Best routing practice of IEM gig?
Hey folks. My band is considering using IEM extensively. We plan to play click tracks from a computer which is also responsible for MIDI sequencing and stuff. We are 4-piece and the singer may need a separate click with extra cues and guides. Please bear in mind that we almost only play small venues, maybe also festivals in the future. And we cannot afford a rack for this to control our own mixes. We have to go for a DIY kind of approach. So I have some routing plans in mind but am not sure which is better:
- Split the click signal on stage with a headphone splitter like Behringer HA400 and send them to every member. Aux sends from FOH for monitoring. And everyone uses an analog mixer or headphone amplifier like Behringer MA400 to mix the two.
The strength of this method is that the we have more control of each member’s IEM mix. It is also most robust in case the sound crew sucks. This also saves a couple of inputs because some small venues have very limited amount of inputs.
The weakness is that we have to prepare more gears and a lot of extra routing must happen on stage.
- Input the clicks into FOH with DI boxes. Let the sound guy do the mix and aux sends from FOH.
This is definitely much more convenient for the band. But it requires more inputs and more work for the sound guy which might not be ideal in small venues.
It might also cause more trouble if the sound crew is not professional enough. My bassist recently played a festival for another band and they used this method for IEM. The sound crew sucked so hard that they did not keep a record of the input list during soundcheck. It ended in a disaster because no one knowed which channel to plug into so the IEMs did not work until the second or third song.
What do you think? Which is the most common and suitable method for IEM? Any advice is appreciated!