The most compact IEM Rig for your band in 2024! (Only 5U!) || IEM RACK Walkthrough

Buy me a coffee and support the channel: buymeacoffee.com/pipppriss
Appreciate it, thanks!
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Support the channel and use my affiliate links on zzounds.com:
www.zzounds.com/a--3989960
XVive U4: www.zzounds.com/a--3989960/it...
Shure SE215: www.zzounds.com/a--3989960/it...
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Hi folks!
In this video, I am walking you through what I consider one of the most, if not potentially the most, compact in-ear-monitoring rig I could find on all of KZbin (without doing substantial compromises!).
This setup has been tried and tested true on the road through roundabout 15-20 gigs by now, and while constantly being updated, served us really well in it's current form!
I hope this inspires you to start your IEM journey - we as a band certainly profited from this change, and I don't miss anything from the old days.
Gear shown:
Mixer: Behringer X Air XR18
Splitter: MIDAS DN4816-O
IEMs: LD Systems MEI 1000 G2
IEM: X-Vive U4
Router: GL.inet Slate PLUS GL-1300
Case: Flyght Pro Compact 23 (5U)
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
TIME-STAMPS:
00:00 Introduction
00:40 What it is & why you need it
05:10 Mixer - Behringer X Air XR18
05:50 Mixer - Outputs & IEM-systems
09:10 Splitter - MIDAS DN4816-O (Ultranet)
11:20 ULTRANET-Setup
14:00 Rear-Side of the Rack
18:10 Conclusion
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Find all of my IRs and NAM profiles here:
tonehunt.org/PippPriss
Go check out The Amp Sim Universe:
‪@theampsimuniverse‬
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Gear which I regularly use:
Guitars: (Green guitar) Fenix SM30, DiMarzio X2N in the bridge; (White guitar) Fenix STL with Seymour Duncan SH-5
Microphone: t.bone SC450 (XLR)
Audio Interface: Audient iD44 (Instrument Gain set to 0, +10dBu)
Camera: Logitech StreamCam, Teasy Webcam
Software: Open Broadcast Software (OBS), REAPER
=======================================================
If you liked the music/riffs in this video, you perhaps like my band TEMPEST, Thrash Metal from Germany - check it out:
tempestmetal
======================================================
My affiliate link for Celestion Digital Impulses:
www.celestionplus.com/ref/233/

[@marcoled]

Great video. Small question, how would you run the hybrid setup that you mention? If the drums are already mic'd in a festival situation for example with many bands, do you need to run those into a splitter and take one into the XR18 while the other goes to FoH?

[@davebrownentertainment7191]

The MIDAS DN4816-O is affected by the gain controls on the XR18. You turn a channel gain up or down, and it's gonna affect the DN4816-O outputs going to the FOH mixer. As a sound guy, I don't want a feed from your MIDAS DN4816-O. I want full control of the gain going to my mixer. Get a regular splitter snake, give the sound guy a clean signal, with full uncolored isolated gain control. There are many affordable options out there, that cost significantly less than the MIDAS DN4816-O (and do the job properly). :)

[@PippPriss]

While you are correct, that the MIDAS DN4816-O can only give out the signal after the input gain taper, I personally have a few remarks on that: - Adding a regular splitter will add at least another HU to the rack for the XLR cables to run from the splitter, if you want to utilize all 16 channels, perhaps even 2HU, because in case you don't go with a very expensive splitter, you will also need a regular patchbay - With proper gain staging (and then LEAVING it that way, doing the rest of gain staging and mixing by other means), there is no issue for the FoH using the MIDAS outputs in my view - We had no issues so far with the sound guys we worked with, in fact, everybody was really happy using our setup/signals - While everybody is different, I personally do not understand the remark to partout not wanting to take our signals. If I'd meet a soundguy rightout refusing to take our signals, okay, then we can roll the traditional way with mic'ing up everything - however, this type of attitude of "my way or the highway" showcases an issue which we very often face: soundguys often think that the band is at their mercy, when the reality is, that there should be collaboration to get the best results. Also, even though I am taking your comment as an example, I want to stress that I am not implying you are that way, just using your comment to make a case point here 🙂 My personal reality and experience is, that we much rather face people not knowing how to properly do the job of the FoH, and we are partially taking that job over as well, and thus we needed something which we, in case needed, can output not only the incoming signal, but actually being able of putting out the processed signal as well. But, in any case, we are always prepared to just run the traditional mic'd up setup, if that's what the engineer prefers - after all, our setup is mainly to curate our IEM-mixes towards us, and having the MIDAS is just the icing on the cake. But the few occasions, where we could set up a silent stage and have the engineer take our signals directly, the feedback was very positive, stating things like "I never worked with an easier setup" etc. - seems like we must be doing something right.

[@imcrazedandconfused]

First: Very cool video. Thank you for coming up with this topic! I thought about this for quite a while with my last band, but hesitated too long with a full concept, so it never came to this ... (sigh). I have a MOTU 24ai, that I wanted to use just as you used the XR18+the DN4816. It has 24 great line outputs on the backside, that just have to be connected to XLRs, plus the option to connect e.g. 2 ADA8000/8200 via ADAT. Just one height unit in the rack for itself. So, with the ADAT option, incredible 16 ins plus 40 outs, all controllable over the network/ethernet AVB or AVB over USB, with USB audio interface option, so you could either just set up and forget the mixer, running it standalone, or even record the 16 ins (or even additional sums or submixes) with some basic EQ and comp settings, which actually sound really good. I just was not aware of which options to use for the IEM units without breaking the bank. and how the antenna thing could be handled safely. So this video was great for giving me some options and ideas, how this could be done. Also, the router setup in your rack is really nifty. I like that! I have a few questions: How happy are you with the IEM modules in your rack, do they actually fully satisfy everyone? Which Inear headphones do you use? Do you use instrument cables to your floorboards, or wireless options, and if wireless, what do you use? Does the drummer get the monitoring from the FoH, analog outs with headphone amp or does he get it from the headphone out? (So he potentially could get the exact same mix every time with his click fed into one analog in, so you could even run a "silent rehearsal room" with just drums aloud, for the option to record the whole band like in a studio, with silent guitars/bass/keys?) Btw, I see no problem in not using a splitter in the front, but just using the digital mixer + the midas as the splitter. Actually, I think splitters have their own problems, that I personally would want to avoid. I think, the FoH engineer could happily live with everything you give him, what comes out of your analog outs should be more than clean enough if the mixer is set up right. Everything else can be communicated between the band's operator and the FoH engineer, IMHO. Great video, very appreciated!

[@PippPriss]

Thanks a ton for the positive feedback! Let me try to cover your questions, in case I miss anything, just hit me up again: 1) We are very happy with the LD Systems MEI 1000 G2 - for our setup and venues we play (like "medium sized venues for metal bands, fitting a maximum of 600-1000 people), we had no dropouts really. The XVive U4 does have a way smaller range due to the frequency spectrum, but I am quite stationary as the lead singer and guitar player, and the rack is always on stage at the front of the drum riser, or directly underneath it, so it's at max 5 meters away from me - personally never had a drop out on stage, way more often have dropouts in rehearsal, since we rehearse in an leftover bombing shelter bunker (in Germany, that's quite common). So I personally, am truly happy with the XVive U4. 2) We all use SHURE SE-Series headphones, Drummer and guitar player use the SE215, Bass player uses the SE425, and since I am deaf on one-side, I have on my hearing ear a single SE535, on my deaf ear the stock SE215. I have to stress how much I love the SE535! There are maybe the best investment I have done in my entire musicians career. SE215 are a muffled, blanket-topped mess in comparison. Not bad by any means, but bad in comparison with the SE535 certainly! 3) The guitars are connected wireless to the floorboards, we use for that purpose the Line 6 G10 and Line 6 G10S (got a video on my channel on the pedalboard, in case you are interested! 🙂 ) both guitarist' floorboards have DI-Boxes, which take the cabinet-emulated signal via an 4-cable-XLR snake from our boards to IEM-mixer. Also, my main vocals are carried over this XLR snake to the mixer as well. If the venue has it's own cable, I just place a small 1-channel-splitter between the venues XLR cable and my microphone, so splitter input goes to mic, splitter out1 to venue PA, splitter out 2 goes to the snake, which in turn goes to the IEM mixer. 4) The drummer, interesting point which I forgot to mention: We stay completely independent from FoH for our mixes. What we do, is we always have a spare drum-mic kit, which we just slap "on top" during changeover. So we provide Snare and the 3 Toms with our own microphones, which feed into the IEM-system. On smaller gigs, we can use the MIDAS DN4816-O to provide the FoH with our mic'd up drums, that way we save some time during changeover. On bigger festivals etc., we just smack them on right beside the FoH's drums and are happy. 🙂our drummer can live without overheads on his monitors, so that's cool. For Kickdrum, he has a Roland TM-2 Trigger Module and Triggers on his pedals from "On Trigger", which work very well. His mix comes out of the regular AUX2 output, since no stereo is needed, and feeds into his Behringer P2 headphone amp. This entire setup allows us to go FULL SILENT on stage, except for Drums of course. I was super sceptical at first, because I come from a situation where we used to have a fullstack on every side of the stage, no matter what size the venue, and I loved that as well, as it oozed rock an roll - however, the sound, our performance and the way I personally can differentiate between the soundsources have massively improved in using a complete silent stage setup. I will never look back on the olden days with loud amplifiers, except with a nostalgia for my youthful years. 🙂

[@imcrazedandconfused]

@@PippPriss Ha, I come from the old times in the 80s with mushy Marshall fullstacks and everything, so I exactly get what you mean. Rock'n'roll and emotion, but what a lack of definition and transparency... Quite an investment on the personal IEM equipment that you use, these headphones for your bass player and you are pretty expensive! But I get it, like in the studio, the final stage from electric to acoustic is the most critical one for good results... and if you only have one ear, definition and clarity is everything... Thanks a lot for your detailed answers! Very appreciated!

[@TudorAdrian]

Nice vid man. Am doing research right now to get some sort of in-ear monitoring for the band I play with.

[@PippPriss]

Glad you like the video! If you need any further help regarding feature set or so, you know where to find me! Hit me up direct and we can have a chit-chat on the topic! :-)