SBB So, aside from Peter's suggestion, which is essentially to get a small audio/MIDI interface that plugs into your iPad and gives you the 3 audio outputs (backing tracks L&R, click) as well as MIDI In/Out (e.g. Behringer UMC204HD, Focusrite Scarlett 4i4, SSL 2+ MKII, etc etc.) there may be another possible option depending on the capabilities of your Soundcraft ui24r IEM mixer.
I do a similar thing in my band's setup to what you have described. We use a Behringer X32 Rack as our IEM mixer, and have some splitters in the same rack. Everything on stage plugs into our splitters which is cabled into our X32 rack for our IEM split, and then we present a FoH split via a big set of XLR tails that go into either the FoH stage boxes, or their mixer directly.
Now, for Stage Traxx, I use our X32 essentially as our audio interface. I plug the iPad into the X32's USB interface and it presents a bunch of channels to the iPad. In my multitrack audio routing, I run 4 audio tracks - Backing Tracks L&R, drummer click track, band click & cues. Just like you, the Backing tracks need to go to FoH AND IEM while the click tracks only need to go to IEM. So in my case, everything is already routed internally in our X32 for the IEM mix.
The key step is then taking the Backing Track channels OUT of our IEM mixer via two available outputs, and feeding them to FoH alongside all of our other on-stage gear splits.
So, if:
- Your Soundcraft can be plugged into an iPad and become an audio interface to the iPad, AND
- You have 2 spare physical outputs to send the Backing L&R out of the Soundcraft to the FoH, AND
- Your Soundcraft lets you manage the internal routing to make that happen, THEN
you can avoid having to buy an audio interface.
Now, you still need a MIDI interface 🙂 Many of us here love the CME WIDI stuff (https://www.cme-pro.com/) so go check their gear out. I use their H4MIDI WC + WIDI Core chip connected to my ST iPad via USB to allow me to connect to both wired and WIDI MIDI devices (in my case, a Roland SPD-SX PRO, Hotone Ampero II Stage, Line 6 Helix LT, Behringer X32 mixer, and Darkglass Anagram). CME have a variety of products so you can build a solution that meets your current, and future, needs.
At some point you may also reliase that the iPad only has 1 Lightning or USB-C port, so yes, you'll need to get an adapter off Amazon that gives you whatever combo of ports you need.
In my case, older iPad with Lighning port, I have an Adapter that gives me 2 x USB-A + 1 x Lightning. The USB-A ports connect to my X32 mixer and H4 CME MIDI interface while the Lightning port lets me power the iPad.
