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[Mal Brown]

I see all of the above.  Personally I am not unhappy not having to unload and load a bunch of monitors for the gig.

[Sean Anderson]

I see all of the above.  Personally I am not unhappy not having to unload and load a bunch of monitors for the gig.

I'm the same. I love when bands bring iems. It's less to bring into the venue.

[Scott Holtzman]

I'm the same. I love when bands bring iems. It's less to bring into the venue.

I have seen an interesting trend in the two 300 and 430 cap. venue that I do walk up gigs at.  Certainly the proliferation of self contained monitor rigs started awhile ago.  Then the bands carried their own mics and a few are totally self contained on the stage.  They deliver a very consistent show.

Even in these small venues it's the lighting guys that are off the hook.  They roll in ground support packages with 6-10 totems and other ground items and expect you to have a current patch list so they can integrate the house lights into their show.  I had never seen bar bands carrying qualified LD's before about 6 months ago.

[Scott Bolt]

I like to be self contained as a band - we have our own mixer, IEM's, mics, stands, and splitter. Everything is well maintained and racked up, well labeled and ready to go. We handle our own IEM mix and send isolated splits from our own mics to FOH. We only need 8 ch going into the IEM's (vocals, guitars, bass, kick drum, etc). If the venue requires OH mics on the drums or they want to throw up more mics, that is on the venue and we don't require those mics in our IEM mix.

Makes it simple for the venue - we roll on, hand them labeled splits on a snake, they handle FOH, we handle monitors, and then we roll off. Nice and clean.

Me too Mark,

I bring a roller rack with an X32 Rack, IEM transmitters, mics, stands, a drum snake, and my kemper amp (that I sit on the roller rack and plug directly into the PA).  Bass is DI into the PA, and the drums are V Drums (also directly into PA).

I hand a tablet to the FOH guy and set the scene to the last saved scene for that venue as a starting point for him/her.

Each band member mixes their own 5 channel IEM mix (lead guitar and vocal, rhythm guitar and vocal, bass guitar and vocal, drums).

The FOH guy just needs to make it sound great on the other side of the speakers.

Setup takes ~30 minutes.

As several have said, this give very consistent sound from gig to gig.... and the monitoring is always good for each member of the band.... and no wedges

[Tim Weaver]

I have seen an interesting trend in the two 300 and 430 cap. venue that I do walk up gigs at.  Certainly the proliferation of self contained monitor rigs started awhile ago.  Then the bands carried their own mics and a few are totally self contained on the stage.  They deliver a very consistent show.

I started advising bands as much as ten years ago about how to build their IEM systems. I always told them, "iems are great, but you have to do it all or none. Carry your own mixer, split, and at least the important mics". Having the same mixer and mics gives you the ability to be consistant. Not changing up mics everynight. I also insisted they buy a splitter before they bought much else.

Even in these small venues it's the lighting guys that are off the hook.  They roll in ground support packages with 6-10 totems and other ground items and expect you to have a current patch list so they can integrate the house lights into their show.  I had never seen bar bands carrying qualified LD's before about 6 months ago.

I wish they were down here. Good LD's are few and far between in my market. Especially ones that will work at bar-band pay.

[Mark Scrivener]

Me too Mark,

I bring a roller rack with an X32 Rack, IEM transmitters, mics, stands, a drum snake, and my kemper amp (that I sit on the roller rack and plug directly into the PA).  Bass is DI into the PA, and the drums are V Drums (also directly into PA).

I hand a tablet to the FOH guy and set the scene to the last saved scene for that venue as a starting point for him/her.

Each band member mixes their own 5 channel IEM mix (lead guitar and vocal, rhythm guitar and vocal, bass guitar and vocal, drums).

The FOH guy just needs to make it sound great on the other side of the speakers.

Setup takes ~30 minutes.

As several have said, this give very consistent sound from gig to gig.... and the monitoring is always good for each member of the band.... and no wedges

Played a gig last night at a small venue that had an installed system but the board was an old analog Mackie. Rather than take splits we just plugged directly into their mains and I handed the sound guy a tablet. He was supper happy as was the venue owner. Of course we used our own mics and the mix was more or less set up from the start except some minor room tuning.

To make things even faster I use wireless vocal mics and wireless body packs for guitars. All the wireless receivers, the IEM wireless tx and guitar processors (for both elec and acoustic) live in the same rack with the mixer (Ui24R). Really makes for a supper fast set up/tear down. And for a venue like this where I don't have to even haul mains, life is great!

[dave briar]

Played a gig last night at a small venue that had an installed system but the board was an old analog Mackie. Rather than take splits we just plugged directly into their mains and I handed the sound guy a tablet. He was supper happy as was the venue owner. Of course we used our own mics and the mix was more or less set up from the start except some minor room tuning.

Just curious, not criticizing: Do you double bus your inputs so you have a separate copy for (your) monitors vs. (his) FOH?  Also, as I don’t see a panel-mounted split in your rack, what form factor do you use when you do employ one?  Just asking as I, like Tim, advise bands that come through and am always interested in learning how others do it.  Nice setup by the way:).

[Tim Weaver]

Just curious, not criticizing: Do you double bus your inputs so you have a separate copy for (your) monitors vs. (his) FOH?  Also, as I don’t see a panel-mounted split in your rack, what form factor do you use when you do employ one?  Just asking as I, like Tim, advise bands that come through and am always interested in learning how others do it.  Nice setup by the way:).

In a situation like this the X32 Rack is great for an iem rack because it has 16 inputs but 32 channels. 16 for the band and 16 for FOH.

But of course, a split is always the best way.

[Mark Scrivener]

Just curious, not criticizing: Do you double bus your inputs so you have a separate copy for (your) monitors vs. (his) FOH?  Also, as I don’t see a panel-mounted split in your rack, what form factor do you use when you do employ one?  Just asking as I, like Tim, advise bands that come through and am always interested in learning how others do it.  Nice setup by the way:).

The pic is a bit dated (was from my living room after I first put the system together). I now have an ART S8 that provides transformer isolation on split channels.

The mixer I'm using (Ui24R) is great, but no where as sophisticated in its routing as the X32. It will allow me to patch an input to multiple channels, but I haven't done that. My AUX sends for monitor mixes are simply set up pre fader (I believe they are post channel eq and comp, but need to verify). I can easily use a 2nd tablet or a smartphone to make any Aux send adjustments if needed. I also have a custom view page set up for the FOH guy and another set up for monitors, but yes, double bussing the inputs would prob be a smart idea.

If you wanted to avoid the splitter you could feed split channels via AUX outs (assuming you have enough). But I'd advise against this for several reasons - no isolation to stop ground loops, potential disaster if house board applies phantom power to a signal from AUX, band's board could inadvertently alter the signal going to FOH, etc. But hey, you could probably get away with it until you couldn't. LoL.

[dave briar]

In a situation like this the X32 Rack is great for an iem rack because it has 16 inputs but 32 channels. 16 for the band and 16 for FOH.

Agreed and with fourteen outputs (8 XLR and 6 1/4”) can support five stereo IEM feeds in addition to L/R/subs when needed. I own two X32 Racks and it is indeed the most common mixer for this application I see come through my venue. That said, I’ve also seen the Ui24R and a Mackie variant work as well.

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