The ULTIMATE Touring IEM Rig (IEM Rig v3)

[@ch3nz3n]

16:46 - Cool build. I hope you figured out a grommet solution for the wire bundles coming out of the bare metal holes on either side of the MOTU.

[@SoCalVipers]

It's good that you decided to hard-wire the power for the powerplay. The little push button power switch will often turn itself on when it's in a bag. It's also a pain in the butt to get batteries in and out of it.

[@joewilkie]

This and the BPTA build videos I've seen are inspiring me to clean up the rat's nest I call an IEM rack! You do beautiful work, and a very well-thought out system.

[@MrDenyarnold]

At 10:46 you're talking about passing cable through a hold you drilled. You can deburr that all day long, but you have cable sleeve on metal, and that can go bad. Check out DB Roberts for Rubber Gromets; you may need to drill a bigger hole, but those cables will last forever! Otherwise, fantastic video! Gear Dudes are a different breed!

[@patdiaz5595]

This may be the greatest rig video I’ve ever seen.

[@whitsettband]

🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 that was the goal!

[@codyfranks3263]

Why not just use the headphone jack on the presonus for the drummer?

[@joshuamathermusic]

Lol I can promise you that you'll start seeing people make those P1 looms now!

[@whitsettband]

I hope so! I think its a great solution, the only thing I might wanna try and figure out is how to make them locking at the connection points. Considering where they are on stage I don't think it will be a big deal, but would be nice if they were!

[@aleksandergrzybowski8899]

TBH this is a ridiculously overengineered and expensive (cioks) solution just to avoid having a power adapter in the drum cage, but it definitely looks cool and looks extremely durable. Good job :)

[@whitsettband]

@@aleksandergrzybowski8899 Our drummer is cage free, pasture raised! But seriously we are in a small touring band where we are the opener to direct support in 100-500 cap rooms so for us we've got 10 min to get set up each night, finding a solution that was fast and reliable was my goal. Those XLR's had to be ran each night regardless, adding the power is just a helpful bonus! Also, I said I always pick the expensive stuff for some reason 😂😂

[@kubus237]

Swap the xlr and power connectors on the p1 for a ethercon connector and use utp cable. We do it that way and it works fine.

[@Davidmichaelfrank]

I’m the only one doing this I feel, but why not use the StudioLive as your interface as well? It works perfectly for me. No need for an extra interface

[@whitsettband]

I explained why in a different comment

[@OswaldPH]

I want to see it in action when you're setting it up on stage, because I'm curious how you get the drum mix especially if you're on a bigger stage where the drum mics are already setup for the house. Do you ask for a drum mix from the main mixer going to your rig, or do you set up your own drum mics? Because you'll probably run into some trouble if the main mixer is so far away and they don't have an extra or let's say didn't want to provide an extra out. How do you deal with that? I can imagine the guitars' out from the pedal board directly to your rig or from the DI. So It would be great if you have a video about that even if its from a rehearsal and not an actual stage. FYI: I'm trying to build an IEM for my band as well and kind of tight with the budget but ideas would really benefit me when choosing the right gears.

[@whitsettband]

Alright i'll try and tackle this without a video for now. If we showed up to a venue and they had drum mics ready to be put on drums all we would do it take the XLR out of their stage snake, put it into our rig, then run out multipin split back to their stage snake. Think of an IEM rig like a guitar pedal. To add an extra one to a board all you need is an extra cable or 2. Everything you need to do that is in this video, we don't need FOH house to do anything different at all just change where a few XLR's are plugged in. Where FOH (main mix) is doesn't matter to me at all. They will have snakes on stage running to their console and thats where this patches in! I'll make a video on this at some point!

[@OswaldPH]

@@whitsettband Awesome. Thanks, will look forward for the vid as well.

[@PippPriss]

We solved this simply by taking our own drum mics and just smack them on for our set only.

[@miszmaniac1]

Wouldnt behringer pm1 be better solution for drums 13:55 ? You can just plug it in headphone output in mixer, drive it all the way up and just use trs to xlr cable would be standard cheap cable (no custom work) and just give your drummer pm1 on his side to have avility to change levels?

[@whitsettband]

Technically you could just run a headphone extension out the headphone out and that would "work" and be the cheapest option. You're never gonna see any pro rig ran that way, they all use some sort of headphone amp system going out the true outputs of the console. Sending 2 balanced lines out add power and pre amp after all the cabling to have better signal quality going to the IEM's, Active > Passive. Think of it like a guitar pedal board, the more cable you add the weaker the signal quality is, which is why guys with really big boards have buffers to boost that level. Even though balanced cable has a lot longer reach before loosing signal, putting the headphone amp right before the headphones with only a short jump just helps maintain higher signal quality. Also, Im not entirely sure the PreSonus units let you assign a stereo mix bus to the headphone out, other than the mains. I've never tried so don't hold me too it, but just quickly googling it doesn't lead me to believe you can.

[@miszmaniac1]

@@whitsettband but headphone amped signal is not passive. I'm really not sure if for example 10m of normal headphone extension does anything to signal level. Of course it's a valid point if the mixer doesn't support it, but we use Pm1 with a soundcraft ui24r and it is perfect for a drummer without need of anything external amp. Anyway, your setup is really cool, ours is just cheaper;)

[@whitsettband]

Correct! One way is the headphone amp before the cable run the other is after. I think the issue, at least from what I can see on the presonus side is lack of control

[@soundlegendstudios3945]

wired mixes with power is something I've done for over 10 year using PedalSnake looms with a balanced g-line and p-line for power. About a year ago I built my bands I/O and mixes to function over rj45/ethercon, even integrated a wired headset for the drums. I just never had the patience to for filming. Very glad to see that others are thinking about alternatives as well!

[@whitsettband]

I knew others had done it, just never seen the P1 idea. Theres a box called the Albatros ph9b that is supposed to be the best of the best for wired ears but they are impossible to get. The ethercon thing is interesting tho, you can use the front patch panel of a pedalboard to do the wired mix. Very cool idea

[@MM-vs2et]

I just watched Adam Neely's touring IEM rig knowing nothing about touring IEM rigs, now I'm watching the ULTIMATE touring IEM rig knowing next-to-nothing about touring IEM rigs

[@BrandonWells]

its beautiful

[@whitsettband]

🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

[@BTPA_USA]

Nice work!! 🤩

[@whitsettband]

Couldn't have done this with out BTPA!

[@Chaseischasyn]

Legend thanks for this!

[@mariomedina7077]

BTPA is the no-email-answering-est company ever! Just throwing that out there.

[@whitsettband]

Strange, never had that issue in few years I’ve been buying from them. Reach out to [e-mail]

[@mariomedina7077]

@@whitsettband Yeah, I've sent five emails, no answers. All good! I'm sure they're just swamped right now.

[@nicktayloradventures]

This is pretty sick

[@mariomedina7077]

Please be sure to talk about the weight of each rack, as that affects the cost to fly them. Thanks!

[@whitsettband]

Ill weigh them asap and put the weight in the description!

[@mariomedina7077]

@@whitsettband AWESOME!

[@mariomedina7077]

@@whitsettband Show me the weight, yo! :)

[@whitsettband]

Finally got a chance to weigh it! The Wireless rack was 43lbs and the "main" rack was 56lbs. I think the main rack could drop the 6lbs if the ciocks unit wasnt in there, all of the XLR were the switchcraft instead of squareplug, and switching the power conditioner out for something else. I should mention that all my splits and power cables live in a 3rd case but I think they could go in the wireless rack and still make weight.

[@mariomedina7077]

it’s really cool of you to take the time to do that. You did a great job with the weight, too! Hard to keep it under like 70 pounds, which is what I’m fighting with right now. :-)

[@JamesMandy]

Idea I’ve seen done re the powerplay. Swap one of the XLR sockets for a 5-pin and run power and audio in one cable. The P1 is quite ‘hackable’

[@whitsettband]

yeahhhhhh I thought about that after I built it 😅Next Time!

[@cletusrobinson]

Quite well done!

[@jeffmaestro]

Beautiful work man!

[@whitsettband]

🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

[@Bob_rodley]

How are you splitting your inputs to FOH?

[@Alyeska-band]

That was super dope dude! 🤟

[@whitsettband]

🫡🫡🫡

[@HubLocationSound]

I noticed that USB wasn't part of the drum loom. Does the drummer trigger the playback/click? If so, does that mean this rack is living on stage next to the drummer? Or do you run a long USB?

[@whitsettband]

Our rack lives on side stage for the most part. Our drummer doesn’t trigger play back, our set is a start and let it roll set

[@HubLocationSound]

@ ahh yeah usually the split has to live side-stage, so that makes sense. How’s that Senn omni antenna performing for the in-ears?

[@rocgod]

I built a very similar rig for my band earlier this year minus the multipin setup. we run 2 cat 5 cables to connect audio between our mixer and iems. has held up so far with a few tours but this is ultimately what I want to move to. Just gotta sell a kidney so i can afford the btpa panels/splitter

[@jones0093]

you can often use phantom power for these in ear amps maybe that would be an solution aswell

[@dustinthiessen]

nah mate, consoles don't send phantom power down outputs.

[@FreditoFuentes]

So I have a 6-8 piece travel band. And what you did here, looks amazing! Would love to pick your brain on how I could do something like this for a larger group. Also, are all of your mixes stereo or are you running mono mixes?

[@whitsettband]

All mixes are in stereo! With your size band I’d look at the PreSonus 32r it can give you 8 stereo mixes. And on the wireless rack I would go to the 6U version to have room for the boxes!

[@FreditoFuentes]

@@whitsettband definitely going to be referencing this in the future when I get the funds to upgrade. I saw another video on the 16 version and in ear mixes but you completely locked me in on this. How do I reach you for help on the build in the future?

[@whitsettband]

[e-mail] hit me there! Also happy to build for you if you're looking for someone to do that!

[@FreditoFuentes]

@@whitsettband I’ll shoot you an email!

[@secretprocess]

Do you carry a multipin-to-XLR snake with you for the FOH send?

[@ryanward421]

yes we do!

[@kyle.e.kubiak]

Dope build!

[@whitsettband]

🙌🏻🙌🏻

[@noahjelund600]

Nice build, would be could to have a 1u drawer unit in the in ear rack, for all your in ear packs, batteries etc.

[@whitsettband]

We’ve got a case that carry’s all of those, mics, antenna, snakes etc

[@LouAllenWheeler]

This is a cool setup, I dig it! We have a wired headphone out to our drummer now and thought about going to the P1, but probably will go with a P16HQ so he can have more control over his mix behind the kit. But we're in the X32 world, so it's an easy choice for us. Did I miss what you were doing for the FOH split? You mentioned some sort of multi-pin out to FOH, but I didn't see what that panel was or how you're handling all of that.

[@whitsettband]

Yeah the P16 is a solid choice if you're in that world! As far as the split to FOH at 19:47 when I recap the back of the rack theres a big multipin connect right beside the Kick & Ryan Vocal channel on the left. That goes to a 24 channel fan out to go to front of house!

[@LouAllenWheeler]

@@whitsettband Yeah, I see that there's the multi-pin there. Is that split panel an off-the-shelf thing, or did you make it, or what? I didn't see that panel listed in the spreadsheet. I haven't personally seen a split panel with a multi-pin out for the FOH tails and I love that idea.

[@whitsettband]

That splitter and the 2 1U panels with the Multipin were made by BTPA its a custom order thing!

[@LouAllenWheeler]

@@whitsettband gotcha, thanks!

[@mattholding8933]

What was the SKU on the pelican cases that fit the 4u racks? It wasn't in the spreadsheet. Thanks for the video man

[@whitsettband]

Theres a link! They include the rack and case in the same product

[@mattholding8933]

@@whitsettband Ah comprende, thanks

[@vincelatulippe0804]

@whittsettband what is the Shure device that you are talking about?

[@whitsettband]

I believe you're talking about when I mentioned running wired. It's the Shure H9PW

[@vladimirslavicek3032]

Awesome video! I didn’t catch if you made that RCA/DC power cable yourself or if you bought it pre-made. I am looking into powering my Ableton Push 2 like that since I cannot find any high quality long DC power supply cable! Has anybody got any experience with that please? :)

[@whitsettband]

That cable I had made by BTPA! I think this idea should work for your situation!

[@robertbinford8740]

could you add links to the different components? It is a clean and well designed rig. Thanks

[@whitsettband]

Hey Robert! Yeah give me a day I’ll make a spread sheet with links to everything!

[@whitsettband]

Link to everything in the description!

[@bscheirman]

Curious why you need the MOTU if you can connect to the Presonus over USB and send audio to whatever channel you need. Thanks!

[@whitsettband]

Happy to answer! For bands like ours, we never run front of house for our selfs so the PreSonus is strictly just for mixing our ears. The issue with trying to use the 24R for playback as well as mixing is we would have to route ableton to 6 different outs to come back to the PreSonus Mixer. We would need a much bigger unit just to handle those outs along with our ears. The other main reason we wouldn't do that is we Multi-Track record all of our shows into ProTools. While having a beefed up MacBook Pro works for running Ableton & Protools at the same time its best to have them on separate computers. The idea is eliminating one thing getting maxed out and being at a bigger risk for failure. Its sorta like if you have a room that has 3 power outlets and all 3 of those outlets happen to be on different breakers, you wouldn't plug a bunch of appliances into to one outlet, you spread them out to make the workload lighter. Hope all that makes sense. I have plans to do a future video on talking through this more in-depth soon!

[@bscheirman]

@@whitsettband the recording part makes sense for sure. For the tracks then, you send 6 tracks to the motu? How is this connected to the presonus? (Yes a video on this would be great!)

[@mr.brettjames]

@@whitsettband great video.. look forward to seeing the ‘in-depth’ vid soon. Cheers from Australia

[@foundlacking6283]

Hey man can you share how you wired the multipin/veam?

[@whitsettband]

So the mulitpin stuff was all done by BTPA. I've never done one before but plan to try one on whatever rack I build next!

[@niels__vdb]

Super nice :)

[@csnicholson]

Parking Lots is a great song!, I’m also a Presonus fan, I have the 16R, love seeing Presonus stuff promoted I think the software is amazing!

[@whitsettband]

Thanks!! We were on the 16r before this rig. But presonus is slept on idk why it’s great!

[@Phllm]

Pro tip, gs108s and the g4 gear all run on 12v dc. You can get what’s called an ITE style power supply and instead of splitting AC you can just run 2 DC lines off the + and - of the ITE. Just make sure you have the correct amperage for everything. Meanwell makes some great ones that I’ve popped in a few racks now.

[@whitsettband]

Interesting! I actually did think about doing something like the ciocks unit in the wireless rack since its all DC. For sure keeping your idea in mind for whatever I build next!

[@TeranceKey]

😍