IEM setup for a hired gun

[halcyo]

My main band has a nice IEM rack with our X32 mixer, expensive Shure instrument wireless receivers, and 5 Shure PSM 300 wireless IEM transmitters (about $800 a piece), and they sound very good. So I know what the “high end” experience is like, and it’s pretty great. Good range and good full range sound. Plenty of solid lows with the right earbuds. Only downside is storing receiver packs and keeping lots of AA batteries around (I hate having to “babysit” rechargeables, the routines of hooking them up, keeping them healthy, etc). I buy AA’s in bulk on Amazon which is quite reasonable (roughly 50 cents per battery and a set of 2 name brands will last 2 gigs).

We bought a bunch of those Xvive systems for compact/fly rig situations. They sound TERRIBLE. Everything is always a little phasey and chorusy. Low end sucks for bass. A very digitally compressed signal. I honestly kinda hate em. Only positives are that it’s so compact that I can keep an entire IEM system in my bass case, they’re battery charged (with good enough time to last a 3-4 hr gig), and the transmitter dongle is super easy to plop anywhere on the stage you wanna run an xlr cable to- and you can even plug it straight into an xlr out on the main mixer or stage box.

I use them for side gigs IF there’s not a better system. I don’t think they sound good. Noticeably crappier than the pro level stuff.

My ultimate dream is that the big boy brands would make a PEDALBOARD style IEM, with a similar level of quality to my Shure GLXD16+ wireless for bass, which is pedal size, sounds great, and has good range.

 

[ToS]

Xvive U4 is also mono, whenever you can get away with stereo, go stereo. (less hearing fatigue, you can add a drop of reverb, better audio details)

Shure 215 are overpriced manure, start with KZ at least. Many a player has tried and dropped an IEM solution because of those Shures. KZs also are so inexpensive that you can try two models. I use as06 and as16pro, also have zs10(sold) and zs10pro but my ear canals dont like those (going to try custom molds with those, if not too expensive).

Rolls is poorly soldered (open one up if you do not believe me), with a few doubious electrical design descisions (transformer DI, high-ish output impedance, weird "phantom" power on line in, only 15V, recessed switches) but it will get the job done. You need its own wall-wart or run it off 12V line on pedalboard (which will lower the headroom).

For wired, off-mixer, dirty solution I would recommend Behringer P2. Someone there accidentally made that unit good. It has an uncommonly low output impedance (1ohm?) and a built in limiter. Heh, I would get one just to have a good refference or a final stage on your belt where you can: anchor wour short IEM lead, control volume and be sure that hph amp has good damping factor (because of low impedance).

I am currently down to monitoring only my own pedalboard with Nux Pulse (IR+Reverb); my own instrument+hph cable (using Rode hph cable with short coil on one end); Behringer P2 into KZ AS06.
Used to have that Zoom stomp bass pedal in place of NUX (limiter, Amp/Cabsim, reverb) but Nux is a bit smaller, has an audio interface and a stereo 1/4" output to send into mixer when I have to.

 

[IanStephenson]

I love. my wireless IEM's (Shure/Senheisser are great but expensive, LD are solid middling. Heard very mixed reviews on the XVIVE). but for your circumstances you're second guessing what situation you MIGHT find yourself in and building something to fit in.


In which case the only thing we know is that the band you're playing with for the night has a an IEM system figured out, and you want to work with it. But you have no idea what they're using. The only thing you can guarantee is that they have the tech to send a feed to each member of the band. A receiver is no use to you as you. have no idea what brand they use. Dropping in your own wireless system is probably fine.... but might mess with their frequencies - a new wireless device appears and can mess up any or all of the others...

Which leads my to think that something like the Behringer P2 is an easy choice (Donner also make one - wrong that they behringered Behringer by copying it, making it cheaper and adding features!). Cheap to drop in your bag, and your prep'ed. Will plug into wha they have, and won't mess with it. Sure you're on the end of a wire, but as has been pointed out - your standing at the back doing a job, not fronting the show. It's a cheap solution for whatever situation you might find yourself in.

Only other thing you need are some earbuds. Which really depends on how fussy you are and how much you want to spend. $15 gets you some KZ's which really are good enough. $100 gets you some better (Shure or similar) buds. $250+ gets you into custom moulds. $600+ gets you into the good stuff. Personally I don't care about perfect sound as only I hear it - I do want isolation and comfort, so I have some $250 custom moulds. But that's really down to your ears, your budget and how often you're going to use them. If you're building a 'must in case" system them go cheap. If you're using them every weekend, customs are the way to go.

 

[doran.dragic]

You can have a positive IEM experience without paying a lot of money but there's also lot of ways this can go wrong in my experience.

If you're serious about this, have a pair of IEMs custom fitted to your ears. This is not cheap but a good fit means a good sealing from the noise on the stage and it is also needed to properly transmit bass frequencies.

Chances are you have normal ears and some of the off the shelf IEMs are going to work well if you find a proper tip but if your ears are either small or big or weirdly shaped the fit is not going to be good.

Also don't buy an off the shelf IEM like Shure 215 and have it fitted to your ears. This seems like a cheaper and a universal solution but I've heard many people say that it made them IEMs sound worse.

I don't use wireless. I use Fisher Audio In Ear Stick at the moment and I don't like it. There were some issue with volume pot not turning and I had to send it back twice.

Another thing I dislike is that the volume pot acts as an on/off switch so you have to set your volume at the beginning of every set if you turn your device off during the breaks.

 

[richntiff]

I keep my in-ear transmitter in a 2-space rack bag along with some other stuff like an ipad mini loaded with all the monitor apps and an always-hooked up battery charger so i never get caught short on a battery for my pack

the star of the show is a shure P4M mixer, a little 1/2 rack sized 4 channel mixer-splitter that does everything you describe from the rolls box and more. it takes 1/4" TS or TRS and XLR, feeds them through unaltered to FOH and sends them to my in-ear mix, stereo or mono

View attachment 7074704
it's the perfect in-ear problem solver, so of course shure discontinued it years ago

I have this unit side by side next to my Shure PSM300 in a two rack space SKB. Power conditioner takes the second space. Aux send into mic input 1 on the P4M, P4M output into the input on my PSM300. I searched and searched for one of them because I wanted kind of a belt and suspenders approach to my in ear mix. I always figured I could run my bass signal and vocal mic into inputs 2 and 3, then out to FOH from the back of the P4M. That would give me the ability to turn a knob and get 'more me' for my bass or my vox. Couple that with the digital in ear mix capability that I can get from modern mixers, and you have multiple options. One thing I've run into is gain staging issues from bad sound engineers - leading to distortion in your IEM mix. With the P4M, I could bypass that if absolutely necessary.

So, I went through all the trouble to do this and have never actually used the bass/mic input to the P4M idea, but I still think it's really cool to have the option. The P4M is a really cool piece of gear.

 

[DWBass]

I have the Behringer P2 as well for a wired solution. Works great. Just take a monitor XLR feed and plug it in. You can still use your wireless by connecting it to the headphone output.

 

[wolffire99]

I’ve been using the Phenyx Pro PTM-11 from Amazon $125 on sale without any issue. The stereo one is about $90 more.

Because the audio is mono it’s not as immersive but I like to use one ear a lot of the time anyway. Hard to beat for the price.

If you really wanted to get crazy you could run the house monitor send and your bass into the Rolls mixer linked and above and that into the Phenyx Pro transmitter for a wireless monitor that you have control over and about $250 total.

 

[LowendG]

I have the Behringer P2 as well for a wired solution. Works great. Just take a monitor XLR feed and plug it in. You can still use your wireless by connecting it to the headphone output.

That looks like a no-brainer for $35. And I do have some old M-Audio buds that are discontinued now (got them about 15 years ago and ended up using them just for my own personal music listening--they sound fine). Would hold me over in a pinch until I decide to go for something newer/better.

 

[fokof]

I STRONGLY suggest to go wired , with a Rolls or one of the thousand of other solution alike , chances of failing diminishes dramatically.
And everything wired will ALWAYS , 100% of times sound better than wireless , also true for instruments.
If you are a hired gun , chances are you won't have to do backflip and run across the stage , you'll probably stay in front of your iPad

Like everything else in life : you generally get what you par for

The more quality you put in your buds , the more you'll enjoy your experience.
Yes 50$ buds and 35$ HPamp will do the job like a 100$ bass will do the job too

The most important thing IME is a setup that you can control your own volume.
Ask the soundman not to put bass in your feed/mix so you can have "more me" as much as you like

Just split the output of your preamp , one to FOH , one to your Personal mixer and plug the XLR feed from monitor desk to another input , then control levels of whole band and "more me"

 

[hrodbert696]

The Rolls is good to have handy as it's affordable and compact and allows you to balance yourself vs. whatever else they put in the feed. If you don't have control of your IEM mix and there isn't a sound engineer who's going to allow time to sound check and tweak your mix till it's right (e.g. if we're talking local-bar-band situations), that's good to have. You can run wired or wireless out of it.

The XVive U4 system is likewise cheap and compact, the kind of thing you can just drop in a pocket of a gig back and not worry about it, and it works find 99% of the time IME. The more professional systems (Shure, Sennheiser, etc.) I'd say are worth it but, on the contrary, will cost you more and take up a little more space. I have a Sennheiser system in a rack for my own band's gigs and an XVive set that I use for church and other on-the-fly situations.

Receivers and transmitters have to match, so if you're relying on their transmitter, that means you're expecting them to hand you a receiver as well.

 

[pepj]

As a startup, I'd use the Behringer Powerplay P2 relay and a pair of kz10 pro buds.
That'll get you in the game and used to 'ears'

 

[SLO Surfer]

What would be the recommendations on the more affordable side of the $ spectrum, for the minimum setup to have in your kit? Would you need your own transmitter, or just the re

Highly recommend you go wired. Buy the $70 Ernie Ball dual IEM/instrument cable, the Behringer P1 or P2 headphone amp pack (might as well spend $50 for slightly larger stereo pack, since you won’t be wearing ANY pack with this setup), and some decent <$100 KZ earbuds. The KZ options sounded way better than the $200-300 Senheiser and Shure 2-driver IEM’s I compared them to! If you don’t already have a good preamp DI you should get one of those too, although most bass amp heads these days could cover this need. Put the headphone pack next to your preamp/DI, on top of your bass amp, or wherever you plug your bass cable in, and you’re good to go with a solid pro-level quality and easy to migrate/integrate IEM setup for about $200.

 

[LowendG]

If you are a hired gun , chances are you won't have to do backflip and run across the stage , you'll probably stay in front of your iPad

That's pretty on-point. I'm a "Bill Wyman" stage presence kinda guy. This would be a good retort next time someone says I should "move around more"

 

[FronTowardEnemy]

Yes. At about $200 the X-Vive U4 system is pretty decent.
View attachment 7074453

This is the answer right here.

 

[AgostoMortal]

I do and have done a lot of IEM for years and (specially as a "hired gun") I was never asked to bring any device other than the IEM itself (and your preamp of choice but that is for and from you not them) They will either have a wired Personal monitor mix (like Eviom, midas, mymix, etc) a wireless pack with or without phone Mix (controlled via app). A cheap pair of KZ IEM from amazon will do the trick and you will hear the bass better than problably most sub $800 pro IEM. The most important thing is the FIT. Make sure you have good isolation. Get extra tips and try dif types and sizes and make sure you have spares ones once you find your fit. A floor pre amp of sort with DI is a must. Many options. That's it. They may ask you to bring an ipad and or a stand with light.

 

[sawzalot]

If you're filling in and the band says they want you to have IEM's, you'll probably be using their transmitter/receiver and you'll need to supply your own earbuds. I own a Shure PSM-300 system that I use in my own band, and for myself in case I need a tx/rx on a fill-in gig. It's more pricey, but it sounds amazing, has effectively zero latency, and lives in the UHF spectrum, all of which are important to me. I use Shure SE-215 earbuds, pretty far on the low end of their earbud line, but I like them and they're cheap to replace if I step on them at a gig (which has happened). Now that I've used those for a few years, I'm looking at a more expensive set.

I'm assuming you have your own preamp, pedalboard, etc to supply the FOH with sound? Likely if you're using IEM's you won't be using an amp.

 

[walterw]

I have this unit side by side next to my Shure PSM300 in a two rack space SKB. Power conditioner takes the second space. Aux send into mic input 1 on the P4M, P4M output into the input on my PSM300.

i'd say the power conditioner is a big hunk of extra weight and wasted space in a little 2-space rack, a short extension cable with multi-outlets on one end zip-tied to an interior wall is all you need

also, the trick way to wire this up is to set your psm300 for stereo (both pack and transmitter), use the L and R outs from the P4M to feed it, then have say channels 1 and 2 panned hard left and hard right to take a stereo in-ear mix. now you're ready to go when you have the luxury of stereo in-ears (i always insist on it myself)

when you can't get a stereo mix, just use say ch 3 panned center to take the mono mix and you'll get it in both ears equally without changing any settings on the transmitter or beltpack

it'll also leave you ready when you do have to rig up your own "more me" mix by feeding your instrument and your vocal through the P4M, if you then use the other two channels for something from the mixer and maybe even an ambient mic to hear the stage volume, you can then pan any of these however you want in your mix

 

[ToS]

PS: If you go with P2, make sure the gain stagin is such that your comfortable level is around noon on P2. The pot on it is "quirky" below 10'oclock.

Also, P2 can take mono or stereo signal, balanced or unbalanced, it can make mono from stereo, can take 2 channels and sum them to mono, works with TS, TRS and XLR.
Best trick I've found is, send stereo over XLR. You get a locking jack, one robust cable all the way from mixer, (and maybe some crosstalk because the wires are twisted ).
P1 has one good feature there, it has balance between channels 1 & 2. But it runs on 9V battery and takes only XLR.

P1: 10ohm (headphones ≥80ohm)
P2: 0.5ohm (hps as low as 4ohm)
Fischer: 1.5ohm (hph ≥12ohm)

Many multi-driver IEMs have really low impedance (down to 12-14ohm) and many beltpacks do not declare their output impedance.
As a low-frequency afficionado, you should be thinking about this. I have tried to use EBS Micro bass2 hph output (100ohm) with great pain, as everything got muddy and the more I tried to EQ the signal, the worse it got. To the point of me having ringing in my ears but still did not get the details of my own playing (nothing else in the mix).
P1 has 10ohm output(from memory), which is good for 72ohm Sennheiser HD25 but not best for 16ohm inears.
I am guessing Fischer in ear stick is also made right or even better than P2, but not sure.
Make sure your headphone amp is good fit for your headphones.

Oh as mentioned above, seal is quite important, it will save you from turning up volume, which will save your hearing. With earbuds it is much easier to damage your ears than with supra aurals.

One more thing, PlanetWaves combo cable is nothing more than two cables, tube webbing and some thermal shrink tube. I would preffer making my own cable, as I have seen over the years all kinds of poor soldering and fitting in mass production cables. (mine is kludgy but maybe I should post a photo when I get to it)

 

[LowendG]

If you're filling in and the band says they want you to have IEM's, you'll probably be using their transmitter/receiver and you'll need to supply your own earbuds. I own a Shure PSM-300 system that I use in my own band, and for myself in case I need a tx/rx on a fill-in gig. It's more pricey, but it sounds amazing, has effectively zero latency, and lives in the UHF spectrum, all of which are important to me. I use Shure SE-215 earbuds, pretty far on the low end of their earbud line, but I like them and they're cheap to replace if I step on them at a gig (which has happened). Now that I've used those for a few years, I'm looking at a more expensive set.

I'm assuming you have your own preamp, pedalboard, etc to supply the FOH with sound? Likely if you're using IEM's you won't be using an amp.

Yes, my sound to FOH is from my pre/DI always--amp is only as an onstage monitor. And I never rely on or use a backline amp's DI out (unless that's how the soundperson wants it).

 

[s0c9]

Of the 6 bands I've worked with this year, 5 are 100% IEM and have their own IEM systems (X32, DL16, Ui24), separate/independent from FOH.
The sixth - 1st gig on Sat - is 100% wedges. This will be their first gig with a house PA, but I'll bring the SAME wireless rig I use(d) with the other bands. Wireless in and wireless IEM's out. TWO XLR cables is all that is required. No amp. Pedalboard to House, IEM feed from bands mixer.

For that gig, I'll bring my splitter snake, one side going to House stage box, the other going to bands TM mixer so they can record stems, and I can run my IEM mix from it. My IEM rig (Mipro 909) is setup for mono/stereo, so I may try a stereo feed for this gig.

I won't do gigs that I can't go IEM any more. IOW - no wedges.