I’m contemplating buying a Behringer XR18 for the band as I’m fed up of struggling with only two Aux Sends that are pre-fader and just one that is post. I could modify the mixer so all four Aux Sends were pre-fader but that’s a lot of work on a monolithic SMD board and it won’t solve my bigger problem of being constantly asked to “turn x up and y down in my ears” by everyone every ten minutes.
I’ve read that some folk use digital mixers live that give everyone the ability to control their own IEM mixes from their mobile phones. This sounds ideal for me, but I’m concerned that the phone app interface might be too ‘fiddly’ for some in my band. I have a hard enough time pointing out the Aux Send knobs on the mixer as it is. If the phone app is anything more complex than a simple row of knobs or sliders I’m never going to sell the idea to them.
Could anyone advise please ? Ta.
Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
Also chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them.
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It might take a few seconds for you to check they have the right mix on the screen and don’t switch to another mix but it’s pretty easy to run once they have done it a couple of times.
plus good preamps, 2 inputs can be digitech amp modelling DI if amp fails (handy backup), dbx feedback and eq, digitech fx (think 4 busses) and it will even multitrack to a usb key or hdd for use in daw later (also belive it will do the virtual soundcheck thing which is invaluable if often don't have sound man). Plus it is just like a rack mount stage box so don't need to locate where you can hear band well.
It's what i am saving for
I tend to use an iPad mini rather than my phone as the larger screen makes setting the mix easier. Whatever you do make sure each mix is locked so no one can screw up another persons mix.
Yeah, independent stereo IEM mixes for each member of he band would be great, but we’re not even gigging regularly at the moment - just the odd one here and there.
There’s five of us, so that would mean a mixer with a minimum of TEN pre-fade aux sends. Where am I going to get that ?!
Also chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them.
I'm joking about slumming it
I know it's hard when your starting out, no one wants to spend money in case things don't pan out and quite rightly. I only get to use expensive stuff because the gig's themselves paid for it a long time ago.
A cheap way to get better control is to build yourselve a box with a pass through \ splitter for your vocal and a basic balanced pre amp and a basic mixer section. Then throw a mic on your guitar into the box and pass your vocal through the box. Then plug in a feed from the PA. Then you have control over your vocal and guitar completely independent of the PA .... a small mixer will accomplish exactly the same except you might need a mic splitter for the vocal pass through part.
Here's mine on the right of the pedal board, very handy for gigs where the supplied monitoring is suspect. Mines my own design but as I say a small mixer and a mic splitter will accomplish exactly the same thing and shouldn't cost more than £30 or so second hand
I stand next to the PA rack and know my way around it - their contribution to the sound system is to stand next to me holding their cable(s) for me to plug into the desk when we’re setting up, bitch about how long it takes to do a very quick soundcheck, blame me if anything breaks and nag me to tweak their IEM mix throughput the gig!
If I can offload their IEM mix to them, via their phones, with a simple interface they can a) understand in two seconds flat, b) be able to access instantly and c) not be able to accidentally fuck up each other’s mixes or worse, mangle the FOH mix, then my life will be easier, and basically that is what this is all about!
As much as I’d love to have stereo monitor mixes galore with dual ambient stage mics etc, I’m gonna be stuck with mono for the immediate future as they are showing resistance to the idea of needing to invest in a new digital mixer at £500 ish, especially as it’s early days with this lineup and gigs are a bit sparse at present.
I’m happy to personally invest in a mixer that will give us all stereo IEM mixes and ‘rent’ it back to them in the form of an extra few quid per gig, but I need to know the mobile phone interface is simple and solid enough that they would happily adopt it.
*Thanks for your reply @mr-mac, I’m not ignoring you, I’m going to check out the gear you mentioned.
Also chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them.
Details are here: https://www.allen-heath.com/ahproducts/qu-you/
It's an expensive upgrade to a QU16 from an old analogue desk though. And you'll need a decent wifi router etc.
I've only used the iOS app though, the comment that @mr-mac made about the oddballs with a windows phone may be valid!
I’ve also just realised that the two PSM200 IEM wireless units I’ve just bought are mono anyway, so going stereo on the IEMs would require another upgrade. I think I’m going to have to take this in stages or else it’s gonna be expensive! I’ll invest a monkey in the band on my own but I’m not going further than that unless everyone is in equal shares. To jump to stereo IEMs now would require a minimum mixer spec of that QU16 PLUS upgrades to PSM300 units or similar, which is going to take it well over the two grand mark. We’ve only got a handful of gigs on the calendar so far, so I think I need to rein in my ideas a bit for the moment!
The next step has to be a digital mixer with remote IEM mix functions though. I can get that with the XR18 as a starting point.
Also chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them.
I have a TF-Rack. I comes with 16 input channels and 16 outputs:
- outputs 1-6 are configured as mono aux sends, but can be paired to give three stereo sends
- output 7-8 is main L/R output
- outputs 9-16 are configured as four stereo sends.
I also have a TIO1608-D digital stage box. This adds a further 16 input channels and 16 outputs.Not the cheapest option though
Eqd Speaker Cranker clone
Monte Allums TR-2 Plus mod kit
Trading feedback: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/60602/
When we first got the mixer i was I was running a wired mix by having a headphone cable run with my guitar cable. You can use the headphone out of the xr18 for one mix or a headphone amp using the xlr’s if you wanted to save some money and go the wired route. The drummer in my band still does that as he isn’t moving around. The keyboard player has also just got a P1 which adds another stereo mix and is mixed on the unit instead of the phone.
We have been looking at the Soundcraft UI24 as it has a few more aux sends, a few more channels, and also allows multitrack recording straight to USB.
Because of this we might end up selling our Mackie one if that was of any interest to you? Would come with a flight case too.
Also chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them.
Only has 4 aux outs, but the bigger version has 8 I believe. Well worth the money, it really is fantastic!
Controlling the IEM mixes has been interesting. Three of us use iPads, and the other two have iPhones. In theory we could each do our own mix, and have the desk saves the mix settings for each venue. However only the bass player and I bother to run the Behringer app. The other three call out during soundcheck if they want any changes, which then get saved. You could say that it’s technophobia. I think it’s more that, once set up for personal preferences, there aren’t a lot of changes needed.
This weekend I finally got around to setting the EQ for my IEM channel.