I was recently asked by a friend about how to set up in-ear monitoring for just himself. He’s a metal singer, so he really just needs a single channel. I found this to be an interesting scenario because I typically think about systems for entire bands.

Design

This is a pretty simple solution because we only have a single channel to deal with. The only real trick here is splitting the signal so you can feed both the PA and the IEMs.

Gear

The following gear can be acquired to build this system without spending too much money. I include easy links to buy these at the bottom of the post.

Microphone - Shure SM58

Almost all my mics are Shure and I trust their gear. This one is an industry standard for vocals.

Cables - Hosa XLR-120
Hosa makes great cables for a great price. I rely on these all the time. Get whatever length makes sense for you and get two. Connect one from your microphone to the splitter and one from the splitter to the PA. You could just connect the splitter directly into the PA and save a cable, but in many situations the house won’t want that.

XLR splitter - Hosa YXM-121 XLR3F to Dual XLR3M Y

This item will split the signal so you can connect to your wireless transmitter while still sending a copy to the PA. Make sure you get the female to dual male version as this is required by the microphone.

Wireless IEMs - Shure PSM300 P3TRA215CL

Pro wireless transmitter and bodypack receiver with standard ear buds that fit most people. This will get the signal into your ears and you can upgrade to custom ears later if you so desire.