DR 260 Yorkville U15P settings (my humble findings)
mvdrums
Posts: 23
Got the 4 yorkville U15P's in the club. Live rock band situation, 800 seater room. Defeated the x-over, and crossed at 82hz with a 24 db lr slope on the dr 260. 41 hz 24 db lr hi pass on the subs. 4ms delay on the tops, various delay times on the 8 18\" subs (to get rid of the power alley syndrome). Pinked the room, but did not trust the curve it gave me. House eq ended up quite flat with a few notches here and there to get rid of room boom. Over all, very pleased with the performance of the dr 260. An enormous difference in sound quality. Thanks gadget for all your help on this one. Matt Jordan Maxxsounds audio/visual co. Boise, ID
0
Comments
Thanks.. I wish I could hear your systemm.. keep up the good work.
Gadget
Is it possible that the speakers are reacting to distortion at its inputs? Some amps sense distortion as clipping and limit the speakers output to keep from damaging the speakers...Make sure the signal chain has plenty of headroom and that even the channel strips don't clip.
Interesting, I went to the website and they don't give an SPL rating but instead have a \"Warning, this speaker capable of EXTREME sound pressure levels\" After perusing the site for a time I noticed that the limiter seems to be tied to the HF circute which bears out my feeling that the limiter isn't so much because of volume but is more frequency Dependant...Are you relying on the auto EQ to set the equalizer? Try flat response on the GEQ and see what happens. Also try limiting the HI of the channel strip for the snare and maybe a bit of compression on that channel if you have that ability..
Keep us informed..
good luck..
Last nights big show went extremely well...MAN was it LOUD.. the band just rocked...14,000 watts in a 50 x50 club...it was ELECTRIC! Got a great recording too...
Gadget
G
It is not at all uncommon for those instruments to produce a HUGE peak that will cause a clip light to glow like geraniums at Chernobyll.
Mikey
Did you try a compressor/limiter on the snare? I have two U15s (bi-amp'd) per side and it just kicks butt for 1200+/- person rooms.
If you look at the waveform of a snare or kick, the peak is some 20+ dB higher than the \"body\" of the instrument. The idea is to compress/limit during the peak and then release to allow the body to come up. That's the sound that you hear on records, at least.
The problem you are having is that the snare peaks are so fast, that you don't perceive them like you would the body of the snare. Essentially, you are trying to get the snare sounding right in the mix based on the sound of the snare body and not snare transient, or peak. Problem is, the body is 20+ dB down from that peak.
It's that transient/peak that is killing you. Once you drop the peak or bring up the body all will be good.
The music that you used during your first post is a testament to this. I'm assuming that it was pre-recorded stuff. If that's the case, it has already been limited and compressed to death.
FWIW, I usually try to maintain about a 12-14 dB crest factor in my mixes. That is, my peaks are about 12-14 dB hotter than my RMS levels.
Don't give up on these boxes. While I haven't tried the powered versions, the passive boxes are amazing when all is dialed in correctly.
I'll post more on your crossover setup later. There are some problems there.
Mikey
Let's take a big step backward in this...
What are your design parameters- What SPL at what distance? What coverage angles? What haystacking levels? What headroom requirements?
Let's see if you even are close to what you expect with these boxes.
FWIW, I just did \"Mainstay\", \"Our Hearts Hero\", and \"The Afters\" in a room that holds about 800. At 65-70 feet from stage I had 107+ dBA. Occasionally, I saw the clip lights come on in the amps. That's normal in a gig like that.
Again, I have 2-U15s per side and was only using one QW218 per side for this event.
It was freakin' loud in the first 35+ feet and almost tolerable at 85 feet. All bands used live drums-with the nasty transients that I spoke of.
Please get back with the design parameters and we can investigate further.
Mikey
So, if you expect 110 at 50 feet, you are already short 7-8 dB. Peaks need around another 10-12 to sound right, so you are essentially not capable of meeting your expectations with this system.
There are some reinforcement issues caused by the room that can help a bit, but the highs still tend to fall off at around 6dB/doubling of distance within the critical distance of a space.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
You might want to look at the Community SLS960. Lotsa output at a reasonable price.
BTW, the reason that I can push my boxes so hard is that I have different crossover settings, cleaner amps, and very controlled limiters. Since you are using powered boxes, you do not have acces to these parameters.
Just wondering, why are you going so loud? Most national acts in big rooms shoot for between 102 and 105 throughout the venue.
Mikey
My electric crossovers are 91 and 96 Hz give or take. My acoustic crossover is about 93 Hz depending on the amount of haystacking. I might vary the electric crossover points by as much as 8 or 12 Hz depending on the amount of haystack that I put on the system.
Mikey
Acoustic crossover?
DRA
Mikey, you da man...
gadget