IEM Setup Guidance

[Rumbletone]

You should try doing this within the Fractal. I do exactly what you're describing, but all within the Fractal.
I use the 5 knobs on the front of the Fractal to adjust my mix. (one for guitar, one for vocal, one for band mix, one for reverb mix on my vocal).
The Fractal is a mixer.

That’s how I did it before the 351 - but I ran out of I/O because I am already plugging several other instruments into the Fractal.

 

[Rumbletone]

Isn't that overcomplicating things? I use a digital mixer with my band too. My inear comes from this mixer in stereo and exactly in the way I want to hear my guitar in the band-mix. The mixer allows everybody in the band to have his own mix. No special EQs, just the sound that also goes to FOH. What's the point anyway in hearing a different sound for yourself than what the audience hears?

The point of a monitor mix is to hear what you need to hear - if we all just hear the FoH mix, we wouldn’t even need monitor mixes. And in some scenarios that may be just fine, or even ideal. But in many cases it is not - like if you need to hear queues that the audience doesn’t, or if you’re standing next to a loud drummer and want zero drums in your monitor mix.

 

[BBN]

The point of a monitor mix is to hear what you need to hear - if we all just hear the FoH mix, we wouldn’t even need monitor mixes. And in some scenarios that may be just fine, or even ideal. But in many cases it is not - like if you need to hear queues that the audience doesn’t, or if you’re standing next to a loud drummer and want zero drums in your monitor mix.

I think what macky7tyeven mean was - a different Eq than FOH. (maybe?)

Which there many reasons. Your IEM buds may require some Eq'ing (more than just a global) to make instruments sound right.
I LOVE to add my own Reverb mix to my vocal, just in my IEMs. Creates a way better experience.
I will also sometimes throw a (fractal) Stereo Enhancer on the Band mix, just to create some space/depth in my IEMs. (then I'll put my guitar and vocal straight up the middle)

 

[sick pickle]

Isn't that overcomplicating things? I use a digital mixer with my band too. My inear comes from this mixer in stereo and exactly in the way I want to hear my guitar in the band-mix. The mixer allows everybody in the band to have his own mix. No special EQs, just the sound that also goes to FOH. What's the point anyway in hearing a different sound for yourself than what the audience hears?

Agree with this. My band uses a Behringer XR18 and I run a stereo IEM off of it using two of the Auxes. I don't need anything else. I control my mix using my phone. Done and dusted.

 

[BBN]

Agree with this. My band uses a Behringer XR18 and I run a stereo IEM off of it using two of the Auxes. I don't need anything else. I control my mix using my phone. Done and dusted.

When I am mixing my band, I run this way as well (X32 Rack and my IEM transmitter is mounted in there with it). It's great.

But when I'm playing rooms with in house PA - having my Fractal 'mixer' available, is a godsend.
I run the FOH IEM mix (just band, no guitar or vocal) into my Axe3...along with my guitar and vocal (separate inputs).
This allows me to at least control 'me' in my IEMs. I can't count how many gigs we are mid-set and the house engineer decides to start jacking with the input gains....then everyone is complaining about something changing in their IEMs. It happens literally every time.
Now, at least I know I can control my vocal and guitar....and the band mix (if it gets messed up), I can at least increase/decrease the volume.
Even if the FOH engineer let's us connect and use our phones/ipads to mix our own monitors - when they change an input gain in the middle of a set, it sucks to have to go un-snooze my phone, pull up the right page for my mix, and adjust whatever they messed with. The knobs on the front of the Axe 3 (in performance page mode) gives me a quick adjust that is always available.

I WISH Fractal would make a mixer! The Verbs and Delays absolutely destroy the effects in any pro-sumer digital mixer (X18, X32, Qmix, Soundcraft UI)

 

[rustyshed]

Can anyone post a patch with how they feed the axefx with a band mix and then mix they guitar in, im not getting the results I hoped for?

Thanks

 

[BBN]

Can anyone post a patch with how they feed the axefx with a band mix and then mix they guitar in, im not getting the results I hoped for?

Thanks

Yes....but not near my Axe at the moment.
Guitar into Input 1 (row 1)
IEM mix (from the board) to Input 2, (Row 3) on the Axe.

I send my Guitar signal chain (Row 1) to Output 1 (that is my FOH guitar feed)
I put a Mixer block on Row 2.
Spit that guitar feed on Row 1, to also go into Row 2 (into the Mixer block)
I send the Band mix (again, using input 2, Row 3) into the same Mixer block on Row 2.
I send the Mixer block to Output 2.

So what really happened here is - I sent Row 1 (my guitar) and Row 3 (the IEM mix) into a Mixer block. Mix to taste....and sent to Output 2 (plug Output 2 into your IEM.
My Output 1 is just my guitar chain....send it to FOH or your FRFR, whatever.

I even put 'Performance Page' controls that that 2 of the knobs on the front of my Axe control the volume of Row 1/3, which means I can quickly turn up or down the balance between my Guitar in the Axe and the FOH feed.

Not to confuse you even more, but I also send a 3rd signal into the Axe (input 3) which is my dry vocal. This allows me to mix Guitar, Band and Vocal, in my IEMs. I do this because some venues f'ck up your mix, mid set. This allows me to at least have control over my Vocal and Guitar mix vs. the Band. And to add even MORE confusion, I put a stereo spreader (in the Axe) on that band mix to widen it. And I put a nice Reverb block on my Vocal signal, and mix that to taste as well. My IEM mix sounds absolutely awesome.

I will find my preset later today and post it.

 

[rustyshed]

Yes....but not near my Axe at the moment.
Guitar into Input 1 (row 1)
IEM mix (from the board) to Input 2, (Row 3) on the Axe.

I send my Guitar signal chain (Row 1) to Output 1 (that is my FOH guitar feed)
I put a Mixer block on Row 2.
Spit that guitar feed on Row 1, to also go into Row 2 (into the Mixer block)
I send the Band mix (again, using input 2, Row 3) into the same Mixer block on Row 2.
I send the Mixer block to Output 2.

So what really happened here is - I sent Row 1 (my guitar) and Row 3 (the IEM mix) into a Mixer block. Mix to taste....and sent to Output 2 (plug Output 2 into your IEM.
My Output 1 is just my guitar chain....send it to FOH or your FRFR, whatever.

I even put 'Performance Page' controls that that 2 of the knobs on the front of my Axe control the volume of Row 1/3, which means I can quickly turn up or down the balance between my Guitar in the Axe and the FOH feed.

Not to confuse you even more, but I also send a 3rd signal into the Axe (input 3) which is my dry vocal. This allows me to mix Guitar, Band and Vocal, in my IEMs. I do this because some venues f'ck up your mix, mid set. This allows me to at least have control over my Vocal and Guitar mix vs. the Band. And to add even MORE confusion, I put a stereo spreader (in the Axe) on that band mix to widen it. And I put a nice Reverb block on my Vocal signal, and mix that to taste as well. My IEM mix sounds absolutely awesome.

I will find my preset later today and post it.

Thanks, just to be able to load a preset to see it work will help. My pre-sets are quite busy, lots of effects blocks, scenes so need to work through it slowly.
Let me know when you post it.

Thank you

 

[AXEMike]

I thought I would add my two cents on this. I initially went down the road of routing the monitor mix through my axefxIII but ended up using a rack mount mixer to simplify the setup (I had a lot of problems balancing out the mon/axe mix when I was doing it that way). With the mixer you can use any preset without modifying it (using up blocks), and your IEM mix works exactly the same way for everything. I use one knob to mix the mono monitor signal with my stereo guitar signal (it takes under a minute before sound check), feeding the IEMs. It did take up one additional rack space but is totally worth it. I dial my guitar signal out of the main monitor feed to me and mix my full stereo sound (exactly like it sounds through headphones), and then mix it with the rest of the band's mono monitor mix. My guitar sounds exactly the same all the time no matter what the monitor mix is like. To solve the specific problem you mentioned, you could have the one output at +5db running to FOH and just have +3db running to your IEM mix.

I want to add, sometimes we run our mix and sometimes it is provided (sometimes with fast switch over, we don't have time for a sound check), so I needed something that would work in any situation.

 

[BBN]

I thought I would add my two cents on this. I initially went down the road of routing the monitor mix through my axefxIII but ended up using a rack mount mixer to simplify the setup (I had a lot of problems balancing out the mon/axe mix when I was doing it that way). With the mixer you can use any preset without modifying it (using up blocks), and your IEM mix works exactly the same way for everything. I use one knob to mix the mono monitor signal with my stereo guitar signal (it takes under a minute before sound check), feeding the IEMs. It did take up one additional rack space but is totally worth it. I dial my guitar signal out of the main monitor feed to me and mix my full stereo sound (exactly like it sounds through headphones), and then mix it with the rest of the band's mono monitor mix. My guitar sounds exactly the same all the time no matter what the monitor mix is like. To solve the specific problem you mentioned, you could have the one output at +5db running to FOH and just have +3db running to your IEM mix.

I want to add, sometimes we run our mix and sometimes it is provided (sometimes with fast switch over, we don't have time for a sound check), so I needed something that would work in any situation.

View attachment 157229

Love this solution, very simple. Not debating that this is a great way to go.....

But you can do this exact same thing within the Axe 3.
I want to state that just in case someone doesn't have the ability (or budget) to add that mixer rack.
For your Mon 1 and Mon 2, you can do that using Input 2 (L/R). I do this and split the signals to be independent using a VOL block (you can select L or R only).
And send your Looper into input 3.
I also set the Performance Knobs on the front of my Axe to be independent volumes for each 'row', so those knobs act exactly like a mixer.

 

[AXEMike]

Love this solution, very simple. Not debating that this is a great way to go.....

But you can do this exact same thing within the Axe 3.
I want to state that just in case someone doesn't have the ability (or budget) to add that mixer rack.
For your Mon 1 and Mon 2, you can do that using Input 2 (L/R). I do this and split the signals to be independent using a VOL block (you can select L or R only).
And send your Looper into input 3.
I also set the Performance Knobs on the front of my Axe to be independent volumes for each 'row', so those knobs act exactly like a mixer.

What you are describing is almost exactly how I was running it for a while (and there's no argument that it works). I am not trying to change the original poster's strategy, I just wanted to throw out the option that for $130.00 used rack mixer, it massively simplified the whole setup for me and freed up some blocks (that I needed back when I ran the patches on the FM9).

 

[rustyshed]

Can any of you post a preset?
Thanks

 

[rustyshed]

Love this solution, very simple. Not debating that this is a great way to go.....

But you can do this exact same thing within the Axe 3.
I want to state that just in case someone doesn't have the ability (or budget) to add that mixer rack.
For your Mon 1 and Mon 2, you can do that using Input 2 (L/R). I do this and split the signals to be independent using a VOL block (you can select L or R only).
And send your Looper into input 3.
I also set the Performance Knobs on the front of my Axe to be independent volumes for each 'row', so those knobs act exactly like a mixer.

Can you post a preset and explain how you set the knobs on the front of the axe to do this please?

Thanks

 

[AXEMike]

Can any of you post a preset?
Thanks

Here you go. This should get you up and working.

 

[rustyshed]

Here you go. This should get you up and working.

Thank you very much I will give this a go over the next few days

 

[DJD100]

We all get our own IEM monitor mixes, so everyone hears what they need

I listen primarily to the backing track and click/cue with vocals, along with my live guitar as I at times double the rhythm guitar on the backing track.

 

[macky7tyseven]

The point of a monitor mix is to hear what you need to hear - if we all just hear the FoH mix, we wouldn’t even need monitor mixes. And in some scenarios that may be just fine, or even ideal. But in many cases it is not - like if you need to hear queues that the audience doesn’t, or if you’re standing next to a loud drummer and want zero drums in your monitor mix.

Well yes, but that is managed with the inear-mix. Its the same sound that goes to FOH that you hear, but you can change the level of each instrument incl. non/stereo.

 

[Rumbletone]

Its the same sound that goes to FOH that you hear, but you can change the level of each instrument incl. non/stereo.

I don’t understand how “it’s the same” but “it’s different”?

Are you just saying that the individual lines (before they are EQ’d, panned, mixed, etc) are typically the same ones fed to monitor and FoH for mixing? If so, then sure - except to the extent they are different (as noted above, there are sometimes sounds in monitors that are not in FoH, and sometimes sounds that are in FoH but in no one’s monitors…).

 

[Techboy57]

This is my solution for a hardwired one-cable guitar input and IEM output. I am using the Ernie Ball P06411 guitar and headphone cable with my AES EBU digital out from my Mackie DL32R mixer into my Axe FX III AES digital input with an AES/EBU XLR cable. This way, I eliminate my wireless IEM's for smaller stages.

For me, this solution doesn't involve as much of a balancing act or any phase issues. I assign Input Block 2 and send it directly to Output Block 1 to create my in-ear mix. I do this because the headphone out on the front panel of the Axe III is tied to the Out 1 front panel volume control. That way, I use my iPad app to completely control my mix without having to worry about juggling 2 sources for my IEM mix.

I'm using a Mackie DL32R console and I route the AES/EBU output to my Axe FX III AES digital input. This keeps everything digital till the Axe FX II converts the signal to analogue. This can also be done in the analog domain by choosing the input source for Block 2 input (Digital/Analog). I assign my Axe-Fx III's sound to patch to output block 2. Then Output 2 to the inputs of my mixer and I assign my IEM mix to the digital out of my console, Phew.

Sorry if this is a bit complex, but I saw a Rosh Roslin video and it clicked. I am an Audio engineer by trade, and this is how my mind works.




Cheers, Perry aka Techboy57







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[Geoff L]

I just have my monitor send from the desk sent to my IEM... why would I just want to hear me? weird