Advice needed for In-Ear Monitor Setup

[jdifranco13]

Hello! I am a drummer, and I am admittedly not super knowledgeable on the engineering side of things. I recently purchased an Xvive U4 wireless in-ear monitoring system to play some local gigs with. For those not familiar with it, the transmitter is a small device that plugs right into the aux out on the engineers board or also has a 1/4" adapter that can plug into headphone jack. The only complaints I have seen about this somewhat inexpensive IEM system is issues when the transmitter and receiver are too far apart. I want to be able to keep the transmitter next to me on stage so it's as close as possible, but not sure how I would set that up. Can I take the monitor line that would normally go to a wedge and plug it into that, or would the engineer need to run a line from the aux out to the stage that I would use. Can I use something like a Rolls PM50S personal monitor system and plug the monitor line into that and then the transmitter into the headphone jack? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[alexis]

Howdy!

Here are some vids that helped me get a basic understanding of IEMs, starting from scratch,
maybe there's something in here that you'll find useful also

First vid of a series by Sennheiser showing connection concepts, etc., understandably with a focus on one of their products: https://youtu.be/VVnrc3fgKU0?si=3LyucXVNR963A-qV

Scott Uhl series of IEM vids. I found the ratio of [beginner's level helpful info] to [marketing] much higher than usual for this sort of thing, and my impression is that as a gigging musician he's quite knowledgeable about his subject matter:
https://youtu.be/Kp0tQCfxzWg?si=hf9svc5cs3ovO_6n

Smarter people comments forthcoming, 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

[Wonks]

Hi and welcome.

Although the description of the Xvive doesn't say it directly (and I wish they would*), the system takes a mono balanced input and sends it to a dual-mono headphone/IEM output on the receiver. Which is what a lot of people want.

The other option is that the transmitter requires an unbalanced stereo input (e.g. from a headphone output) and sends a stereo (or at least a discrete left and right channel signal) to the receiver and the headphone/IEM output on the receiver).

One thing this Xvive unit can't do is take a signal directly from a headphone output (you can make up a special cable to either mix into mono or just pass one side of the signal), but because it's a balanced differential input, you'd only hear the difference between the left and right channels, which is usually quite small and so ends up quiet and very thin sounding.

So, the output needs to come from a balanced (or unbalanced) mono output, which would normally be a pre-fader aux send mix from the mixer (pre-fader so the mix doesn't change if FOH pulls a channel fader down).

Yes, you can certainly run an XLR-XLR cable from the mixing desk to the Xvive transmitter. It makes sense to have the transmitter relatively near the receiver.

The standard 2.4GHz wi-fi band is very crowded these days, so you may still get drop-outs from the kit if there are a lot of people in the audience all using wi-fi on their phones, but having the transmitter and receiver near each other certainly helps. It's not just a matter of interference-free line-of-sight maximum distances any more.

*IEM transmitter/receiver systems fall into two general types

1) Those with a mono input and dual-mono headphone output.

2) Those with a stereo input and stereo headphone output. These are really designed to be used with headphone outputs, and if you feed them from a standard mono aux output, you generally need to make up a lead to split the mono signal to both the left and right inputs on the transmitter, (as very few systems that I know of have a mono/stereo switch, which would be very useful!). In theory you could create a stereo signal from two mono aux outputs (again with a special lead), but unless you're using the IEM system at the time, it would be very difficult to get a good balance.

Some mixers, such as the Zoom Livetrack range, have aux outputs that can be configured in software as either balanced mono or unbalanced stereo, so can cope with both types of IEM system.

[Murray B]

Hello and welcome

Apologies for an unsolicited answer to questions that you are yet to ask, but I play with a couple of drummers that use IEM systems and have found their way with them over time and thought it might be useful to share their and my experiences.

The first thought that came to mind was - do you really need a wireless system?
The drummers I work with that use a wired system as they aren't really moving around that much and it's very dependable. I think Wonk's has covered the connection and potential 2.4 ghz issues so I won't repeat what he's already said.

The other thing that my IEM drumming friends report is an issue with hearing the bass drum properly. To the point where one have gone to the expense of buying a device called a Butt Kicker - it attaches to the drum stool and sends a sub bass kick up the seat so you can feel the kick drum when you play. It's an expensive piece of kit though.

From the perspective of the person standing within earshot of a drummer using IEM's the biggest difference I noticed was that once they had IEMs (read: ear protectors) they got considerably louder and pushed the stage volume up
To the point where I had to start using ear protection too.

[Wonks]

As an additional comment, the XLR to TRS (‘stereo’) jack converter is meant for plugging into a balanced jack aux output. A lot of smaller mixing desks have the main outputs on XLR and the other outputs on TRS jacks to save space.

The really small mixers have all outputs on TRS jacks, so the adapter is necessary in a lot of cases.

You can always use the adapter on the end of an XLR-XLR cable if the mixer just has balanced TRS output jacks for its aux outputs.

[Wonks]

And I agree about wired in-ears being far more reliable than wireless. If you plan to run a cable to your location, then it’s just as easy to have a small headphone amp there and plug into that.

The headphone amp needs to have a ‘mono’ switch so that you can feed both ears from a single mono input.

You may find that semi-open headphones are better for hearing yourself play than IEMs (which need to block all external sound to be effective).

[Murray B]

If you go down the wired route or even if you don't, It would be worth getting a Behringer P2 or equivalent as a back up unit in case of connection issues. It's not that expensive compared to a lot of the IEM kit. Best to look for something that has a limiter built in as the P2 does, some of the other cheapish options don't have this feature.

Slightly pricer options such as the Fischer Amps unit are a little more robust than the Behringer unit.

[shufflebeat]

All good advice so far.

I would only add that the Xvive has a small but measurable latency which is very acceptable for me as a guitarist/singer but might be problematic for a drummer. The Behringer P2 will sound at least as good as the Xvive, is super-cheap and has no latency to consider. It does have an issue with batteries coming loose but wedging them with a slip of card works great.

The 1/4”-XLR adaptor should be immediately disposed of and replaced with a short cable of the same format, possibly with a right-angle jack. Otherwise the leverage of the rigid adaptor can stress the output connector.

The P2 can also be configured with a small internal switch to take a signal from a headphone output and provide a stereo mix to IEMs. The signal can be sent along a mic cable or multicore no problem (for me anyway).

Whatever you go with I’d suggest arranging your own limiting and not trusting the Xvive or Behry with your hearing.

[Dave71]

I have 2 Iem setups, an LD Systems HPA01 wired and the xvive u4 wireless.
The LD wired box is quite large in comparison with other units but has stereo inputs on xlr, volume and pan control. It also has a 9v dc input, so for fixed positions I can run power alongside the xlr input so not relying on batteries. Might be a useful solution if you have a decent length on your earbuds as you could sit it nearby but not impeding movement.

Have yet to try the xvive in the field. Set it up at home and ran it for about 4 hours. Initially I was getting some interference and drop outs but I was hovering over my mixer which has built in Wi-Fi and my home router was 3’ away. Once I moved, never noticed any further issues from all 4 corners of my house. First gig on Sunday in a busy pub so will see what happens.

Worked on a show last June and one of the bands presented me with 9 xvive units for their IEMs, they certainly rated them.

[jdifranco13]

If you go down the wired route or even if you don't, It would be worth getting a Behringer P2 or equivalent as a back up unit in case of connection issues. It's not that expensive compared to a lot of the IEM kit. Best to look for something that has a limiter built in as the P2 does, some of the other cheapish options don't have this feature.

Slightly pricer options such as the Fischer Amps unit are a little more robust than the Behringer unit.

Thanks for the answer. I have a bit of a stupid question, but when hooking up something like the P2 or P1, do you just take the monitor line that normally goes into the wedge on stage and plug that into the P2, or would you need a separate aux line ran? Like I said, I am a drummer, but not super knowledgeable on this stuff... lol Thanks!

[jdifranco13]

I have 2 Iem setups, an LD Systems HPA01 wired and the xvive u4 wireless.
The LD wired box is quite large in comparison with other units but has stereo inputs on xlr, volume and pan control. It also has a 9v dc input, so for fixed positions I can run power alongside the xlr input so not relying on batteries. Might be a useful solution if you have a decent length on your earbuds as you could sit it nearby but not impeding movement.

Have yet to try the xvive in the field. Set it up at home and ran it for about 4 hours. Initially I was getting some interference and drop outs but I was hovering over my mixer which has built in Wi-Fi and my home router was 3’ away. Once I moved, never noticed any further issues from all 4 corners of my house. First gig on Sunday in a busy pub so will see what happens.

Worked on a show last June and one of the bands presented me with 9 xvive units for their IEMs, they certainly rated them.

Thanks! I heard the LD systems HPA01 is a good product. Stupid question, cause I'm not very knowledgeable on this stuff, but when you're on stage, how exactly do you connect the HPA01? Do you take the monitor line that normally goes into a wedge, or do they have run a separate aux line to the stage? Thanks!

[shufflebeat]

…when hooking up something like the P2 or P1, do you just take the monitor line that normally goes into the wedge on stage and plug that into the P2, or would you need a separate aux line ran?

If you’re already using a powered wedge then the XLR (I assume it’s an XLR) you’d normally run to the wedge could go straight into a P2, that clips onto your belt or some other handy item and your headphones plug straight into that. There’s only a volume control on the P2 so just ascertain that a healthy signal is going to it then turn on/up slowly to avoid sudden shocks to the hearing.

Avoid the temptation to use “one ear in, one ear out” because cutting out the background noise is very much part of how IEMs work, otherwise you can easily damage one ear while trying to drown out the background noise in the other.

[Wonks]

We need to be a bit careful here as you haven’t said whether your band has its own PA system or whether you rely on a PA being provided for you at the venues you play at.

We’ve assumed that we are talking about active/powered monitors here. In both situations, your monitors could be passive and fed from separate power amps, in which situation, you definitely couldn’t use the cable currently running to the monitors.

How many people in your band and how many separate monitor mixes do you have at the moment?

If you’ve got a basic mixer with one or two aux outputs and active monitors, it’s very likely that there will be several monitors fed from one aux output and daisy-chained together.

As the P1 only has an input, and no ‘thru’ output, it would have to be the last connection in the chain.

If anyone else decided to use an IEM system, then you’d either need more aux outputs or a signal splitter.

So before we tell you something is easy to do, it would be great if you could describe your PA system to us, especially the mixer used and the current monitor types and how they are connected.

[Dave Rowles]

Avoid the temptation to use “one ear in, one ear out” because cutting out the background noise is very much part of how IEMs work, otherwise you can easily damage one ear while trying to drown out the background noise in the other.

Lots of good advice already, but I just wanted to highlight this.

You can SERIOUSLY damage your ears if you run the IEMs too loud, so please only use them if you're going to use both sides.

I've got a couple of artists where I live that use the Xvive stuff, but they are on wireless mics and part of the act is to walk into the audience. Works fine for short distances, but I wouldn't to trust it too far. When doing sound for them I always run a cable out to their on stage position so it's closer.

As a drummer I go wired unless there's a high quality IEM system available. If you're tethered by a cable already or you don't need to move around and have your monitor mix stay the same, then wired is simpler and more reliable.