How To Set Up In Ear Monitors on a Budget 

Thanks Jeff.

hey Eduardo. sometimes, yes, the best solutions are not actually the best at all. it's what works! Sometimes we have to be creative and think outside the standard box. That's how i ended up with this inear solution. The obvious choice was just to go and get some wireless kits but no money! Money often forces us to be extra creative haha

I've been in the same situation, and you're right -- you can create a livable mix by just adding vocals --- right up until someone wants to record the service, or pipe the music into the foyer, kitchen, parking lot, etc. Then ALL they hear is the vocals because nothing else is being reinforced by the console.

LOL. Yes insane or genius I’m not sure I’ve done a few gym-notorious I seem to have a technique push it until you lose clarity then pull back.

@@evanwindom3265 that’s when you take an aux send or a sub group and feed that, which does complicate things as now you’re running to mixes.

thanks for your kind words Ruben!

Thanks for watching Robert!

PS the reason I gave the Yamaha MG08 as an example was that it has XLR and 1/4” outs.Depending on how you configure it, this will eliminate the need for a direct box. Soundcraft Notepad 8 or Allen & Heath Zed6 are also an excellent options

hey thanks Luke. Make sure you subscribe as I've got another video coming out shortly we'll i'll take you through how it all plugs in together.

+Gracious Vine awesome. Let me know how you got on with your search!

Thanks John. Hope you got something useful from it

Cheers James!

thanks for watching Fil! Yup, i still use my SE215's to this day. I would love to check out some triple or quad drivers though. I mean if the 215's are this decent, how good must a set of those be at over $1000!?!?

great idea! that shouldn't be to hard to do. make sure you subscribe so you be notified when that comes out! thanks

He doesnt dig it. It just want eventually happens because everyone wants to hear themselves so it turns into a battle between FOH and wedges. And the wedges usually win.

Totally agree. These are what I use today actually.

I got quad driver kz zs6 ears and they work really well for under 50 bucks Canadian. Also tried zs5 and wasn't terribly disappointed for 30 dollars.

+Joe Kennedy thanks joe

+Duncan Hazlewood thanks duncan

thanks Dan. super bullet proof solution. i agree.

+Sean Verwey hi Sean. Yeah I guess if you're are a touring band that is a very valid point. In my situation we run the same setup week in and week out. So there is no additional setup considerations. Thanks for watching!

+lordfly911 glad to help! In ears open up a whole new world of possibilities! Just be patient with the team too. It takes a while to get used to

+Joe Martin great! Thanks

+Stephen Mangar thanks Stephen. What in ear set up do you run? Or still looking at options?

thanks! hopefully you got something useful out of it!

selvin saenz hi thanks for the kind words. Glad I could be of some help! With regards to the PM1, I think you might mean the BEHRINGER PM1? If so then yes that is another option. I have no personal experience with it but here are a couple of quick points- 1. It is designed to be worn on your belt which means you have to have a cable run up to your belt. 2. It is no power source which sounds great but without any amplification power source you are probably likely to have low signal level Shure also make a wearable belt pack but it's a bit more expensive. Thanks again for the question and please subscribe if you haven't already as we will have more videos on this topic coming up!

thanks Bob. Good luck on your inear monitoring journey!

Thanks Ken. I acually use the KZ ZST earphones now. Really need to update this video! They’ll dual drivers I believe but still awesome and only $20!!

+Evan Windom yeah that is a challenge for sure. To be honest I don't really know what I would do in that situation. Pray for their hearts? That's ultimately what it might come down to. There is no musical reason for having the amps on stage like that in my opinion. Perhaps offer to move the amps AND the musicians offstage? :-)

+Chad Parker to be honest Chad, I complete agree. One thing I have found, almost a year now into running this setup is the 3.5mm plug on the rolls amp is not as solid as it once was. I’m always finding it comes out slightly.

I would definitely get the rolls. It’s a purpose built device and I love them

Daniel Kwon yes as long as you have a monitor mixer close by the stage or on stage. You should receive a monitor mix from FOH then that goes to your monitor mixer then thats where you adjust your level from.

Once you go in ears , you never go back!

+GGP IMMANUEL BOGOR you will need a way to 1. Generate and run a click and 2. A way to distribute the click. I have a video on how to run a click track. Check that out.

i don't think so but it does have passthrough so as long as power can pass through from your final endpoint you should be fine.

Matt Randall, thank you for the info.

+Don To'o I promise I will make it! Just finding the Time recently. But it's definitely in the works. Make sure you subscribe so you can be notified when it com's out! And thanks for watching

+Pained Hubris hi! Thanks for watching and commenting! The pm50s does not have any limiter built in. I can confirm that. But they do have another model the PM55p I think it is. It has a built in optical limiter www.rolls.com/product.php?pid=PM55P

you have to remember, If everyone in the band goes to in ears, There will be no more feedback,, because No More floor monitors.. just make sure to put the MAIN speakers slightly in front of you..

Yes I believe you can do just that. Should be fine.

Yeah if you are right by the mixer then yeah just plug right into the mixer headphones.

I see your point but the because the cable is tied with the instrument cable then basically no that isn’t an issue. The way I run the instrument cable through the guitar strap it means the input for the headphones on the extension is just sitting there and doesn’t pull at all.

That is really up to the venue you are working with. There is nothing stopping you though from picking this up and bringing it around to other venues.

Matt Randall Awesome! Btw your advice on the video is amazing. This wired set up is probably what I’ll be doing. Also, how would I go about connecting that in their system? Would the box connect to their mixer?

thanks sammy they sound great. i must just go and grab a pair!

Matt Randall 👍👍

oh sucks though. Those KZ ZST earphones look great but they won't ship outside the US :-(

dude! I finally got a pair of these KZ ZST in ears and they are awesome! as good or better than the shures! thanks for the tip!

Matt Randall should I buy those kz zst with or without microphone?

I have no personal experience with the ha400. it is similar but it only has one input. So you could use it to split one monitor input signal to 4 musicians. But they won't be unique or personal. in other words, whatever is in one persons ear will be in the others. The preamp on the Rolls I would assume is a little cleaner and louder than the Behringer but that is not based on anything other than opinion and experience with other Behringer products.

+Rodrigo Fernández glad that it helped! And thanks for watching

there are many ways to get signal from devices into the mixer. If you have audio from an iphone or ipad then a simple DI will do the trick. If you want to run audio from a laptop just out of its headphone jack then yes again a simple DI will do just fine. Something like the Radial AV2 for this is very very good. If you want to run multiple sources out of your laptop, say a click track, and various other backing tracks or stems and you want to run them to separate inputs on your mixer then you will need an audio interface. I have no specific experience with that Behringer DI. Do you have 8 different iphones or ipads that you need to connect up? If so, then it should be just fine. But it's overkill if you only have 1 or 2 obviously. Ideally, you could run all your clicks and backing tracks off a laptop using a DAW like Ableton Live. You will need an audio interface for that.

Thanks Matt, your response is very helpful! Yes, I was thinking of also having our instruments plugged into individual DI boxes then going to the Mixer, to eliminate guitar amps. This is on top of the DI boxes I was planning of purchasing for the device with Prime. So that would be around 5 DI boxes (total of 749.95USD for 5 Radial ProD2 ). Di800 Ultradi Pro is 119.99USD and has 8 channels, so I thought it might be a more practical and cheaper solution.

I’m not really sure what you are trying to do sorry. I suggest you get in touch with a local music store and get some advise too. This video is about adding a cheap solution to your existing setup to give you inear functionality. It sound like though you don’t have any mixing gear at the moment.

You will need two wireless units if you want to wirelessly transmit from your guitar and top your ears.

The answer depends on whether you are asking about plugging drums in or giving the drummer a headphone mix? If you want him to have a feed from the mixer then yes you need to run a line out from your mixer into the headphone amp

Matt Randall I just want him to hear the guitar and bass and vocals .

+thermalxx99 hey thanks for watching These are designed to be used to connect a monitor or aux send from a mixing console not a pedal board. You CAN use the power supply from your pedal power or similar to power it but your pedal board won’t have an aux send. When you play guitar live do you have a mixing console that all your gear routes into? Do you mic up your guitar amp? If you do, the you could run the microphone directly into the rolls box first and then run the rolls into you console. Otherwise ask your audio engineer to give you a feed from the mixing console

Matt Randall thanks for the reply. Understood what u mean...

Hey! Yes I have tried them out and they are actually what I use myself today. They are by far my favourite pair of in ears and they’re super cheap too!

The PS16 is not a requirement, just an option if you want to use multiple units feeding from the same monitor source. But every Rolls monitor amp can be used individually with its own included power adapter.

this headphone amp isn't going to do that for you i'm afraid. But if you're running your voice into a mixing console, then the console may have the ability to run a compressor on it before it sends the feed back to your ears?

For that you would need the Rolls PM55P. It has a limiter built in.

MEE M7 pro? wow, i'm excited about those. i'll have to check them out and let you know! cheers

Ok if you have only 1 aux mix what you can do is this: create a global mix for everyone that has a bit of everything in it. Then using the rolls pm50s box, you plug your global aux into the monitor in. Then the rolls box also has a mic in and through. So this allows you to plug in a mic or a guitar amp or a bass Di or An acoustic Di or whatever you have and it gives you separate volume control. So if each singer or instrument had their own rolls unit they have two inputs : their own instrument or mic and the global mix. They can have as much of themselves and as much of the global mix as they want this way. Bit of a cable mess but it works!

I had to do a lot cable works to this one hehe! Thanks btw! 👍

Just take those wedges away and they’ll have no choice!

You could but why would you need to? You will have to convert the sound desks output to mic level signal otherwise you might damage the rolls unit

+AirunDaPriest you will need to take an output from your mixing console to get a monitor feed into it. Usually an aux channel or a sub out or something. Unless you are talking about the through function in the amp? The pm50s has a way to let you plug a mic or other thing into it directly and then run it out again to a console. I didn't go over that feature as I don't use it for that purpose.

+Juan Ignacio Saba Veloso Good questions. If you have 5 of these boxes and you want to create 5 separate mixes then you will need 5 aux sends or monitor sends on your mixing board. I’ve got a video coming out very soon which we will talk about how it is all set up. As for wireless options, you wouldn’t attach a wireless to this directly. You would just use a wireless version. Unfortunately these are not in the same price range at all really. The M3 unit I mentioned at the start of this video is still one of my favourites. But it’s around $700. I’ve never tried anything that sends a signal wirelessly over Bluetooth like out of the headphone amp. Don’t even know what to use sorry. Stay tuned as I will go into all this in more detail soon

i can't honestly say i've even tried this feature of the pm50s. I simply use them as headphone amps to take an aux signal in from the board. and then each user has their own mix control through an app on their smartphones which can control the monitor sends on the digital board we have. this is supposed to be one of the key features of this device so it would be a shame if it worked the way you described it might. there's another one too, the pm351 which can take a microphone in as well as an instrument in and has stereo balanced outputs. perhaps that might be another good one to check out? thanks for watching!

Matt Randall Ah, I see. Are you running QMix from a Presonus board? I have a behringer, so the app is out of the question, though I have used it elsewhere and Love it.

that is exactly what i'm using yes. the app itself is a bit buggy but it does the job very nicely still.

Yes they do. They used to use the rolls unit as well with a long headphone cable extension. But I have since switched them over to a wireless unit.

Monitor input. The mic input can be used to run another Input like a microphone in. That would then giving you control over a monitor mix AND a microphone. The mic through is to allow you to plug a microphone in and then out again to your main console.

Matt Randall How about if you are drummer and play with metronome?

You can run the metronome into the mic input on the rolls box. My drummer used to use a metronome app on his phone. I got him a 3.5mm to xlr cable and he ran that into the rolls box. That gave him two inputs and control over both.

Matt Randall As a drummer do u think I need to do something with Mic Thru?

i've not hear of the Jamhub before you mentioned it. Sounds like an awesome tool for band practice.

thanks Phil mmmm meat and potatoes. making me hungry.

thanks for the question! I think though you may have misunderstood what this does? This is quite an involved question so if I miss the mark, let me know and I'll try to answer it again. First off, what the Rolls PM50s is ...is simply a headphone amplifier. It is designed to take an audio input source from a mixing console and amplify it so that you can plug a set of earphones in and hear it. How the audio gets into the mixing console in the first place is an entirely different story and not really related to this video I'm afraid. The ONLY reason this lowers the volume of the stage and gives the sound engineer greater control is because by using these to distribute monitor signal to the band on stage, I no longer need the onstage floor monitor speakers. This does not replace a guitar amp or a drum kit. You can use a standard acoustic drum kit and mic it up into your console and then send that audio to the headphone amp. You can use a standard guitar amplifier, put a microphone in front of it and send that input into the mixing console and then route that audio to the headphone amp (just like I do for electric guitar). The key here though is that it really doesn't matter how you create your audio (mic'd up guitar amps, amp simulators, electric/acoustic drums, bass guitar amps vs DI) all the Rolls PM50s is used for is amplifying the audio routed out the aux/monitor sends from your mixing console to your ears. Now, in terms of the other topic of having a trained sound person, yes this is always a big challenge. My advice to you is not to find a trained sound engineer but rather find the most musically minded/gifted person you can spare from the stage and put them behind the sound desk. They will learn what all the buttons do easy enough. You can't have the musicians worrying about how they sound while they are on stage. That is the job of the sound engineer. But overall the switch to inears does not mean removing all your amplifiers and using simulators and what not. It simply means not using any stage monitors. And if you want to use guitar amplifiers, try locating them off stage somewhere where they can be run as loud as necessary to get a good tone out of them without impacting how loud they are on stage. I think it's really time for me to make that follow up video showing the entire solution, not just the headphone amp itself!

excellent answer! that helps! I appreciated that and subscribed :)

+universalblob just glad to have helped :-)

on your should have some kind of aux output, monitor send or if it's a really small board, just a headphone out. connect the monitor in on the pm50s to the aux out on your desk and your away!

This isn’t really about connecting a single guitar and amp to your ears. This is really a solution for those who play live and have their equipment fed into a live mixing console or audio desk. If you just want to monitor your guitar/amp only then you would need to put a microphone in front of the amp and plug the microphone into the rolls box.

@@MattRandallProductions , okay thanks for replying. I use a Boss Katana Head which has a Line Out. Could I use that in this setup? So I don't need a mic?

Doesn’t the katana have a headphone out? If it doesn’t then yes you can use the line out and plug it into this.

@@MattRandallProductions thank you, I've figured it out

+lozleo hmm interesting. I wonder if it's because of the extension cable I use then?

+Live the truth excellent tip on the earphones. I'll check them out! Rolls make awesome stuff.

Hi Stevie. You don’t have any issue with latency over Bluetooth? I get really bad latency using hi end Jaybird Bluetooth earbuds on my iPhone.

yes each band member has their own headphone amp. and Yes if you want 5 separate mixes then you will need to have a mixing console that has 5 separate outputs. I run a presonus studio live 24.4.2 desk which has 10 auxiliary outputs so I can run 10 unique monitor feeds if I need to.

alright matt thanks for that info dude

Hmm tricky problem you’ve got there. Yes this will work but you’d need to provide one of these to every member of the choir. Here’s a thought too. Can the singer who is off tell she is off? Perhaps giving her a monitor might help her to hear better and fix herself

Matt Randall hahahaha, nothing can help her. she says, "I know I can't sing but I just like too." The priest is hoping eventually she'll just leave.... it's been years. ugh.