School me on in-ear monitoring

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EOengineer

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My band played a sold out showcase this weekend that went AMAZINGLY, but we narrowly escaped disaster due to the venue not being able to push the vocal monitor up enough to clear our drummer. Fortunately someone had an ancient wired in ear monitor and we were able to dial it in about 15 mins before we hit the stage, and it saved the day.

This was the second time we’ve run into this issue recently, so we walked away thinking it’s probably time to take control of our monitoring situation.

We’re a 5 piece with 2 guitars and bass running direct. I’d love to go stereo, but if it’s extremely cost prohibitive we’d go mono. Can anyone recommend a decent setup that won’t break the bank?
 
EOengineer said:
My band played a sold out showcase this weekend that went AMAZINGLY, but we narrowly escaped disaster due to the venue not being able to push the vocal monitor up enough to clear our drummer. Fortunately someone had an ancient wired in ear monitor and we were able to dial it in about 15 mins before we hit the stage, and it saved the day.

This was the second time we’ve run into this issue recently, so we walked away thinking it’s probably time to take control of our monitoring situation.

We’re a 5 piece with 2 guitars and bass running direct. I’d love to go stereo, but if it’s extremely cost prohibitive we’d go mono. Can anyone recommend a decent setup that won’t break the bank?
Click to expand...

I have been using the Xvive system now for a couple years and have zero complaints. They are about 220 or so a pop and 150 on the used market. Everyone uses their own buds when we do actually use them. I stick with my Shure SE215's. When I use them at another venue where it's not my sound system I just unplug the XLR from the monitor and plug in the transmitter side to the cable and voila.

www.sweetwater.com

Xvive U4 Wireless In-ear Monitoring System

Wireless In-ear Monitoring System, 2.4GHz, with Transmitter and Beltpack Receiver
www.sweetwater.com www.sweetwater.com
 
Bob Zaod said:
I have been using the Xvive system now for a couple years and have zero complaints. They are about 220 or so a pop and 150 on the used market. Everyone uses their own buds when we do actually use them. I stick with my Shure SE215's. When I use them at another venue where it's not my sound system I just unplug the XLR from the monitor and plug in the transmitter side to the cable and voila.

www.sweetwater.com

Xvive U4 Wireless In-ear Monitoring System

Wireless In-ear Monitoring System, 2.4GHz, with Transmitter and Beltpack Receiver
www.sweetwater.com www.sweetwater.com
Click to expand...
Interesting.
Do they have a limiter? (Failsafe for feedbackloops)
Hows the battery time?
Would it be possible to hook 2 recievers to 1 transmitter? (Accepting a shared mix)

To the OP....with IEM you are delivered to the gods if you don’t have a decent tech controlling mixes….unless you can get control of it yourself. If you don’t travel with a tech…I’d say a digital mixer from where each control their own mixes from their phone is a requirement.
 
AFKAEjay said:
Do they have a limiter? (Failsafe for feedbackloops)
Hows the battery time?
Would it be possible to hook 2 recievers to 1 transmitter? (Accepting a shared mix)
Click to expand...

Not sure about the limter but never had any feedback issues even with them cranked
Battery time is excellent. Easily get a 4 hr gig out of them leaving them on if fully charged
Yep you can hook up to 6 receivers to one transmitter if you want. Just set them all to the same channel
 
AFKAEjay said:
To the OP....with IEM you are delivered to the gods if you don’t have a decent tech controlling mixes….unless you can get control of it yourself. If you don’t travel with a tech…I’d say a digital mixer from where each control their own mixes from their phone is a requirement.
Click to expand...
This would be really cool, and mimics what we get with our Aviom system in our rehearsal space. Honestly didn’t even know this was an option.

Just how does this work routing wise? Is our Mixer receiving from the FOH monitor feed?
 
I've only been happy with my IEM mixes when I was mixing them myself.

I started with an Anleon S2 system (cheap - just over $100, not super great sounding, but works - don't think they're available anymore) and a set of KZ AS10 buds. I was at the mercy of a mix engineer that used a board with broken PFL buttons (crucial to engage when using any monitoring system) so I decided to take matters into my own hands and bought a Rolls PM351 to blend my guitar, vocal, and a seperate monitor feed (usually keys or click). Upgraded R/T to a Shure PSM300 and have gone through a bunch of different buds.

I eventually bought a Behringer XR18 to have enough Aux outputs for our mono monitor mixes and split our signals to FoH, and threw it all into a rack case for easy throw and go setup. Android tablet in my mic stand for quick changes.
 
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Claims to have 5 hrs on full charge. I have never gone beyond 4 and they lasted easily.

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I have also used them to cut down on cables with a barrel 1/4" to 1/8" adapter and short patch cable going into powered wedges and it worked perfect.
 
EOengineer said:
This would be really cool, and mimics what we get with our Aviom system in our rehearsal space. Honestly didn’t even know this was an option.

Just how does this work routing wise? Is our Mixer receiving from the FOH monitor feed?
Click to expand...
Getting feed(s) from a venue would require making a totally new mix every time…

You could go for : plug all the mics into your own mixer (result = roughly same mix every time)…insert each mic to feed foh Desk

Common mistake: assume you have a prepared monitor mix…insert all channels from foh post gain (instead of your own gain channels)…and find out your mix has changed cause of different gain levels.
 
AFKAEjay said:
Usb charged…a good thing when you don’t forget to charge them ;)

Aliexpress offers them at 150,-
Click to expand...

Yeah I have a lot of stuff that is USB so I bring those phone backup battery's with me to power or charge stuff. I have a 6500MaH one that will run my Panasonic Lumix 4k camera for an entire show even if it's built in battery is dead. The Xvives also support passthrough if someone was motivated enough to run charging batteries to all of them. For me it's all part of my gig day ritual. I get everything charged fully beforehand. Oh and the Xvives each come with a 2 lead charging cable so you can charge a transmitter and receiver at the same time on one cable.

the one issue I do have with these is if you store them in the pouch they give you, it doesnt take much of a bump of the switches to turn them on. A few times I have opened a pouch and seen the receiver turned on.
 
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IME in ears can be an ok way to monitor or an absolute nightmare. Personally I prefer to roll the dice with the old school cab behind me and wedge in front.
 
ejecta said:
IME in ears can be an ok way to monitor or an absolute nightmare. Personally I prefer to roll the dice with the old school cab behind me and wedge in front.
Click to expand...

Yeah I love them for singing and tolerate them for monitoring everything else. I mean I set mine up with my Helix LT to sound and feel good enough but I dont use them unless I have to. I bring em to every gig for just in case situations.
 
I love IEMS and never play without them, but they are complicated and can be a lot of work if you don’t have a person setting up your IEM feeds for you. I find the added complexity worth it for the ability to preserve my hearing and monitor my guitar and vocals more effectively. If you just play in one band and other members decide to jump in with it‘ll be easier. In my case, I play in a number of disparate situations, so I have to have multiple approaches to putting together a monitor mix. It’s definitely not something where you just buy a thing and bring it to a show and you’re good.

-Aaron
 
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