Plan, wire, and ship a rack rig
Hands-on writing for engineers and band techs building IEM, playback, and broadcast rack rigs. Start with the fundamentals, then dive into the deep ends — every guide is free and links back into the planner so you can apply it immediately.
Featured deep-dives
Building a Click + Tracks Playback Rig: From Laptop to Multi-Output Interface
How to build a live-performance playback rig that runs click + backing tracks reliably — interface sizing, routing rules, software comparison, and what to do when the laptop crashes.
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Going From Wedges to In-Ears: A Band’s Step-By-Step Transition Plan
A plain-English plan for bands switching from floor wedges to in-ear monitors — what to buy, what to expect at the first rehearsal, and how to not hate it.
Read guideFind your path
Pick a track — from first rack to tour-hardened, plus the desk's gear verdicts, industry news, and community takes.
Fundamentals4 guides
Start here — how an IEM rack actually works, from the first input to the last earpiece.
BrowseWireless2 guides
RF that survives showtime: coordination, antennas, and dropout-proof habits.
BrowsePower1 guide
Clean, safe power for the whole rack — conditioning, budgets, and what trips breakers.
BrowseNetworking2 guides
Dante and the digital backbone — switches, clocking, and cables that carry everything.
BrowseWorkflow12 guides
Faster builds and tours that run themselves — planning, labeling, packing, shipping.
BrowseGear Reviews3 guides
Verdicts with receipts — audited specs, tracked street prices, and owner-rating data.
BrowseNews & Releases1 guide
The industry news that reaches your rack — releases, firmware, RF policy, and the read.
BrowseCommunity3 guides
What the community actually racks — first-party takes grounded in published rigs.
BrowseFundamentals
Start here — how an IEM rack actually works, from the first input to the last earpiece.
IEM Rig Basics: A Beginner’s Guide to In-Ear Monitor Systems
What an IEM rig actually is, the components that go into one, and how to plan your first one without overspending or blowing a circuit.
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From Stage to Ear: How Audio Flows Through an IEM Rack
A walking tour of the signal path from microphone to in-ear monitor, with what every box in the rack actually does to the audio along the way.
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Ambient Mics for In-Ear Monitors: Killing the “Locked in a Box” Feeling
Why sealed IEMs make you feel disconnected from the room — and exactly how to put the audience back into your mix with one or two well-placed mics.
Read guideWireless
RF that survives showtime: coordination, antennas, and dropout-proof habits.
Wireless Frequency Coordination for In-Ear Monitors
Why your wireless mics and IEMs need a frequency plan, what intermodulation means in practice, and how to coordinate channels for a clean show.
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Antenna Distribution and Combining for Wireless IEMs and Mics
When you need a combiner vs a distro, active vs passive, cable choice and length math, and how to scale a 4-pack rig into an 8 or 12-pack without intermod nightmares.
Read guidePower
Clean, safe power for the whole rack — conditioning, budgets, and what trips breakers.
Networking
Dante and the digital backbone — switches, clocking, and cables that carry everything.
Personal Monitor Mixers Compared: Aviom, Behringer P16, Allen & Heath ME, Klang
Aviom A-Net vs Behringer Ultranet vs Allen & Heath ME vs Klang Dante — the systems-thinking comparison, not the shopping list. Cabling, distances, console integration, and a decision tree.
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Dante vs MADI vs AES50: Which Audio Network Should You Use?
A practical comparison of the three audio-over-network protocols you’ll encounter in a rack rig, with guidance on when each one is the right pick.
Read guideWorkflow
Faster builds and tours that run themselves — planning, labeling, packing, shipping.
Stage Plots and Input Lists That Sound Engineers Actually Want
A plain-English guide to writing the input list, stage plot, and patch sheet that house engineers want — without the jargon, with examples, and with a free way to generate one.
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Picking an Audio Interface for a Live IEM Rig
How to choose between a digital mixer, a Thunderbolt interface, and a Dante converter as the brain of your IEM rack — with concrete picks at each tier.
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IEM Limiters and Hearing Protection: Settings That Actually Save Ears
A feedback squeal in a sealed ear can hit 130 dB SPL instantly. Where the limiter goes, what thresholds make sense, and the daily soundcheck habit that verifies it actually catches.
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Setting Up Stereo IEM Mixes on an X32 / M32
Step-by-step: linking aux buses into stereo pairs, pre-fader vs post-fader, routing buses to Ultranet vs physical XLRs vs AES50, and adding a bus-level limiter.
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Redundant Playback: Two Laptops, an Auto-Switching Interface, and Why You Need One
How to build a fail-safe live playback rig with primary + backup laptops, an auto-switching audio interface, and a failover workflow you can actually trust on a Sunday morning.
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SMPTE Timecode for Worship and Touring: Locking Tracks, Lights, and Video
LTC vs MTC vs MIDI Clock, how to generate timecode from Ableton or Playback, how lighting and video receive it, and the frame-rate mistake that drifts every show.
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Click Track Bleed: How to Stop the Audience Hearing Your Metronome
Where click track bleed actually comes from, the routing rules that prevent it, and the side-chain trick that saves a vocal mic when isolation isn’t enough.
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Tactile Transducers for Drummers and Bassists Using IEMs
Why sealed in-ears strip the low-end feel from drums and bass, what throne shakers and platform shakers actually do, and how to wire one without runaway sub-bass.
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How to Split a Live Input Signal Between FOH and Your IEM Rack
How to split mic signals between FOH and your IEM rack: transformer-isolated splitters, phantom power rules, and where to place the split in the chain.
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How to Ground Your IEM Rack and Eliminate Hum Before It Reaches Anyone's Ears
Hum in an IEM mix hits harder than in wedges. How to design ground loops out of your rack — power, DIs, wireless transmitters, and laptop playback.
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How to Build an IEM Rack: Case, Gear Order, Power, and Wiring
How to build an IEM rack: choosing case size and depth, ordering gear by weight and heat, power sequencing rules, wiring practice, and a pre-show checklist.
Read guideGear Reviews
Verdicts with receipts — audited specs, tracked street prices, and owner-rating data.
Behringer X32 Rack Review: The Budget Monitor Brain That Actually Delivers
Behringer X32 Rack review: 40 inputs, 25 buses, dual AES50 and Ultranet in 3U at about $980 — who it fits, and who should buy a stage box instead.
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MOTU M2 Review: The $200 Interface That Has No Business Being This Good
MOTU M2 review: tracked flat at $199.95, Gear Score 92, ESS Sabre32 conversion — and why 0U and two outputs cap it as a backup interface.
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Shure P10T Review: The Benchmark That Earns Its Price Tag
Shure P10T review: two stereo IEM transmitters in 1U at $3,899 catalog. Specs, networked control, and who should buy a lower-tier rig instead.
Read guideNews & Releases
The industry news that reaches your rack — releases, firmware, RF policy, and the read.
Community
What the community actually racks — first-party takes grounded in published rigs.
Behringer X32 Rack: The Budget Monitor Brain That Keeps Showing Up
Why the Behringer X32 Rack keeps showing up in community IEM rigs: 40 inputs, 25 buses and 16 preamps in 3U, and what people actually pair it with.
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Furman PL-Plus DMC: The Rack's First Resident
Furman PL-Plus DMC mini-review: front-panel metering, pull-out rack lights, 8 rear outlets — and the one thing a conditioner won't do for your rack.
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Sennheiser SR IEM G4: The Rig's Workhorse, Validated by the Community
Sennheiser SR IEM G4 review: the half-rack transmitter in 6 of our last 15 community rigs. Input quirks, power draw, rack fit and tracked price.
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Occasional, practical, zero fluff — new guides and planner features for people who build and run rack rigs. Unsubscribe anytime.