HOW TO build a Cheap SELF MIXED In Ear Monitor rig for your band.

That's because the drummers need that stereo mix y'eard-meh

This is a great video, so informative! Do you have a diagram of the full setup? My band has the Behringer xr16 and we are considering taking the plunge. Thanks!

Chris, another question I have is why is the second Loom XLR to Balanced Jack?

Chris, great video mate. I am just starting to look into this. Where does the XR16 site in your rack? In the parts where you show the rack all setup, I can't see it. The ears on the XR16 look like all the inputs are out the outside of the rack, so is it facing the back and you need to plug in all the loom from the splitters every time you setup, or are the rack covers large enough to keep it all plugged in?

I wish someone would produce a video on building an expensive IEM rack.

Amazing info bros! So well organized, we can clearly see all your experience standing out! Thanks so much! Any tips on what best software to use for backing tracks? (Apple Mainstage, FL, Logic...). I want to use backing tracks for a Rock Opera project and wanted to stay away from exporting stems and remixing everything at every show. Was thinking of exporting stereo tracks with a click on one side, and many exports with different options if a musician does not show up. Any experience with something like that? Anyway, it might be another video idea for you! Thanks man!

Wow for a first video this was very nicely done!!

🙌🏻 thank you

Thanks!

Hey I loved the video - just curious what the need for the 1/4" jack inputs on the mixer is? Is it just to have more options or is there a better reason?

What do you mean "cheap?"

Hello! Have you come across a situation where more than one band is wanting to use a similar set up to this - how would you go about this?

Great video! Not sure if I have to connect the in-ear mixer to the "link out" or "out" of the Behringer splitter (when using phantom power). Help would be appreciated. Thank you!!

Hey chris! Love this video so much. Currently putting this together for my band. Wondering if you have a new link to the 16 channel loom. Because the eBay one is broken? Or do you know how long the cable is on the 16 channel loom?

Great video, lots to think about. Looking to get my first wireless mixer and in ear set up for the band. Many thanks Chris

Hey Chris, great video!!

question about the setup: I'm playing in a band with 8 members, how many In-ear transmitter & receiver do we need then?
- Option A: 8x full set Shure PSM200 (transmitter & receiver) + 8x earplugs
- Option B: 1x Shure PSM200 (transmitter only) + 8x individual receivers + 8x earplugs?

Also any suggestions on the best price to value (e.g. LD Systems)? I see 1x receiver of Shure PSM300 costs around 300 pounds (meaning 8x 300 = 2'400).

Hello Chris, does every band member need an extra iem system to individually mix their own sound?

first?!?! this was awesome man!

Hi Chris! I'm a bit co fused.. with the XR16 I can only have 8 microphones and not 16 through a splitter since the other 8 inputs of the XR16 are line level, right?

This is an amazing series and a great video, excellent illustrations and breakdown. Well done Sir, well Done.

Hey Chris, if all of these splitters are plugged into the x-16

where do all of the instruments go??

So where do the instruments plug into??

with a mono mix, does that mean you are only hearing the mix through one ear or two identical signals in both ears? for some reason no one ever clarifies this. I know with having a wired In ear set up using an old style mixer, you have to have one ear for the click and the other for the backing/ stage mix, that sucks. It seems to me like it would be well worth spending the extra couple hundred dollars to be able to enjoy the sound of what you're playing. feel free to make fun of me for the lack of knowledge, maybe I'll learn something!

I still have no idea how this is all put together. I suppose the whole rig costs around €3.000 for a band of 6 people. Every member has her own transmitter and receiver? that is already €300 per member. What is the goal of the rig? To have each member listen to a mix which she can completely control herself? Why not only one mono or stereo mix which is the same for all members and conrolled by the stage mixer? Really, I need to get an idea of the basics and the vision behind this system. Thanks.

Great video !

Awesome! Do you have anything for in ear AND playback? I wanna be able to send 808s and samples through the PA as well with a setup like this.

as of 2023, PSM200 is discontinued, you'd be looking at PSM300. They have a two different beltpack options, a plastic one and a metal one. It's capable of stereo, two mono, or mixing two mono inputs.

great video Chris

Nice. I have an additional XLR snake connected so I can take both the send and return XLR for each channel to the FOH stage box. I have both sides labelled and we use whatever mic channels the venue has available (if they only mic snare top then the snare bottom channel isn't used). Great video.

I'm in the middle of building this and I am really stuck on going with the Behringer splitter, or the Art s8 splitter. The Behringer unit while cheaper gets mentioned a lot because it's noisy. What was your experience with this?

Best in ear video out there from what I have found

great video! Is the idea here that you would then have to mic up all your own band every night? or is it assuming the house engineer is going to be micing up the guitar amps, drums, etc?

Hi Chris, please do a video of how to use a loudspeaker management for beginners. Thanks

Thank you! Your video was so helpful for me to understand what I need to consider/get when I plan to get an IEM system. That yes you can get the IEM system but you also need to think about these other things as well. Up until now, I didn't really know all that so now I do and it helped me so much!

Good video mate, clearly-articulated. Thanks.

Very helpful!

So useful. Thank you

Thank you sir for your packaged information

great video! Thanks!

If the FOH sound is mono as 95% of PA's are why would you want to have a stereo mix on stage? It would not be a representation of what is going on.

This is exactly what I was looking for my band. Thank you Chris..
Just one question, can I do the same with XR12 as it got only 2 AUX outs and we are a five piece band. ?

Great video Chris and the best explanation I've seen so far as have just started thinking about this for my own band. One thing I'm struggling with is how it is practical when arriving for soundcheck lets say as the second or third band of the night and needing to ask the sound tech to unplug everything from their stage box and plug it all into ours. Changeovers are often very tight and this just seems like I might encounter a lot of eye rolling and the soundcheck taking much longer while we have to faff about. Then there is the changeover before we actually go on, I suppose if we can leave everything in the splitter then it's a bit simpler but still feels like a lot to think about in 15 -20 mins as well as setting up pedal boards, amps etc. In my case it doesn't help that we use a lot of channels with two drummers, 2 guitars, bass, keys and 4 vocals, what would your advice be there, just perhaps stick to kick and snare for the kits, then instruments and vox?

It makes a lot of sense and would love to have a self mixed in ear stage sound but seems tough to achieve, for my band's set up at least. I guess an alternative might be to send the monitor mix (rather than FOH) to wireless boxes? Obvs I realise you're at the mercy of the local sound tech but just thinking as they often will do a mix for the drum fill and then separate ones for stage wedges whether it's possible to just get those mixes in ear instead?

Sorry, long post! If you have any advice would be a great help!

Effing incredible. I have an XR16 and was gonna sell it to get the XR18. But now I might keep both. Thanks for sharing what you've learned.

Chris, how is the Behringer MS8000 splitter holding up?

Another thing about the X air system, as well as other similar systems such as Soundcraft's UI (which apparently has a really good router, no experience with it from my side tho so I can't confirm) is that, if you tour with your own sound engineer, they can connect to a bigger mixer to mix the front of stage while you mix your own in-ears. I've been asked as a FOH engineer to do this for a band : just mix with a tablet or laptop. One of the band member also use 22" touchscreen monitor, and it's the size of a regular small board! Pretty neat. Just place a computer in the rack itself! You could even go without FOH engineering for smaller venues, just throw an ipad in the mix and you can do both.

I take a different approach to get by with only one mixer (Soundcraft UI24R - 22 in, 10 AUX out).
I use 6 of 8 XLR-AUX paths plus the 2nd headphone out (AUX 9/10)
The 6 AUX paths also go into a Behringer Ultralink MS8000. (Did you notice the difference in level of the link outs? This is not a 1:1 split. The link outs are up to 7db louder than the input signal)
I go from the splitter with one line to the musicians' stage monitors. I send the split as a mono signal into a LD Systems headphone amp. The AUX 9/10 is send directly to the headphone amp as a stereo mix. 
In this way, 6 musicians can receive an individual monitor mix and work either via stage monitor or IEM. Over IEM they can add the Main Stereo-Mix as much as they like.
I then connected radio systems to the headphone amp and also use the cable route for the drums here.
In addition, I pick up the main mix for the vocal effect devices here, which use it to determine their harmony.