How do I not annoy FOH engineers at grassroots music venues with my playback and IEM rig
First some context: I’m in a four piece band and we’re exploring improving our live show with playback and investing in IEMs. I’m the one building the rig to make this all possible. We are often a support band at grassroots venues or playing smaller festivals where changeovers are tight and sound checks are limited.
Most advice I find online points to patching all of the live mics via our own splitter so that we have ultimate control via our own mixer of how our monitors sound but I’m concerned this would just annoy the guys/gals running sound who often have far too much on their plate anyway.
I’ve put together a bit of a schematic (apologies for how messy it is) of what I am envisioning for our rig. I’d really appreciate some experienced eyes glancing over our plan. To ensure we get this right for everyone involved.
**The setup in brief:**
- Ableton via UMC404 interface. Backing track stereo L&R goes direct to FOH, click and cues stay internal
- Behringer XR18 as our dedicated IEM mixer, controlled via the app
- 4 discrete IEM mixes (2x wireless systems, mono mixes. Individuals pan hard left or right for their mix)
- Live signals received into the XR18 via aux sends from the FOH desk
**Our main asks from the venue:**
- Backing track stereo line in at FOH
- 3 aux sends assigned to spare stagebox outputs (kick/snare, guitar, vocal)
- Bass we're planning to split at source with a passive DI. One feed to FOH, one directly into our XR18, removing one aux ask entirely
**Our biggest concern** is changeover speed. We don't want to be the band that holds up the night or creates headaches for the engineer. The aux send approach felt like the right balance between getting what we need and not being demanding, but we're open to being told we're wrong.
**Specific questions:**
- Is asking for 3 aux sends on a typical grassroots venue desk reasonable or are we still likely to hit problems?
- Any latency concerns in the chain? Live signal into FOH desk, out via aux, into XR18, out to IEM transmitter
- Anything in the schematic that looks like it'll cause problems we haven't anticipated?
Schematic attached. Thanks in advance