Using a DBX compressor/limiter for in-ear monitors

[Walker]

Hello all,
I use In-ear monitors with the rest of the band using wedges.

I've got my own little Yammy mixer and bring in an aux with the band mix, my signal from my pre' and a couple of mic's of the drums (he isn't mic'd up for FOH).

I rum my IEM's from the headphone out on the Yammy.

I've got a DBX 166 compressor/limiter with a spare channel and I thought it would be a great idea to use the limiter to protect my ears from dropped mic's, feedback, etc, etc.

Any idea how I would set this up? I've looked all over for info, but have found zilch.

Thanks for looking!
Chris

[ironside1966]

That is not a bad idea, but I would be careful about compression by constantly hitting the limiter but for protection only is not a bad Idea.

[Monckyman]

Hiya.
I would set the ratio knob at infinity or 20-1 to give you that absolute brick wall limit, then you can send enough signal through to a level you feel is absolutely enough and tweak the threshold on the compressor down so it opens just before that level.
With careful tweaking on the threshold you can avoid limiting the peaks out of your performance while preventing any serious thumps and squeaks getting to your ears.

I've used this method with a drummer on ears where his first rack tom just flickers the threshold light on the limiter, being the loudest part of his kit,he doesn't want anything louder getting through and it doesn't.
Try to turn down a little overall though,from what you think is OK, you'll soon get used to it and it'll be safer all round.
Good luck.

[Walker]

Thanks very much for the help (again!) Monckyman, I'll experiment next weekend and will no doubt have a couple more questions!

Oh, just thought - how would I physically connect this together? Where would the dbx sit in my setup?

[Walker]

Just a bump... would I run everything to an Aux > send > DBX > return > headphone out?

Is that how I should set it up?

Sorry for being a techn-dork!