drive rack PA2 Calibration mic clipping?
Toneman49
Posts: 1
Tried to use a new dbx rta mic on the Drive Rack PA2. It gave me an error message, "clipping detected at the mic." or something like that... It would not complete the auto tuning. I switched to another mic, AT 2021 and it worked with no hitches. The system sounded awesome!
Lost the first dbx rta mic a few months ago and have been using the AT2021 as a sub. System always sounds great.
Midas, Behringer, dbx, Crown, RCF
2
Comments
Check the Wizard Option:
Wizard>Wizard Options - Level Assist Auto Trim: Off/On
That might be the issue. Glad you like the PA2 though and found your way through it! Ingenuity by necessity, good for you
I am trying to use the PA2 with a DaytonAudio EMM-6 RTA mic. The DriveRack returns that the mic is clipping right after the first (quietest) autoeq test. I plugged in an AT813R condenser and the autoeq worked fine (although I don't think this mic is appropriate for it because it is cardiod). I then noticed that if I go to the RTA screen with the EMM-6 plugged it, it registers -30db in the lowest band rolling off at higher bands with the 200Hz band being the first one to register no signal (quiet environment). When I use the AT813R no bands show signal in my quiet environment. SO, this sounds like the EMM-6 is generating some kind of low frequency noise of it's own. EXCEPT when I plug it into a USB interface and use REW to see the RTA signal, I don't see this low frequency noise, and the EMM-6 and AT813R give very similar RTA readings. As to the above post, the Level Assist Auto Trim setting has no effect. Has anyone here successfully used an EMM-6 with a PA2?
Did you change the RTA Mic Response? Go into Wizard>Wizard Options and change the dbx mic response to Flat
Yes I tried both mic response settings and got the same result. I would be willing to purchase an RTA-M if I knew it would fix the problem, but if the issue is with the unit, then I don't want to waste that money. Is the EMM-6 known to work with the PA2?
I have no case data on any other brand of RTA mic's tbh. We only recommend our dbx RTA-M for use with the DriveRack "officially."
If you're concerned perhaps it is a problem with the unit, really all I could recommend troubleshooting wise I would try wiping the unit with the manufacturing updater and see if it resolves any issues:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11jd2vWlVjO5Z3pfYK9RzEgVQ1EeNFi8F/view?usp=sharing
Other than that, I think it's worth getting the dbx RTA-M tbh.
I struggled with the RTA mic and another mic trying to level and eq. I was in a controlled environment but getting clipping, level too low, too much background noise. Made no sense. I did the factory reset twice, I changed the wizard setting to flat and auto trim. None of this helped, so I went and reinstalled the firmware.
This was a bit scary as after wiping the firmware, I couldn't get Windows to load the unsigned driver to talk with the PA2. Ultimately I ended up needing windows 10 on a machine I had full control over (work machine was too locked down) so I could enable unsigned drivers from the special boot menu.
Once the firmware was reinstalled, the auto level and EQ worked first pass. Odd that the firmware went bad in this way but this is the only thing that worked. It would nice if Harman would update the firmware update kit to include a signed driver as not having one made this much harder then it needed to be. Also, a Mac version of the same would be sweet.
If this is an AI Bot, well done, if this is a person, thanks for your insight!
I think this PA2 has serious issues. It's been back to RTA clipping and RTA not detected.
Factory reset doesn't help. I guess I need to send it in for service and a software upgrade.
It worked correctly after I reloaded 1.1.9 firmware but seems to have lost it's mind again.