hello and welcome back to the channel.
for this episode we're going to put
together an in-ear monitor rack using
the xr18 and explain the process.
for reference i'm using a 12 space rack
for this, but your space needs might be
different depending on the pieces you
use.
with a setup like this you can go into a
venue that is providing PA and use your
own preset in-ear monitor rig, meanwhile
allowing the audio provider to control
front of house sound through the house
console.
of course you can still use the xr18 to
control your own PA as well with this
setup. the important piece for this is
the splitter. let's take a look at this
chart to explain the concept-
all stage inputs must go into the
splitter.
the splitter then has two sets of
outputs. therefore every line going into
the splitter then goes to two places-
the monitor console and the front of
house console.
you can use a splitter snake that
already has xlr tails on it... or you can
use one or more rack mounted splitters
and add your own tails. ultimately, either
way you'll have front of house tails to
feed stage lines to the house snake.
since the xr18 and mr18 each has 16 mic
inputs, and assuming we want to use all
the inputs,
then we'll need 16 channels for our
splitter. i'm using the ART s8 splitter
in this video, which is an 8 channel
splitter.
i'm only going to use one for
demonstration purposes here, but adding a
second one for all 16 channels is just
as simple as a repeating of the
processes explained here.
behringer makes an 8 channel splitter.
EWI makes a 4 channel splitter.
seismic makes a rack mounted split snake
that i haven't tried myself, but that is
what you see this band using in this clip
of their own in-ear rig.
i'll leave amazon affiliate links for
many of these items in the text below.
i'm putting a furman rack mount power
supply at the top of the rack to power
things in the rack.
as most people already know, you don't
rely on the built-in wi-fi in the
behringer or the midas so i'm adding a
rack tray with velcro or hook and loop
to mount my tp-link 1750 router in the
rack.
if you're using wireless iems, you'll
likely want to put the transmitters in
the rack next... unless you're going to
keep them separate.
we'll put the mixer in the rack next
since we're using wired belt packs in
this example.
you need rack ears on the xr18 so you
need to take the existing ends off the
xr18 and set them aside.
replace them with the rack ears that
ship with the xr18.
i'm leaving a one space gap for cable
management so i will put the first
splitter below that gap.
for a second splitter, it's up to you if
you want to leave an additional gap
between them for cable management.
...and speaking of cables, let's start
cabling the rack!
if you use a split snake then you
already have a front of house tail that
is attached to it.
with rack mount splitters we'll need to
add a fan to fan snake that matches our
total number of splitter channels, or
technically you could use a separate one
for each splitter.
i'd recommend 15 to 25 feet for the
front of house tail length. that will
give yourself some flexibility to place
your rack and still reach the house
audio snake.
Important! make sure and label the ends
inside the rack! even though they should
stay connected, well-labeled cables make
troubleshooting easier. use numbers
inside the rack to match the splitters.
meanwhile, outside the rack, on the house
side of the xlr ends, label by the source.
there is a typical stage patch used at
venues and festivals and i'll link to
the video that talks about that in the
text below.
if you label this end of the cable by
source. like kick... snare... and so on... then it
makes it much easier to transpose your
channels to the house patch for the
house tech, no matter what system is
being used.
i'll use wire ties for a bit of cable
strain relief at the back of the rack.
the tails for the house should connect
to the ISO out on the splitter. this
means phantom power must come from your
xr18 or your mr18 since the iso
connection won't pass phantom power.
on the other hand, if for some reason you
want the house supplying phantom power
then use the other outputs.
next, we need a short fan to fan snake to
go from the splitter outs to the xr18.
you could, of course, use short mic cables
instead, but a fan to fan snake is much
neater.
either one - 16 channel fan to fan snake
or two - 8 channel fan to fan snakes to
reach from each splitter to the xr18.
and again, make sure the cables are
labeled and easy to read. i'd label these
by channel numbers.
feed this through your cable management
path from the splitters to the xr18 and
connect one to one.
the ART s8 has the inputs on the front...
and we now just patch our stage lines
into the splitter(s) directly instead of
the xr18 itself.
for example, our kick mic into channel 1...
on the ART...
then our snare...
into channel 2...
and so on...
We do have an option to consider here
though:
instead of connecting our stage lines
directly into the splitter, you could
have one or two snakes or sub snakes on
the stage.
connect that to the splitters and drop
the snake box or boxes on stage near the
drums, or wherever it's convenient.
now we move on to the outputs.
the xr18 has six xlr aux outs.
these are balanced mono outputs.
that means you can have six mono monitor
feeds, or three stereo, and still have the
two left and right outputs for a house
feed when using your own PA.
i do have another video that talks about
monitor setup and how to link the
outputs for stereo monitors and i'll
leave a link for that in the text below.
if you're using wireless in-ear monitors
then i would recommend another fan to
fan snake for those just to keep things
neat.
...and especially if you opt to keep the
transmitters in a separate rack for some
reason. once again, you could use mic
lines though.
something i want to mention here is that
you can buy xlr pass-through connectors,
and various style rack panels, already
punched for various configurations.
this is a panel for another project, but
it might give you some ideas.
for example you could make a panel
similar to this one only with male xlr
pass-throughs and move the outputs to
the rear of the rack if you want. the
pass-throughs make it so it's just plug
and play and no soldering skills are
necessary.
since we're just using wired belt packs
for this project we just need to connect
our xlr monitor lines into the outputs
on the front of the xr18.
so back to the front for this
demonstration.
just connect an xlr cable to the
selected output and run it to the belt
pack.
do this for each monitor mix.
as for connecting to the house pa
just hand your front of house tails to
the house tech and he or she can connect
them following the labels on your
connectors.
to be really efficient and to keep your
settings as consistent as possible, it's
best if you supply your own mics and DIs.
that way your sources don't really
change in your mixer and that helps to
keep your settings very consistent.
as you can see, as long as you get a rack
with deep lids you can leave much of
this still connected at the end of the
gig. faster, more efficient setups and
strikes!
and you can take these concepts and
configure them around a system that is
best for you. whatever is best for your
particular situation.
I will leave affiliate links in the text
below and several video links for videos
that relate to monitor setup and topics
discussed in this video.
make sure and leave me any questions or
comments that you might have!
if you like videos like this please like
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other videos... check out my patreon page...
and i will see you next time!
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