A "how are people using IEMs" Thread

[Reezekeys]

My PM55P recently developed a crackling sound at higher volumes. I had a suspicion and sure enough, when I switched its limiter off the crackling disappeared. It was the limiter. As far as I could tell I was using the unit as I always do, with volume controls at typical settings - however, my hearing is not doing well these days, my tinnitus has increased, and it may be that the "normal" volume I'm used to is not enough, causing me to push this unit into limiting with what I'm feeding it. I'll say this - it's not a pretty sound! I remember seeing a schematic of the PM55P. It's been a while but I'm pretty sure the "optical limiter" we are depending on to save our hearing is a single photoelectric diode shorting to ground. My Q for any EE is, can a part like this fail? If that were the case, I would assume it would either short or present an open circuit - which is not what I believe I'm hearing, unless I'm wrong about how these things work. BTW I cannot find that schematic online anymore, kinda weird because there are a few Rolls products with manuals that include the schematic. I know I did see it at one point.

 

Also - I've heard the power supplies for these can be dodgy. Mine is indeed lighter than a feather and the cable is short. It's always worked fine however, and I hear no noise - maybe I got lucky. I keep a 9V battery in there for emergencies, but have never needed it.

[Stokely]

I've had a bit a skepticism about the quality of those tiny limiters myself.  I'm in no way close to an electrical engineer so it's more of a "this thing costs very little and does a lot, how good can one part of it actually be" thought.

My PSA for anyone getting into in-ear monitoring is to follow some boring fuddy duddy safety rules   Not different than you'd use when connecting amps and speakers, but the stakes are higher when it's something in your ears.

When setting up at a gig or practice:
- don't put your earbuds in right away - monitor silently if you can to see levels through the signal flow if at all possible.  Pretty much first thing I check is the XR18 app to see if I see my keys or vocal signal before even getting my earbuds out of my case.
- turn on your headphone amp before putting earbuds in ears.
- turn down the headphone amp after turning it on and before putting earbuds in ears.
- slowly, barely turn up and verify you can hear something.  IF NOT, take them out before fiddling around, or at least turn them completely down.  This is important, I've done this myself unfortunately when in a hurry...you start messing with stuff wearing your earbuds with the volume up, and you suddenly say "aha, loose instrument cable" and you get blasted.
- have a backup plan for monitoring, whether that be a wedge or backup of every part of your setup.  I've had to use a backup headphone amp, headphone cable extender (I'm wired) and backup earbuds at different times before.  For someone transitioning to wedges, I'd recommend using a wedge as a fall back (leave it in your car maybe).  Doesn't hurt to have one handy when the whole band is on in-ears either.

 

[wineandkeyz]

About 5-6 years ago my main band switched over to IEMs in a piecemeal fashion: the singer, bassist, and I switched over first, then the drummer followed about 6 months later. Our guitarist never made the change, though, opting to stick with his Marshall cabs and house wedge monitors.

 

In my case, I ran my keyboards through a Mackie 1202VLZ4 and sent the main outs to the FOH. Then I had the soundman give me a monitor mix of everything but keys. Since most companies use powered wedges these days, it was easy for them to just hand me the XLR cable that would have connected to a wedge. I connected that monitor send to a channel in the Mackie mixer and engaged the "Mute/Alt 3-4" switch (that prevents the signal from being routed back to the main outs, creating a feedback loop). I connected the Mackie's headphones output to a Fischer Amps In-Ear Stick to power my earbuds. I monitored my keys in stereo while the band mix was mono, but it worked fine.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Fischer-Amps-Hard-Wired-Monitoring-960-00334/dp/B01N8WO81P

 

About 4 years ago we had some personnel changes and the new lineup is all in-ears. We now have our own monitor rack. Everything runs into two ART S8 splitters, with tails from one side of the splitters going to FOH and the other side of the splitters hardwired to a Soundcraft Ui24R that controls our monitor mixes. Everybody controls their own mix using their smart phones, iPads, or whatever. I run two auxes from the Soundcraft stereo-paired into an Audio-Technica wireless IEM system, so my monitor mix is completely stereo now.

[obxa]

 

Worth mentioning: recently been doing an alternate setup using the Numa X  piano's  built-in mixer (see below). For those with  keyboards with aux inputs, some creative routing  might be a  simple IEM  option to still hear your keys in stereo with minimal gear.... 

 

I think someone asked about some more throughput setups, here's a couple I do

 

There is this simple  Behringer  stereo  micro-mon box.    Mix two sources: one stereo, and one mono. When I first stared using IEMs I had gotten this as alternative to the Rolls, but has no limiter.    Like the Rolls, achilles heel is probably the power supply.   But I've found this little thing to be pretty good fidelity and reliable- plus it has an all important ground lift.

 

The XLR is intended for actual mic input, but can be easily used as line source, perfect for FOH send.   For gigs with no option to get a monitor send, you could just plug in a dynamic mic and use that as a "low-rent band mix".   Done that on crusty bar-band gigs, and multi-band hit and run things.

 

17 hours ago, wineandkeyz said:

I ran my keyboards through a Mackie 1202VLZ4 and sent the main outs to the FOH

This is exactly what I do for bigger show/pit gigs when bringing my own backline, where I need  EQ and advanced sends.    Wish there was a smaller mixer option that had alt-mix options  - I really like the Behringer  digi-mixers others have  mentioned,  but it's over kill with everything else I have to carry. 

 

When I can,  lately I bypass mixer all together -  using Numa X piano's built in mixer to mix: itself,  Nord, and/or Mojo organ.  First: run Numa's stereo outs to house via DI.   Then run Numa's headphone out into the Micro Mon, which also controls the incoming house mix via the XLR input. Very simple, but obviously not many advanced options.    When I need more inputs/options or ambient mic, I revert to the Mackie.   Like Wine&Keys does-  I listen to  keys pre,  get  FOH from house/band, usually controlled by respective app.  On bar/wedding gigs, I bring the  B-Roland clone amp mentioned earlier instead- mostly for it's mixer, also for some stage mix for others.

 

For dedicated house systems (e.g. Aviom) I just use those, but do some hack-routing.   I'm MD at my main church gig, so I used my  "authority" to  always have keys run in stereo. LOL. However, many other churches I guest at don't do stereo.  On most of those, I'm just playing a Nord Stage.   I'll run the output of their Aviom  (minus keys )  into the Nord's 1/8"  aux input,  and listen to  it all via Nords headphone out.    Control the house mix balance via Aviom's master.  Simple.   

 

On multi- band shows,  I still call production for options.  Then if need be,  reach out to the other keyboard players (if other bands actually use a keyboard player...) to see if we can all come up with something that works for everyone.   I will default to mono for the greater good, but always worth trying..