• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Wired IEM, where to place external limiter?

mrharrell

mrharrell

Guest
Nov 5, 2013
175
12
Johnson City, TN
#1
As the title suggests, I'm looking for some info on where I would place an external limiter in a wired IEM chain. My church is getting ready to make the move to IEMs soon, and it looks like my budget of $400 is going to dictate that I go wired.

The other musicians, except for the drummer, are going with the Carvin EM900 unit. This unit looks solid, but those single driver buds have me worried. That unit would max out my budget, so I'm looking at some Westone UM20 or UM30 PROs, and a headphone amp. I'm considering the Rolls PM55P for a headphone amp. It has a built in limiter, but there are no specs on it on the Rolls site other than "Limit Threshold: 0 dB". I have no idea what that spec really means, so I thought I might just use a headphone amp and an Alesis NanoCompressor that I have sitting around. The Alesis seems to do a decent job of limiting, but I have no idea on where to place it in the chain. The church is getting a Behringer X32 board as part of the move to IEMs, so I will have my own AUX send which I can mix via my smartphone. So do I place it between the AUX send and the headphone amp, or run it between the headphone amp and my IEMs?
 
#3
I just got the em900 IEMs and I've used them for two gigs. the stock earbuds are very trebly and I'm thinking I'll have to put an eq module before them or buy new earbuds.
anyway, I used to have a nanocompressor which I found pretty useful -- I was recording on a cassette four track at the time so maybe my fidelity standards were not super high!

give your nano a line level signal, not a headphone level signal. that means mixer --> nano --> headphone amp --> earbuds.
 
#4
I'm running;
FOH, Bass, Mic > Rolls PM351 > Symetrix 501 Comp > EQ > Wireless IEM

Are you going to be running stereo? If so - I would consider the Alesis 3632. Seems like a good option for IEM. If I were running stereo I would be getting one.

I run wireless with my gigging bands, but when playing at church I just go wired with the Yamaha system the church has. This system has a variable limiter, and I just plug straight in.
 
#6
Thanks guys. I'm not certain if it is a stereo or mono send that I'll get. I'm betting stereo, which inclines me more towards the Rolls PM55P. I'm just iffy on that built in "optical" limiter.... I don't want this to end up being more complicated than it needs to be, but I certainly want the best sound I can get.

@morgansterne, I was reading somewhere online that the carvin buds took around 20 hours to break in. I thought they might be an option, if I could deal with that time frame and also do without some of the other instruments in my mix.
 
#8
Not being able to tweak the limiter is my only concern on the PM55P, as I'll be able to mix via iPhone. Can you tweak the limiter on other systems? According to the carvin manual, their limiter can either be set to on or off, but that appears to be the only tweaking available.
 
#10
mrharrell - there is a built in digital limiter on the X32. Not sure of the specifics, but I did find this:

Link Removed

I'm pretty sure that is how we have our IEM's set up. (not positive - I don't run sound in that band) All our IEM's are hardwired, using a 6 channel Rane studio headphone amp. I really like using my ipad/iphone to mix my own in-ears.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back