Questions about using 2 DriveRack PA's in a system

bgordon

I'm just a guy trying to help out with a sound system in our church. It's in a small (50' x 80') room with the stage and speakers on one of the long sides. We have a single DriveRack PA now, and it seems to be working well.

A member of a visiting band suggested that we could improve things by installing a second DriveRack PA and running separate aux outputs from the sound board into each one -- sending the bass, kick drum, keyboard, etc. into one of them that is feeding the subs, and sending the vocals, guitars, other drums, keyboard, etc. into the other that is feeding the main speakers.

First off, is this a good idea? Secondly, how would the setup procedure work regarding the Auto EQ Wizard and the use of the RTA microphone? Would we run this on both units simultaneously, with a separate RTA mic going into each unit? Would we run these separately, one unit at a time?

Gadget

Yes it works very well.. cuts down on a lot of low end garbage.. but you can do it with just one DRPA...It would require a mono FOH.. so you would set up a stereo/dual mono 2X6 or 2x4 in the wizard. then the left input and left hi output become the FOH and the right input and right mid or low out (in the case of the 2x6) become the sub feed.

You would set up a bandpass filter (simply raise the HPF on the hi out crossover to 100-120hz LR24

You would set the HPF and LPF on the right output to represent the subs HPF and set the same LPF of 100-120hz LR24.

BTW it would require you to use a aux send... if you don't have an extra you could feed the tops with the left main out and the subs with the right main out and use the pan control to adjust how much sub is in the mix. This method (using the pan control) would NOT be a very 'volunteer' friendly method...

Gadget

bgordon

Any advantage at all in using 2 DRPAs? I already have a second one.

Thanks for your reply... -bg

Gadget

Do you use monitors?
Would there be ANY reason to run stereo?
Do you use and LCR system?

Indoor use of the RTA to set the sound of the subs is problematic... room modes, and standing waves confuse the measurement mic...

G

bgordon

Yes, we have 8 monitors on the stage. Are you thinking we could use one of the DRPAs for those?

No, we are running stereo now, but there is no reason to, so we were planning to switch to mono.

I don't think we use an LCR system, but I'm not sure what that is. We have 4 mains (in 2 clustered pairs) and 2 subs plus the stage monitors.

Thanks again. -bg

Gadget

LCR= left / center / right FOH speakers

Yes I'm thinking use the DRPA for monitors... it makes a HUGE difference!
G

bgordon

Cool! We'll try that (use it for monitors). Thanks. -bg

Gadget

try this....
g