How To Build a cheap In Ear Monitor system for your band

[@reflexicon1307]

Dude You got those killer voiceover pipes! I picture you narrating a wildlife television series

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Haha Thanks man, when my career in audio is over I’ll hit up the BBC 🤓

[@soc1a]

Excellent, easy to understand and no boring fluff - thank you!

[@GreenEngineRecording]

You’re welcome. I hope it helps you get a great IEM setup 😊

[@pbenson56fran]

Sir I may not understand everything you're saying, for I'm a beginner, but you are a good teacher. Most of what you're saying does not apply to me since I'm a solo act. But I did want to tell you teach very well. Thank you I do understand about an engineer messing up a show. Have a great day

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Thank you for your kind words! 🙏

[@hextray]

Now THAT's a very well made video. Congrats... And thanks !

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it Nd hope it helps :)

[@ScottyDoesntKnow28]

Tom your Awesome 🤘. This is the best video on budget IEM on youtube

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Thanks for your kind words Kevin, I’m glad you appreciated the video 😀

[@ceisen]

I’m glad someone else realized you can use an audio interface. I have the Focusrite scarlet 18i20 which also has software to make custom mixes. Works great!

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Yep, it’s a compact great solution instead of investing in a whole rack of equipment :)

[@OlegAryutkin]

The 18i20 doesn’t have EQ on the digital mixers so you can’t high pass the guitars and vocals Does it bother you?

[@Sucrac17]

That was something to understand and very clear... Thank you.... cheers 🥁

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Glad it was helpful 😎

[@m0j0b0ne]

Outstanding! And none of that breathless, talking-too-fast KZbin BS!

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Thanks, good luck building your rig, and hit me up if you have any questions :)

[@outlaw_adam]

Brilliant video. Answered so many questions that others did not. And your voice is great. You could read books at bedtime.

[@GreenEngineRecording]

😂 Thanks Adam that’s quite the compliment! Glad you found the video useful 😎

[@outlaw_adam]

@@GreenEngineRecording You’re very welcome. I may have more questions for you when I begin to build an in-ear rig for my band. So keep yourself free 🤣

[@GreenEngineRecording]

@@outlaw_adam no problem dude, hit me up if there’s anything you’re wondering about 😎

[@snailer6788]

That was simple, straight to the point, and very clear! Thanks for the tips, as I'd hate to get on the stage and annoy every tech in the place :D P.S. You've got a new sub!

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Glad you found it helpful! Let me know if you have any further questions :)

[@darrylday30]

Awesome! Concise, precise and sensible.

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Glad it was helpful!

[@trislineker]

Great video mate

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Thanks 🙏 glad you enjoyed it!

[@djole02]

For wireless IEM you could get one transmitter and just buy additional receivers if you don't need multiple custom mixes for the band members.

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Yes. Even better if you buy two stereo transmitters and 4 receivers, where you can mix between the left and right channel, you can get 4 individual mono mixes 😎

[@Bzoargh]

you could save us a lot of cables, money and space, thanks! will try that! :D

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Definitely. Good luck with your build :)

[@Bzoargh]

@@GreenEngineRecording thanks! :) we just discussed it and were wondering why the FOH gets not signal from the drumkit? The only signal way of the drumkit goes into our independant IEM/Interface. It wouldnt work in venues which usually mic kick and/or OH without splitting the mics of the drumkit with its own splitter so the FOH can get a signal, right? Or did we get something wrong here? :)

[@GreenEngineRecording]

FOH will be using their own mics for the drums and guitars etc. The mics you bring for the drum kit are solely for your IeM system and avoid the need for splitting the FOH lines.

[@Bzoargh]

@@GreenEngineRecording k, thanks! :) We will look for properly sized mics then.

[@GreenEngineRecording]

@@Bzoargh check the links in the description where I suggest some appropriately sized cheap mics which will do the job 😎

[@roypereira3361]

Best video 😊 helpful

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Glad it helped :D

[@Pinkybum]

I'm building my own in-ear rig and I am actually going with a splitter, the ms8000 which is really cheap. Basically I'm going to give the FOH everything but the drums and just have one mic on the drums (only for our mixer) if we think anyone needs some drums in the ears. I can think we would only need this if we play a really large venue (we should be so lucky!) This achieves the same as what you outline except the engineer needs to mic up the kit - but they are expecting to do that anyway.

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Yep that’s a good way to do it too, a little messier if there are other bands playing the same stage, as the engineer has to plug in your lines in addition. Just make sure you buy an xlr loom to make this as easy as possible for them.

[@Pinkybum]

@@GreenEngineRecording Yes, the engineer will get an 8 channel snake with the ends clearly labelled. They will only have 5 extra channels to deal with (vox,keys,gtr1,gtr2,bass) over and above the Tracks which they would get from us anyway.

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Good stuff that’ll work well and importantly not annoy anyone ;)

[@coleb2086]

Can you do this with a midi drum kit in the mix as well?

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Definitely. The midi module probably has a headphone out as well as the regular line outs, so just use a mini Jack to two 1/4” jacks and plug that into your monitoring system

[@klapaucius4564]

Fantastic vid. However, on the vocal mics, I'm reading up that it's not that simple. In other words, the Y splitter dims the signal since mic signal is weak and that means more amplification on both monitoring and FOH consoles. Comment?

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Glad you liked the video and thanks for the good question! While it’s true the more cable involved the greater the resistance, your total cable length will still be relatively short so it will be negligible. It’s not that long ago analog consoles at FOH used 30-50meter copper looms to connect them with the stage for example and that was never a problem :) However if you’re still worried about it, one of these will solve it for you www.thomann.de/gb/palmer_pls02_line_splitter.htm?partner_id=10074

[@samxday]

Your voice is so clean , I thought you were an Ai voiceover 😀

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Well if I was an Ai do you think I would admit to it? 🤖

[@owendavies4411]

Hi mate! A quick question, the mixer was that Logic or MainStage? Great video! thanks in advance

[@GreenEngineRecording]

I’m making the monitoring with the mixer software that came with the MOTU - cuemix, but the program I’m sending the click and backing tracks from is Logic. I’m sure u can do it in main stage though

[@JoelDavidGonzalez]

Great 👍…. Thanks…. Which Motu Interface you use?

[@GreenEngineRecording]

I’m using the MOTU 828mk2 but the same software works on most newer MOTU devices

[@danielmedina87]

Awesome tutorial! Great work here. One question, we have a 4-channel headphone amplifier (Mackie HM-4). Would that suffice? we´re a three piece band (we use loops with backing vocals and keys and second guitars). each of us gets different mix. With our setup we´re getting hella distortion on the in-ears for some reason (perhaps cos we´re using a mixer with only one output and we´re all getting the same mix, I know it´s not ideal but it´s what we could do with what we had) but your system seems to be able to work better, we also want to get the click-track completely independent and in one separate channel.

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for reaching out. I’m a little unclear about what you are asking. The HM-4 only amplifies one stereo mix to 4 headsets. If that’s giving you distortion I’d assume the signal coming out of the mixer you’re feeding it with is too hot. I’m suggesting using a soundcard to create your individual mixes, which would require 4 separate headphone amplifiers in order for you to keep the mixes separate.

[@danielmedina87]

@@GreenEngineRecording Thanks for the reply! That makes sense. Probably the signal is coming out too hot from our tablet then. What about using the Zoom LiveTrak L-8 1 and DIs to split the signals of the lead vocal and guitars? So that the Zoom Livetrak is only for monitoring purposes and the splitted signal gets sent to the PA engineer independently. The LIveTrak allows 3 to 4 independent monitor mixes and that way the headphone amp wouldn´t be necessary either. Thanks in advance!

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Sorry for the late reply! Yup the zoom will work fine for your situation 😄

[@danielmedina87]

Thank you for the info! Once last thing, would the Soundcraft Ui16 be good too? Seems like a better option and it´s also rack-ready. I believe it has 4 independent outputs so allows 4 different monitor mixes. Thanks!@@GreenEngineRecording

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Yup the soundcraft will work fine, remember you’ll still need headphone amps for the XLR outputs. The Behringer ones work great here as they are compact, cheap and have XLR inputs 😎

[@aamirsy]

@GreenEngineRecording this was really insightful. BUT I have to ask, is using XLR Y-splits really a good alternative to splitters? I like this idea because I don't like the idea of the sound engineer having to re-patch everything (even after sending them a stage plot). Does using XLR Y-split add that much more to the setup? I was thinking of creating a rig for 3x vocals, 2x guitars, 1xbass and leave the drums ambient as we never have trouble hearing those.

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Not quite sure what you mean by”add that much more to the setup?” You could just use y-splits on all 6 channels but will obviously need a soundcard which has 6x mic level inputs.

[@isaacramirez3729]

Both me (bass) and my guitarist have DI amp modelers on mour pedalboards (I use the SansAmp VT Bass DI and guitarist uses the NuX Amp Academy) would we be able to run the XLR splitter cable out of the balanced out or would it be better to get a dedicated DI for both of us

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Hi Isaac, There isn't any need for extra DI's. Both the Sansamp and Nux provide line level outputs that can be plugged straight into your IEM setup. On the Sansamp you can use the Jack output next to the XLR output. The XLR goes to the PA and the Jack goes to your IEM rigg. With the NuX you should be able to take the Jack out thats next to the jack input to your rigg, and again the XLR goes to the PA

[@OrcasBlade]

Can you use a usb mixer as your interface?

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Yes depending on the mixer and how many channels it lets send I/O via usb that can work

[@Vanillagorilla1983]

I have a yamaha MG20XU mixer, with a wireless transmitter and reciever pack for 4 bandmates. ID LIKE TO CREATE MY OWN INDEPENDENT IEM RIG, whatever do I require given what I currently have

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Hi Derek, thanks for reaching out. I assume you’re connecting your IEM’s to the aux outputs on your mixer, and creating 4 mixes using the sends, so then you just need a way to get the signal into your MG20XU as well as to the Front of house engineer’s desk. Ways to split or take extra outputs from onstage equipment can be found at 03:43 in the video. Hope that helps Tom

[@julianolivaresvergara4878]

It's... Tecnically right... But at least here in Chile isn't cheaper tan traditional ways and this way it's a cable chaos. Anyway it's a good alternative.

[@GreenEngineRecording]

I’d be interested to hear about the traditional ways you refer to that are cheap and less messy :)

[@julianolivaresvergara4878]

@@GreenEngineRecording Here in Chile, the way you propose have almost the same cost as if you buy a splitter (Like the Behringer or Alctron ones). Cables and DI's are so expensive here. About the cable management, I think having multiple cables into/outin from a dedicated rack it's much neater than having multiple connections and cables going around all over the stage (I have ocd, I know what im talking about hahaha).

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Sure splitters can be cheaper than buying mics If they’re expensive where you live. The problem is that you have to get the house engineer to agree to plug their mics into your split, before running new xlr’s back out of it and into their stagebox. If you haven’t provided an XLR loom from your stagebox (which are expensive) then they have to use double the amount of XLR cables. This will meet resistance. Especially in a festival situation where there are lots of bands and short changeover times.

[@andreslozanoc1201]

GREAT

[@velvateen_la]

How can we adjust levels? Connect to an iPad or what?

[@GreenEngineRecording]

MOTU have a piece of software called Cuemix. The soundcard you use will probably have an equivalent piece of software. You then control the mixes via a laptop. As everything is the same each time you will be able to just set and forget after a few rehearsals and won’t need to bring the computer with you

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Lots of sound cards have a rudimentary mixer built into them where you can send the inputs to the outputs at different levels. This runs on the internal processor chips on the soundcard. So you need the laptop to set it up and adjust the levels but as long as you aren’t sending tracks from a DAW you don’t actually need the laptop to use it as a monitoring rig

[@kylemarlow5930]

I assume you can just USB power the Interface from a outlet once dialled in negating the laptop?

[@GreenEngineRecording]

@kylemarlow5930 Totally. The interface will remember your settings until you next change something with the laptop

[@kylemarlow5930]

@GreenEngineRecording thanks for confirming. As previously mentioned this video has been very handy. If I have any further questions can I get in touch via Email on your website?

[@jondnz]

But what about the fact you're "relying" on a laptop. How do you get around the argument that "the laptop will crash"

[@GreenEngineRecording]

Good question. I’ve been relying on laptops live since 2006 and never had one crash during a gig. As long as you have a stable system you won’t have to worry. :)

[@houseofcross3445]

First