tucked away so I know I have three DI boxes that can split a signal plus a couplke of fx boxes for instrument splitting and you may have more than you think for use in an emergency.

 

Have you talked to the PA people? They may be able to provide you with pre-fade signals from each channel or even (probably unlikely though) give you access to the monitor mixes if they are using X-series mixers. Since everybody just saves mixes nowadays it is less of a hazard for them than it used to be. I can imagine any sound engineer shuddering at the thought though  Can you use Ultranet to connect two X series mixers? It can send 16 channels to a laptop but can it send it to another mixer?

 

Behringer do the Behringer ULTRALINK MS8000 here which is £66 for 8 channels Amazon are listing a splitter box with wo snake tails for £250 but the Behringer looks a cheaper and tidier option to me.

[Happy Jack]

 

Just saying ...

[JPJ]

5 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

Have you considered insert leads which can split the signal at the stage mixer. Not possible with a lot of digital mixers but most large analogue stage mixers have an insert in every channel. How many channels do you need to split? Will it actually be 16 or is that just future proofing for something you'll use again? There are plenty of DI boxes that can split a signal and if you have multifx for instruments they may give you a stereo out. Depending upon impedences and signal levels you might even be able to split with Y leads. It's probably only worth chasing these options if you have some of this stuff anyway, I know I have all sorts of of s**t tucked away so I know I have three DI boxes that can split a signal plus a couplke of fx boxes for instrument splitting and you may have more than you think for use in an emergency.

 

Have you talked to the PA people? They may be able to provide you with pre-fade signals from each channel or even (probably unlikely though) give you access to the monitor mixes if they are using X-series mixers. Since everybody just saves mixes nowadays it is less of a hazard for them than it used to be. I can imagine any sound engineer shuddering at the thought though  Can you use Ultranet to connect two X series mixers? It can send 16 channels to a laptop but can it send it to another mixer?

 

Behringer do the Behringer ULTRALINK MS8000 here which is £66 for 8 channels Amazon are listing a splitter box with wo snake tails for £250 but the Behringer looks a cheaper and tidier option to me.

Hi Phil,

In answer to your questions, insert leads won’t work with the Behringer XR18, or at least not to the best of my knowledge. Based on our usual setup, I’ll need to split 12 channels so I was going for 16 simply because it seems to be a popular format and would work with two of those MS8000’s for a passive split. Because the venue hosts up and coming touring bands I will check with them to see if they can provide a split from their stage box before investing but I think the MS8000 route is the way we’ll go.

[warwickhunt]

On 19/10/2025 at 21:48, JPJ said:

So, as we’re all using IEM’s and we have a gig coming up at a venue that has in-house PA and engineer, we were thinking of adding a 16-channel splitter so we could run our IEM’s from our XR18 leaving the house engineer free to do his thing with the FOH sound. But these things are bloody expensive in the UK with most we can find coming from the USA. Yes we have considered the MIDAS unit but that leaves control of the analogue gain with us, potentially getting in the way of the in-house guy. We’re now thinking of a couple of Behringer MS8000’s and a short loom to hook these to our XR18 for a full analogue split. My question, is anyone here doing the same or have a source for a reasonably priced splitter here in the UK?

 

Come and pop in for a coffee mate... we have a pair of MS8000 into our X32 and it is sitting in my music room!    

 

MS8000 > 0.5m XLR/XLR to the X32 and the other outs to a 16 tailed loom/snake.

Edited 2 hours ago by warwickhunt