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a few probs.. need some ideas

luissluiss Posts: 35
I posted the following on prosoundweb and received no replies. As we are using an iEQ across FOH I thought I'd ask here too....

Did a gig last night (the one mentioned in my other thread..) and had a few odd things occur. I was hoping someone could clear up what may have caused them

The first oddity was a delay of about half a second between the source material (me) and the PA. Plugging into a channel at FOH for talk to stage and tuning resulted in this strange delay. The signal path contained no processing, just the FOH graphic, crossover (analogue) and amps. I was at the end of a 50m multicore.

The second issue I encountered was a dramatic level difference between the left and right stacks. I didn't have time to troubleshoot leads so had to make up the lower gain on the crossover. I wouldn't have considered this too abnormal, probably just a signal lead or speaker cable but combined with the above issue and the fact that vocals sounded like they had a very subtle chorusing effect on them I'm concerned there is a deeper problem. I was mixing a string quartet (electric, di'ed) and 1 vox. I couldn't hear the chorusing issue on the strings, just the vox.

At one point I realised I had left TTS up in the monitors...... Thought I had found the source of the chorusing problem... FOH was being picked up by my mic, being sent to the monitors then picked up by the vox mic and back out FOH again. Remember that strange delay.... and we have chorusing. So muted my mic and the problem seemed to improve.

As we went along I started to realise that the issue was still there. The tone had changed but was still just as pronounced.


So what caused this?

We were running off three phase. The FOH desk and rack was running off the same phase (via 50m extension lead) as the stage power and FOH amps, with the monitors running off a second phase. The third phase had no load on it. (this is something I need to learn more about.)

Was this a voltage drop issue to FOH? I've been working as a monitor operator for a company that runs a decent sized rig (up to 4 Martin Subs and 4 Martin wavefront tops a side). We always ran FOH mix pos' in this was and we never had any problems.

I appreciate anyone's thoughts.

Comments

  • GadgetGadget Posts: 4,915
    Hmmm... not really sure, but the IEQ has been known to have some issues...Until you pin it down though it will be hard to say. I can forward this on the the engineers and see what they say.. but without some kind of definite "finger" to point it might not yield any results.
    Gadget
  • DennisDennis Posts: 801
    I have seen the iEQ described as a "DSP based eq with analog control". This might be a place to look.

    Dennis
  • GadgetGadget Posts: 4,915
    That is correct Dennis...there have however been issues reported on the PSW that match some of the OP's experiences..as I remember ..it was a couple of years ago now.

    G
  • luissluiss Posts: 35
    I've convinced them to get to the next gig 3 or 4 hours early so that we can troubleshoot a few things. It will be interesting to see if it happens again. They will hopefully have a DR 260 for me by then too.
  • GadgetGadget Posts: 4,915
    Get the GUI going then and set up your system so when it comes in your ready to load the program in and fly...
    g
  • luissluiss Posts: 35
    This will be the first time I've set up a system with a drive rack. All I've really done on a DR is raise the limiters set by paranoid owners.....

    Is the GUI available for MAC? If not then its a no go....

    The PA consists of 4x Mackie S408 and 2x S410s. I sure there won't be a pre-set available for these. The amps are a mismatch of cheap stuff, one Alto and the other something I haven't seen before or remember.... ( Tony something?)

    The 260 will be there for system protection, only subtle eqing (try and get some low mids in these boxes), crossover and a mono delay send (Eon) for a gig once a month.

    Hopefully I'll see 2 more S410s soon along with some QSC Powerlights to replace the crap in there now.

    What I'd like to do is get the system sorted so that when I can convince them that they can do better than the Mackies everything else will be transferable with too much need for more.

    Either that or we try to biamp the S408 (remove all internal processing and crossovers) so that we can run it as a 2 way box driven by the DR. Beyond my current skills but I'd like to give it a go.

    Anyone seen it done?
  • luissluiss Posts: 35
    I just found this emulator trial. I'll see if I can use it before it expires
    http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxm ... oad_trial/

    hang on.... The DR uses RS-232 damn.

    How about some modern connectivity dbx!
  • GadgetGadget Posts: 4,915
    Unfortunately, Mac has chosen to be very selective who they will do business with, and, they want a piece of EVERY pie out there...the cost of the technology is too high for me....and I'd say probably dbx as well.

    I understand completely... Gates totally HOSED Jobs....and ever since, there has been a terrible competition...the 2 minds of the time going at it, but at our expense...Gates remains the villain, but Jobs is extracting a pound of flesh with his product...
  • DennisDennis Posts: 801
    luiss wrote:
    I just found this emulator trial. I'll see if I can use it before it expires
    http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxm ... oad_trial/

    hang on.... The DR uses RS-232 damn.

    How about some modern connectivity dbx!
    I've heard good stuff about Crossover Mac. There is Bootcamp and Parallels as well. I'm not a Mac guy but I would think there should be an adapter for the RS232. DBX isn't the only one to hang on to ancient connectivity...you will find it with BSS and XTA as well.

    Dennis
  • luissluiss Posts: 35
    I installed the demo. When trying to use it to instal the GUI .exe it just freezes up.

    I used to run my Macbook pro with bootcamp but found I didn't use it enough. I don't really feel like gin through the whole process to set iy up again. May have to though...
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