Wired IEM setup for rehearsals

jim_cross

My band has decided to start using IEMs for rehearsals - partly to save our hearing and partly so that we can actually hear what we need. 
We're a 6-piece band - drums, bass, 2 guitars, 3 vocals. My aim is for everyone to have their own stereo IEM mix, and for setup/teardown to be quick and easy. Here's what I'm thinking.

A&H QU-SB mixer
6x wired IEM monitoring amp - Behringer P2/LD Systems HPA1/something else?
Mic guitar amps with Sennheiser e609 or e906s (saves faffing with more mic stands)
Mic drums with a single Sennheiser e901 boundary mic (again, quick setup)

I'd appreciate views/suggestions/alternatives

Cheers!

Danny1969

You can get 5 stereo's from the QU-SB, 5&6 7&8 9&10 are easy as stereo in design but 1 to 4 are really designed for mono wedges .. you can kind of make 1&2 an 3&4 stereo but it's a bit of a faff 

Rather than have trailing IEM feeds to P2 belt packs it's easier and neater for guitar and bass player to send the stereo IEM feed up a 5 core cable along with the guitar signal and have a breakout box for the IEM 3.5 stereo connector. 
Like this 



This is my design but Designacable now make a version you can order ... such an obvious idea I'm surprised you can't just buy it in the shops. 

jim_cross

Thanks @Danny1969 - I can live with 5 stereo and 1 mono (drummer can live with mono ;-))

Regarding the 5 core cable approach I assume we still need something like a P2 each, but you're saying you keep that on the floor, and plug the P2 output into the breakout box? 

Danny1969

jim_cross said:

Thanks @Danny1969 - I can live with 5 stereo and 1 mono (drummer can live with mono ;-))

Regarding the 5 core cable approach I assume we still need something like a P2 each, but you're saying you keep that on the floor, and plug the P2 output into the breakout box? 

I think if you have 5 stereo then you are out of aux sends  ... you can use multiple ME-1's on ethernet to get many more stereos IEM mixes  but it's a pricey unit ... I have one though and highly recommend it. 

My of the guys I work with and I use a headphone amp on the pedal board ... the Behringer MA400 is popular as it has a mic through so you can mix your own vocal on the pot  without getting your phone out .... so aux sends on desk feed headphone amp on pedal board and then 5 core cable carries guitar signal one way and IEM signal the other way.  My own design of headphone amp has built in ambient mics as well but that's not essential. 

jim_cross

Thanks again @Danny1969 - seems like it might be more cost effective to go for an X32 Rack instead, as the combination of XLR outs and Aux outs should give me enough

uberscott

This is exactly the setup I have with my lot, an RCF M18 mixer handling both the FOH mix, and also aux sends for five IEM signals. Most of the band use Behringer P2s but I run a stereo signal back to pedalboard and use the Designacable IEM lead to go from there into my earpieces. Everyone has control over their IEM mix via the RCF app on their phone. Can't recommend it enough! 

https://www.designacable.com/combo-cable-for-iem-systems-in-ear-monitoring-instrument-and-stereo-headphone.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwhY-aBhCUARIsALNIC05EUEZcTlic1aZkUZdKBhkkjY25OeHZOhPoFMG2ulbekji12o_RiykaAs0GEALw_wcB

PolarityMan

We've got a soundcraft ui24i on its way to us now to upgrade our behringer XR16. I think its jsut a touch too small for you though .(4 stereo IEMs plus stereo mains)

We recently moved to silent stage all on helices of various flavours as even with IEMs running our amps ticking over was kinda loud and was ending up in the drum mics.

I reckon you'll want at least kick and snare on the kit though, theres an awesome behringer clone of a shure 91B that sounds great on the kick and we jsut use whatever dynamic mic is on hand for the snare.

We do run overheads sometimes but especially if you have amps involved any kind of condensor is going to pick up a ton of the other instruments so the drummer actually found they made things worse for his moniroting.

Danny1969

The Ui24 can do 6 stereo IEM mixes as the 2 headphone ports can be routed in software to the spare aux buses … I have one and mine is setup like that 

it’s actually the best bang for the buck mixer out there although it’s not the quality of the Allen & Heath build wise 

jim_cross

Interesting - what made you go for the Ui24 over the X32 Rack?

Danny1969

jim_cross said:

Interesting - what made you go for the Ui24 over the X32 Rack?

Well I needed it purely for onstage IEM mixing so I needed something that could give at least 5 stereo IEM mixes with wifi control and had at least 20 inputs. Then it had to fit in a  small rack with the mic splitters. When we play a venue we mic ourselves up into the splitters, the transformer splits go to the Ui24 and FOH gets the directs. This means soundchecks are quicker as the venue doesn't have to do any monitor mixes and we can also adjust our mixes via WI FI. Size is very important as the band travel with the gear in a smallish crew van with limited space for gear. 

So in a rack with 2 X 1U and 2 home made splits at the back is quite compact and it looks like this



The Ui is interesting as it doesn't use an ap for control. Any device that can run a browser can control it so even gen 1 iPads are fine with it. It has HDMI to output to large screens too if needed. 
It can in multitrack direct to a USB pen key and via ASIO multitrack to a laptop at the same time. 

Mine went faulty, the chip that creates the rails for the channel opamps and the phantom power went faulty, not an easy chip to change or get but I did do it once I got a good chip.
Other people I know have had no issues though so maybe I was unlucky. 

PolarityMan

Looks like similar to what we're going with. We're going to basically have 8 channels of splitting then use a patch aby to route everything to the front. Might add another splitter later if we decide we really really need tom mics.  the prob put some wirless unites in the back as we have a full depth case. 

PolarityMan

I like the space for cable routing in the rack ears..are those the ones it comes with? 

Danny1969

PolarityMan said:

I like the space for cable routing in the rack ears..are those the ones it comes with? 

Yeah, I made the thin cables though out of the thin inner core of a 16 channel multicore, just brought 1 metre of 16 pair VD multicore  and cut it open. 

PolarityMan

Danny1969 said:

PolarityMan said:

I like the space for cable routing in the rack ears..are those the ones it comes with? 

Yeah, I made the thin cables though out of the thin inner core of a 16 channel multicore, just brought 1 metre of 16 pair VD multicore  and cut it open. 

Sorry for the hijack but thomann have only just shipped the order despite placing it a week ago

Do you run tracks on yours? If so do you run the PA as an interface plugged into the laptop running the tracks or do you usea separate audio interface and just plumb it in to the inputs?