EBS_freak

In fact, scratch that. Just put the wireless direct in the funk trunk.

2 way multi core cable. One side standard XLR (also powers DI over phantom). Other side wired with DC jacks. Power adapter in the SCS funk trunk connectors to the mixer side of the second side of the loom.

I have no problem with MASSIVE kick drums... I actually love it for a live sound... but its when the sound guys attention gives 95% to the kick and 5% everything else is where the problem lies.

Whats next then Tony? Sony DWZ-Orchid DI, Done?

2.3ms compared to 8ms. That's not an insignificant difference.

And the yin to the yan... I would always recommend an external sub. I was looking for a cheapish sound bar with great results... and ended up with this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-SC-HTB690EBK-Soundbar-Wireless-Subwoofer/dp/B00TTYOJUA/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_107_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=HKG77JDD89EYD71NZBC5 - after lots and lots of listening.

All depends upon the gig Preference - silent stage, IEMs, everything goes FOH via PA For the PA and stack route, two things can be achieved this way - FOH is providing the majority of the sound and the stack on stage is just for monitoring.... or the PA is not good enough so you need to bolster it with a bit of beans from the bass amp.... or the PA is just barely good enough for vocals... and everything is provided by amps on stage, generally leaking into the vocal mics and making everything sound awful out front. As for the pedal board - DI yes. But DIs can be quite flashy - like a modeller, or a speaker emulation box... or an DI that colours your sound... (eg valve) or even has an EQ on it. Many, many ways to skin a cat. But doesn't mean that all will get good results.

Hi, I'm Russ. I'll add you on FB. If you are running tops and subs, probability is that you'll be OK ditching the backline and letting the PA do all the work - do you have to boost your amp on stage to help the PA out at all? Or does the PA do the lions share of the work? The Zed is limited on aux sends for IEMs - you only have 2 pre fader auxes and no tone shaping on those auxes. So in reality, you have 2 mono sends available to do IEM mixes. These aux sends, just to confirm, will be mono. You need two auxes to do a stereo mix... although some people like QSC, have been known to put stereo aux outs on an unbalanced socket to provision a one socket stereo feed. Anyway, the aux count is going to be your number one limiting factor. For a band of that size, you really need to be getting into the digital realm to achieve the number of auxes to satisfy everybody if you were to all go in ears. I know Jules was having major issues with her ears - that prompted her to go onto IEMs in the first place. I'm guessing that her ear problems have subsided a little or shes taking one for the team by letting you and the drummer have the auxes.

I know not of this Julia Coles that you talk of but I think I know her Brother, Ray? Minerva haven't got the best track record in terms of reliability - but like ACS, I don't think that they have ever produced a decent IEM for bass users. I include their flagships in that statement. Im guessing that they were silicone based too back then - so you may have had shrinkage... and can you remember if you had an open, semi-open or closed mouth impression? That can impact the fit tremendously. Also, if you had wax buildup, that needed to be addressed at the time to ensure a good fit. You should get your wax buildup sorted anyway, it'll more likely improve your hearing anyway, IEMs aside. If your benchmark for IEMs are Minervas or 215s, you are missing out on a lot. They simply won't give you the headroom or extended lows that you could have. What you have at the moment is like comparing a single 8 practice amp to a three way treble, mid and subwoofer setup that you could have. One would be ragged within an inch of it's life, the other barely on tick over. Customs are certainly the way to go - but it sounds like your experience of it has been somewhat disappointing or unfulfilling. As for wedding/function gigs, then yeah, it sounds like you are in a prime position to go to a pair of decent IEMs. Lots of gigs, lots of awful environments to be in. I always try and sway people to invest in as good an IEM as they can - not because I like spending other people's money - just that I know from real world experience what the difference in the quality of IEMs are and what bolstering the number of drivers etc can do for you. You want to have fun on your gigs... so why would you spend all your time learning your stuff, buying decent gear... for the end point in your chain to be a set of poor performing IEMs? You want it to sound absolutely boss. The ZS10s are probably a good budget option but certainly not something I'd remotely consider as end game. It should give you an idea about extra headroom for bass though. They struggle with stereo separation, the upper mids as I touched on before... the presentation smears the intelligibility of distinguishing between instruments. The other thing, cosmetically, they are a bit Shrek like. Other universals are a lot more svelte and obviously, a custom can be very flush to your ear. From what I know about your setup though, is that you are limited by your desk (aux sends for individual mixes) and the size of the band when it goes out in full - this is certainly where things get more difficult. Also, the more you put out through the PA, the better things get. Run a silent stage and things become a lot cleaner in your inear mix and your foh mix. The limiting factor is what you can put through the speakers - are they capable to put the whole band through? If you are still running a low numbered aux on an analogue desk, you are likely to be pre aux. Pre aux is preferable for IEM mixes as that means any changes to FOH, don't impact your inear mix. Ideally, you want to me moving to a more comprehensive desk in terms of aux count and processing - probably digital... but I suspect that's something that is outside of your control. Also, if the mix is too bright, the chances are is that you are actually using a bog standard DI feed. Things like a speaker emulator can fix that... although an EQ can achieve similar results. The ability to split EQs though, thats where digital desks are helpful! I'm guessing Jules is on Aux 1 of the desk with her EW300... so you'll get whatever is left? If you can find the desk, I'm happy to help with some suggestions.

When it comes to tips, how well a universal IEM seals depends upon two things. The shape of you ear itself and the tip in question. There's a lot of buzz about Comply - they are just tips. Doesn't mean they will fit you better or worse than anything else. It's about finding what fits for you. I know a lot of people who hate Comply because they disintegrate so quickly. You also state that you struggle with foam tips - you do realise that comply are foam tips? Ideally, you need to forget whatevery body is saying about tips and find the ones that fit you. This may mean you buying up and spending a lot of time finding the tips that are best suited to you. My whole adventure into custom IEMs came from poor fit - which is why I ended up going down the custom fit route hence your comments around customs made me raise an eyebrow. If they are uncomfortable and the seal wasn't good, then the customs haven't been made properly. This leads me to such questions as, how were the impressions taken? Were the customs manufactured correctly - or were they even doomed from the start due to the poor impression? Have they shrunk (if they are are silicone). Nothing should fit more comfortable than a custom made IEM... afterall, it's a perfect fit for your ear. With regard to small inear canals, given the fact that the largest IEM market is Asia, I suspect your ear canals are no smaller than the majority of the users of custom IEMs in the world. As for multiple drivers, the key thing is that they don't necessarily sound better... but crucially they will give you more headroom - which is very important to a bassplayer as bass farting out is going to be thing that gives out first. The ZS10s are actually a pretty good piece to talk about here. With the multiple drivers and dynamic drivers in the lows, they have a lot of headroom, especially in the lows but at the expense of clarity that would be given by a balanced armature. (BAs are very good at detail but don't sound as wam or have the headroom of a dynamic, hence why BAs tend to be doubled up - especially in the lows). Now for the not so good bits - the ZS10s are not a great sounding IEM for critical listening. They have some phase issues going on and there's something in the 1-4k area which is not great. BUT... as a monitor, you'd rather have the headroom so that they are free from distortion than a perfectly nice response curve. The ideal is both... and thats why the main players in the custom market have got it sewn up. For starters, they are a custom fit = better isolation and comfort. This means you don't have to drive them as hard - so less chance of distortion. They then spend many, many hours of R and D in getting the tuning of the IEMs right... and this may even lead to the specification of custom made balanced armatures to engineer out the acoustic weaknesses that would be in place with off the shelf drivers. Budget and small manufacturers aren't interested in this and/or the associated costs. Also, what was the problem in getting the bass from the desk? Unless you are running a post DSP setup, the signal you get from the desk should be the same. With regards to the 215s being fatiguing - that may actually be a case of distortion, maybe not as much to be actually hearing an edgy distortion but certainly enough to fatigue your ears quickly. I would also suggest that everybody runs a stereo mix to increase the spacial separation - again, this helps to combat distortion but also avoid the instruments maskings each other. Ideally, you should carve the EQs individually so there's space in the frequency range to allow each instruments to sit clearly - but I understand that without running individual mixes front of house to IEMs, this can be difficult. If I was to offer any advice, get some ZS10s to see you through and save for a set of properly made customs.

Bargain price!

Make sure you come and say hi. I think you'll be impressed - certainly a big step up! @intime-nick - how are you finding your UE6s? You've gigged them now haven't you?

Glad that they are working out for you Andy. A revelation eh? The Roxanne is a cool piece 😛

Get some ZS10s for now and save up for some UE6s.

This is easy to get around. Bass -> DI1 -> DI1 passthrough -> DI2 (with eq controls etc for yourself)... FOH have the balanced out from DI1.

It all depends upon how good your IEMs are to how much you'll appreciate the performance. If you get it right, you'll wonder why you ever bothered with a rig. If you are reliant on monitors then you'll want to ensure that they are good ones... (which invariably they aren't and will fart out at the faintest sniff of bass). I personally like the sound of a DI, but you may want some means of EQing the sound to your ear independent of front of house, as you may find the DI signal a bit thin in your ears if you want to experience the full bloom that you would normally get with a bass rig. There's loads of discussion about this in the big IEM thread in the Accessories section of this site... and the FRFR thread brings it up a few times.

935s are a great mic but over yourr budget... but would be my go to recommendation, Ive never really dug on Shure 58s in both beta and non beta variants. The 58 is an old design - trusted maybe, but tech has moved on to far superior products. If you want to lower the budget from that a bit and get closer to the £100, I'd look at Heil PR22UT, if not PR20UT. The only other mic I would really consider under the £100 mark is the Audix OM2 and the AKG D5 (which is an absolutely boss mic despite it's low pricetag).

Which is a lot of latency considering the latency of the SmoothHound isn't exactly minimal. With todays tech, 4ms is the absolute maximum that anybody should be entertaining.

Should probably clarify - you can get ear impressions there and then at the show. People seemed shocked by that!

Umm... possibly... I'd say it's a high probability! I don't get to know the deals until the day but it's usually worthwhile making the effort to go. There's usually free impressions on offer, so that will typically cover your transport and entrance fee for starters... and the discounts are usually pretty sizeable to make a visit worthwhile... but that's' about all I know before the show.

Heads up - at London in Olympia with CIEM co at the drum show if anybody wants to have a listen to stuff.

I know right, pretty impressive!

I know its Coldplay - but linking back to the original thread, this is the video that sticks in my mind from them... Would have posted a YT link but it would appear that the powers that be have deleted a load of Coldplay videos. Some one argue thats a good thing....?