Should I buy a DriveRack?

fiddler

Hello all,

I am doing sound for a contra dance weekend at a camp on a big lake in Montana. The venue is a long room, usually a dining hall. It was not designed with acoustics in mind. The instrumentation is traditional; fiddles, guitars, piano, maybe a bass or banjo, with a caller roaming the room with a wireless headset. Two different bands alternate sets during the weekend. We have had problems with feedback in the past and I need a way to tame it.

The sound system is cobbled together and includes a Mackie 1402, Alesis EQs, a SoundTech compressor, Crown, Carvin and Peavey amps, JBL and Yamaha mains and EV monitors. We use the JBLs at the front and the Yamahas about half way down the hall.

My questions are:
Can one DriveRack handle the front/back + monitors setup?
Will the DriveRack replace the EQs and compressor in my current setup?
Will the DriveRack let me control feedback and still reproduce the clear sound the musicians strive for plus clear spoken voice from the dance caller at levels high enough to be heard and understood by 100+ moving dancers?

If yes, which one should I get on a limited budget?

Thanks for your help,
Roy

Dra

YES!

I assume that the JBL's and Yammies will be facing the same direction, and NOT facing TOWARD each other. If this assumption is correct then you are golden with the DR260.

What the 260 will do for you:
Allow you to individually tune each set of speakers to achieve a nearer flat repsonse.
Allow you to use delays on any output to time align the mid-room speakers. (there is over 2-1/2 secs of total delay available to share between the 6 outputs.)
If you run a mono FOH then you can also control a single monitor mix (most folk / gluegrass players perfer a single mix).
Individual feed back suppression for FOH and monitors (in the above set-up).
Ind. 28 band GEQ or 9 band PEQ for same.
4 PEQs on every output (for first item above).
If you use compression on the whole system, it will do that, but we don't recommend it.
Limiters for speaker protection on each output.
Computer control via laptop or desktop (no 64-bit system)
Output level control for all outputs.

260's run about (sometime under) $700.
Down load the Driveware GUI for the 260 and play with it. There is also a tutorial.

DRA

fiddler

Thanks Dra.

Could I achieve similar results with a DRPA?

How about two of them? It looks like I can get two DRPAs for less than what I would spend on a DR 260.

Dra

DRPA is limited to 10 ft of delay, so for your application - useless.
3 PEQ's (2 on mid and lo each) compared to 4 in the 260.
No computer control and for the GEQ, that is a biggie.
DRPA does not have brick wall limiters, though that is not a deal breaker for most, but could be for some.
DRPA though stereo does not have the complete separation of the 2 sides like the 260.
DRPA does not have the option of 9 band input PEQ (only GEQ).


You can get a DRPA for $350?
What do you hope to achieve by using 2 DRPA's?

DRA

fiddler

Dra wrote:

You can get a DRPA for $350?
What do you hope to achieve by using 2 DRPA's?

DRA

$340 on ebay.

I thought I'd use one for the house and one for the monitors.

I'm thinking of just using one for the monitors as that is where we have the biggest problems. The stage area is small and with an acoustic piano, crowded.

fiddler

Hey,

The manual for the 260 says that delay maxes out at 11.3 feet. Is this true? My secondaries are at 15-20 feet from the mains.

If true this function won't help.

Dennis

The DR260 has 2.7 seconds of delay

The DRPA+ has around 10ms of delay or 11.3 feet

Dra

Definitely a misprint. The manual says 0- 2.7 secs, or 0- 11.3 ft? Think about it... does sound travel 11.3 ft in 2.7 secs? I don't think so.

You can have almost 1500 ft of delay (pre-x-over, and post-x-over for a total of 3000 ft) The 2.7 secs available can't be used for any single delay spot, but 1.3 secs (1465 ft) can be use in 2 places, or divided up in smaller times between the 2 input side and the 6 output side delays.

DRA

Dennis

Dra wrote:

Definitely a misprint. The manual says 0- 2.7 secs, or 0- 11.3 ft? Think about it... does sound travel 11.3 ft in 2.7 secs? I don't think so.

You can have almost 1500 ft of delay (pre-x-over, and post-x-over for a total of 3000 ft) The 2.7 secs available can't be used for any single delay spot, but 1.3 secs (1465 ft) can be use in 2 places, or divided up in smaller times between the 2 input side and the 6 output side delays.

DRA

I didn't even see the misprint until you pointed it out...I guess dbx outsources the manuals as well as the gear

fiddler

Thanks, I was hoping something like that had happened. I hate to think of what other misprints there might be. There are several typos.

I'm shopping for one. Thanks all for your help and encouragement.

I'm sure I'll be back.

Gadget

If .885ms = 1 foot and there is 1000ms in a second... 1 second = 885feet... so 2 x 885 = 1770 and 7/10th of 1000 is 700 .. so 700 x .885 = 619.5 so 1770+619.5=2389.5 feet...

Or.. 885+885+619.5= 2389.5
2640 feet is 1/2 mile so there is nearly 1/2 mile of delay in the 260...completely re-distributable within the input and output delays within the "config" mode...

If we used the 1ms per foot analogy then it would be 2700 ft...or OVER 1/2 mile but the actual figure is .885ms/foot...

gadget