Audio Software for IEM

[Martin Lepley]

I am involved with Amateur Theatre,

I have been looking at In Ear Monitors (IEM) and was hoping to also "Solve" three problems.

1. Reduce Feedback

2. Singers Timing

3. Singers Pitch

 

Before everyone flames me and says the actors need to learn how to sing. Our group is not one who does just musicals, but on occasion we are called upon to sing. We perform in village halls (not theatres) and our entrance fee is £6 for a concession.

 

My thoughts are:

1. Provide a "guide" track to the IEM , to help them with the timing. 

2. Maybe provide a tone or note for the first note at the start of a song to help them pitch the first part of a song / phrase. 

 

We sing to backing tracks, but we would need some software to synchronise the backing track (that goes to the Main LR, with the IEM track.

 

I am looking for some software for a Windows PC that will have two sound outputs and enable the user to "mix" various tracks to various outputs.

I would like the software to be easy to use and also Somewhere near free (or low cost).

 

Thanks all

 

 

[J Pearce]

Make the backing track mono on L and the click/guide mono on R. Use any convenient playback software or hardware that suits and pan/route on your console.
There's a few windows options. I've not got on with any of them, since I moved away from FX-Live in 2006.

Or buy a mac mini, a 4 output soundcard, a QLab licence, and use the industry standard solution. QLab costs $5 a day to rent a licence, and they'll give you a full time licence after 100 days of renting.

Edited February 3 by J Pearce

[david.elsbury]

Do you have the IEM kit already? Probably going to be a process that requires a lot of adjustment for your performers in rehearsal time. Might be better to rent rather than buy in case it doesn’t work out

[Martin Lepley]

3 minutes ago, david.elsbury said:

Do you have the IEM kit already? Probably going to be a process that requires a lot of adjustment for your performers in rehearsal time. Might be better to rent rather than buy in case it doesn’t work out

Not bought anything yet. It would obviously help with the Feedback, but was wondering how I would achieve the guide tracks etc. We would probably one purchase a single unit (maybe 2).

[DrV]

It sounds like two problems to me : the in ear monitor side of it (of which I have little experience) and the track(s) that you play through it. For the purpose of giving them a note I suggest using the stereo track option suggested above but rather than just a click track you play the first few bars of the song before the proper playback starts. A bit of judicious editing with Audacity (which is free so fits within your budget) and you can synchronise it to the main playback. You could even record the MD giving a verbal "1, 2, 3, 4" mixed on top of it. And if there are parts of a song where they have difficulty remaining in time or pitch the MD can come in again with more prompting.

So you end up with a stereo track, one channel has the audience playback and the other has all the added bits.

It all depends on how well the IEM is accepted (which I think would be the bigger hurdle).

[Dave m]

When people say “IEM” they tend to think wireless. 
There are various home brewed ways to power cheap wired headphones to reduce costs.

Not long ago, I bought a cheap Amazon IEM wireless to distribute audio between a couple of rooms. It works, but untried in anger and probably not too rugged.

If you can access a CRT video monitor and camera (avoid hdmi) you could have a conductor or video countdown visible to the choir. Digital cctv tend to have delays. You need to ensure that the music and video are in sync at delivery