Stage monitoring system suggestions?

maxdown

maxdown

Fractal Fanatic
Our problem is that with drums and small stages/venues we are usually too loud on stage - everyone is on top of each other and we have to get the volumes up to at least hear ourselves over the kit. Tinnitus city.

We hire in the FOH PA and sometimes we get the full monty as in the hire guy does sound for us but for small gigs he might drop off the gear with a stage size mixer and we do it ourselves.

What we are considering is investing in our own bring with us everywhere (wireless preferably) monitoring system (just the console) with 6 separate stereo monitor mix outs and then we could use IEMs and they'd serve as both monitoring and ear protection devices.

The individual instrument and vocal feeds would also need to pass to the FOH console unprocessed. These would need to be XLRs - so the 'monitoring' console would either need channel XLR outs or maybe we'd need some sort of splitting via a stage/snake box?

I'd say our maximum number of mic and DI feeds needed would be 18 .... so annoyingly a 16 channel console is unfortunately just leaving us a little light when we need to do a full kit mic up and run the keys/guitar in stereo etc.

Anyone doing this? Any suggestions?
 
Mackie DL32R is what we use.

Also, the Behringer x32 is a very popular choice.

However, check the specs because most of the ones I investigated early on would not support 6 stereo aux buses easily. The DL32R can have 7 if you don't need to send main L/R. I think the X32 can do 6 or 7 but they are not all XLR.

You'll want XLR splitters. The ART S-8 work well, and are isolated circuits plus include a pad switch. However, they are only XLR, so they suck if you need to input a 1/4" cable.

We use 2 S-8 units in our rack... But I'm actually planning to pick up a 24 channel Seismic Audio unit. They are not as fancy, but the snakes are hardwired (pros and cons for that) and all the input jacks are Combi jacks so you can run XLR or 1/4".

In our case, we are totally silent stage (everything is 100% direct). The only thing you really hear without a PA is the singer :)
 
Having 6 stereo IEM mixes would be tough on most systems. My band uses the Midas MR18 and can do 6 mixes but not stereo. You could look at this presonus unit: https://www.presonus.com/products/StudioLive-RM32AI. I have zero experience with it so can't say I'd recommend it. The Art S-8 splitters (suggested above) or Behringer MS8000 splitters will work but you'll need 3 for 18 inputs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom