Splitters for using IEMs at gigs

rcv24

rcv24

Inspired
I recently bought a Seismic Audio splitter to use at a gig so that we could run IEMs from our own mixer while still feeding a separate signal to FOH. We had to bail and go back to old school monitors because the club sound guy couldn't get a good enough signal on any of the mics. With the Seismic in the middle, he said he had the mics all cranked to the max and was still not getting a strong enough signal.

Once we took the Seismic Audio out of the mix, he was able to get the signal he expected. A buddy of mine is telling me that the Seismic Audio stuff is junk, and that I should get something like an ART S8. (@unix-guy you use the S8, right?)

I'm electronic engineering challenged, so there is a LOT I don't understand about cabling, signal, etc. However, it seems that since neither of these units are powered, I should expect the same signal loss with the ART as I would with the Seismic. Is that true? Any ideas (besides a completely defective unit) why things didn't work at the gig (e.g., cable length)? Would the ART work better?
 
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We are using the ART S8 splitters. One thing they have over the Seismic splitters is that the signals are isolated for each side of the split. Also, they have a pad button to reduce signal if needed.

As far as not having enough signal, I can't imagine why unless your mics are phantom powered?

Our drummer actually bought one of the Seismic units for another project. I'll ask him if he's noticed any issues.

There are others on here using Seismic splitter snakes... Not sure about the rack mount, but electronically they are no different.
 
i have an S8. it works great due to that isolated split. my main fear is having Phantom Power be sent by both mixers. the isolated send of the S8 prevents that exactly.

i bought some Seismic XLR snakes and they kinda fell apart pretty quickly, so i never bought their splitters. also. dang that's a lot of cable to carry around.

i now keep the S8 unracked and just bring it with some short 8-count XLR snakes for both sides. super small without a rack attached to it, and i can just put it on the ground no problem.

my main thing is to reduce the amount of cable i'm bringing. snakes add up way too fast.

i too don't know why the Seismic would have caused low signal... but i experienced that at a recent gig with the S8. i must have had something plugged in wrong - i was just rushing a proof-of-concept thing i eventually abandoned anyway. so yeah, not sure what happened there.

regardless, the S8 is a much better way to handle the split thing. isolated sends is a must for me.
 
I used a seismic splitter for years, other than most sound guys who just stared at it like it was from another planet, no issues ever. it's a passive split, impossible to suck level, it's hard wired inside. I think he was bullshitting you.
 
FWIW, not a direct answer to your question, but we decided to go in the opposite direction, after messing with splitters, snakes and such.

All drum mics go to FOH, and we get a stereo drum mix back for in-ears. Works like a charm, much simpler, less weight to carry.
 
There's a local band I run sound for all the time and I have been trying to get them to get a splitter - they use the XR18 and are all IEM, but when they play a venue with built in sound and sound guy they just hand the ipad over and ask the guy to mix from their system and take the stereo outs to the house.

As you can imagine, this usually doesn't go well nor does it sound great.

I figured something like the S8 or the MS8000 made the most sense vs the hardwired snake splitters - due to sound quality and transformers/isolatiors what have you. Right?
 
sskkmm said:
There's a local band I run sound for all the time and I have been trying to get them to get a splitter - they use the XR18 and are all IEM, but when they play a venue with built in sound and sound guy they just hand the ipad over and ask the guy to mix from their system and take the stereo outs to the house.

As you can imagine, this usually doesn't go well nor does it sound great.

I figured something like the S8 or the MS8000 made the most sense vs the hardwired snake splitters - due to sound quality and transformers/isolatiors what have you. Right?
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Right.

Or, like I said, just mic their drums, connect those mics directly to FOH, and give them a stereo mix of those drums for their IEMs.
 
rcv24 said:
What about everyone else? (bass, vox, etc.)
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Well, that depends. We have two Axe-FXs, one works for a guitar and bass, another one for guitar and backing vocal. So the Axe-FXs already work as splitters - one output goes to FOH, the other one to the monitor mixer. Lead vocalist uses a floor processor, so again, that one works as a splitter, too. When we used real keys, those had two sets of outputs. Now we're moving to MIDI keyboard, so the sound goes to the sound card that acts as our monitor mixer, from there to wireless IEM systems and to FOH. The sound card is a MOTU Ultralite AVB, it has complex routing inside and can send unprocessed sound to any output from any input, and to the internal mixer as well, which is controlled over Wi-Fi. At rehearsals, we mic the drums and all of the mics go to this card/monitor mixer. At gigs, it's just easier to get a single stereo mix from FOH. The whole setup, apart from Axe-FXs, is a 3U rack, together with wireless systems and a power conditioner.
 
vangrieg said:
Well, that depends. We have two Axe-FXs, one works for a guitar and bass, another one for guitar and backing vocal. So the Axe-FXs already work as splitters - one output goes to FOH, the other one to the monitor mixer. Lead vocalist uses a floor processor, so again, that one works as a splitter, too. When we used real keys, those had two sets of outputs. Now we're moving to MIDI keyboard, so the sound goes to the sound card that acts as our monitor mixer, from there to wireless IEM systems and to FOH. The sound card is a MOTU Ultralite AVB, it has complex routing inside and can send unprocessed sound to any output from any input, and to the internal mixer as well, which is controlled over Wi-Fi. At rehearsals, we mic the drums and all of the mics go to this card/monitor mixer. At gigs, it's just easier to get a single stereo mix from FOH. The whole setup, apart from Axe-FXs, is a 3U rack, together with wireless systems and a power conditioner.
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Gotcha. Makes perfect sense. Unfortunately for our situation, I'm the only one with 2 Outs via my Axe-Fx.
 
rcv24 said:
Gotcha. Makes perfect sense. Unfortunately for our situation, I'm the only one with 2 Outs via my Axe-Fx.
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In that case you need to split the signal elsewhere, like in that S8, sure.

But how do you fit everything into 8 channels?
 
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