Touring has never been more expensive than it is now, when we need live music more than ever. Gas prices, merch cuts, cost of living – it’s all hitting musical acts at every level, from local and regional to national and international, hard.
So what do we do? Adapt, of course.
Touring has maybe never been more expensive, but powerful gear has never been this accessible, either. We at Gear Gods are helping smaller bands to hit back with this update to the All-in-One Rack that we pioneered back in 2019, with an injection of modern, easy-to-use tech thanks to Sennheiser’s EW-D wireless systems (which are all on sale until June 30th).
If you recall, the idea behind the original All-in-One Rack was to get guitar + bass tones, IEMs, wireless instruments, mixer, playback/MIDI control, and FOH I/O all in one 16u rack. We managed to do that pretty well with what we had on hand, but the time has come to upgrade it – and to put the power where it belongs, in the hands of the artists.
You shouldn’t have to bring a whole engineer with you just so you can have optimal monitoring and control over your sound. You’re already maybe bringing your own front-of-house sound engineer, a roadie/van driver, and that mouthbreathing girlfriend-stealer who can’t keep the beat (a “drummer”). Especially not when it’s so easy these days to do it yourself.
Our design uses the following:
All Sennheiser EW-D gear on this list is on SALE til June 30th in honor of their 80th Anniversary, and you can also enter to win 1 of 80 pairs of Limited Edition Ruby Red HD25 headphones – see full rules and how to enter here.
3x Sennheiser EW-D 835-S Wireless Microphone sets (handheld microphone + rackmount receiver set) – for the 3 singers in the band
3x Sennheiser EW-D CL-1 Instrument Wireless Set (instrument wireless transmitter pack + rackmount receiver set) – for the 2 guitars and bass
5x Sennheiser XS Wireless IEM sets (transmitter + receiver body pack) for in-ear monitoring for the whole band
2x Sennheiser EW-D ASA Antenna Splitter Kit –
1x Sennheiser AC 41-US Antenna Combiner –
2x Sennheiser ADP UHF Directional Antennas
2x Sennheiser GA 3 Rack Mount Kit for
2x Sennheiser BB25 25″ Coaxial cable to connect ADP UHF antennas
1x Sennheiser AM 2 Antenna Front Mount Kit for attaching the 1/2 dipole antennas
1x Sennheiser EWD HW-Q 1/2 Dipole Antenna set
3x Line 6 HX Stomps for guitar and bass tones and effects, switched through MIDI from Cymatic LP-16
1x CIOKS DC7 power supply to power the HX Stomps
1x Cymatic Audio LP16 Live Player – Cymatic actually went entirely out of business, and these are no longer made. You can usually find them used on Reverb.
1x SKB Rack Shelf to hold the Cymatic LP-16, the HX Stomps, and the CIOKS DC7 power supply
1x Behringer Wing Mixer – replaces the X32, the ART S8 8 Channel Mic Splitter, and the Hosa PDR-369 Mic In Panel all in one unit. Used to take all the incoming signals from the mics, guitars, bass, keys, drums, tracks, and click, and allow each member to create their own stereo in-ear mix with their device, and send all the instruments to FOH through the next piece of gear on the list:
1x Midas DN4816-O StageConnect Interface – a “digital snake” that allows us to take 16 outs direct from the Wing to send out to FOH
1x Furman M-8×2 Power Conditioner – this is just the one I had on hand, but it’s actually one outlet short, I recommend one with more outlets
1x 2U Rackmount 2U Rack 2″ Extender – the rack case we used is very compact and narrow, but the shelf is full size, so we needed extenders to make it fit. I’m including this because we used it but if you are using a normal sized rack case you won’t need it.
1x OSP SC16U-12 16 Space ATA Shock Effects Rack w/Casters – We initially went with this one because it’s very compact compared to other cases. They do not make this case anymore. I don’t know why. Here’s an equivalent you can use instead:
1x Gator G-TOUR 16U Case w Casters – this one is full depth, so it will easily hold all your full depth gear.
Cables:
18x Hosa HMIC-003 REAN XLR Cable 3′
10x Hosa HSS-003 1/4” TRS Cable 3′ – $10.95 each
2x Hosa MID-301BK 5-Pin DIN to 5-Pin DIN MIDI Cable, 1 Foot
1x Hosa MID-305BK 5-Pin DIN to 5-Pin DIN MIDI Cable, 5 Feet
3x Hosa CPE-118 Right Angle to Right Angle Guitar Patch Cable, 18 Inch
2x 2 pack Audio 200s TRS to XLR Male Right Angle 3′
The Set Up
I think one of the things keeping bands from doing their own in-ear and other wireless systems is the perceived complexity and difficulty of it. It certainly seems like it’s hard to do – the second I hear the word “frequencies” I’m already glazing over.
Which is why we went with the Sennheiser EW-D wireless gear for this. What I need from this kind of setup is as much automatic function as possible, to take the guessing and fumbling out of the equation for when it counts – onstage.
EW-D makes it outrageously simple to scan and connect your wireless gear so you can just get onstage and play.
The connection of all of this gear is pretty straightforward –
Guitar + Bass wireless: Antennas —> EW-D ASA Splitters —> EW-D wireless receivers —> HX Stomps —> Wing Mixer
Wireless microphones: Antennas —> EW-D ASA Splitters —> EW-D wireless receivers —> Wing Mixer
IEMs (Sennheiser XSW): Wing Mixer Outs —> XSWs —> AC-41 Antenna Combiner —> Antenna
Front of House: Wing Mixer —> Midas StageConnect —> FOH
There’s never been a better time to build or upgrade your band’s live performance rack. What are you waiting for?
