General Help and questions

HHQuartet

Hi, been reading the forum for a few months and have gotten some very good info.
I have a small Southern Gospel Quartet and I was wondering if could help me with a config with my groups equipment?

This looks like what I want to do, but all of our speakers are powered speakers (No Amps)
viewtopic.php?f=60&t=2228

We use Mackie SM450's (2) for our Mains.
The JBL EON518 (2) for our subs, from reading it appears you guys don't like them very much, but it was what the group bought before I joined.
We have 3 powered floor monitors, that I think are JBL but I don't remember. We usually have one at the piano and two on stage.
We run the Mackie Onyx 1620 for our board and use Shure Wireless Mics (Not sure of the model, but I hear they were spendy)

I recently bought the PA+ to avoid having to use Analog EQ's, we had one for Bass, one for Mains and One for Monitors. I would like to be able to use the EQ and Feedback killing of the PA+ in the monitors, but would also like to use Aux 1 on my board to control individual vocalists in the monitor mix. I personally don't like to hear a lot of me in the monitor mix.

It appears that step 12 will get me the monitor mix I would like, but I am not sure I can do this with the board I have now.

We used the PA+ in the main mix this last Sunday morning and the sound was very good, except I ran the monitor mix independent of the PA+ and it did not like me very much. We had a lot of feedback.

Thanks for the help in advance!

Gadget

Hi,
The post is relevant to powered or unpowered speakers and frankly the driverack doesn't know OR care if the system is powered or not...

It appears that step 12 will get me the monitor mix I would like, but I am not sure I can do this with the board I have now.

If your board has aux sends that are PRE FADER ... then you all set. Simply pan everything to center (or use an available mono summed output if available...) take either output and run it through the left channel..

The aux goes directly to the Right input.. make SURE you go through a WIZARD setup and get stereo,dual mono outputs.. that's the ONLY way it will work..

Gadget

HHQuartet

Thanks for the reply. We're setting up tonight and I'll let you know how it goes!

HHQuartet

So tonight, I followed the instructions in the above thread. My tops and Subs went fine. When I went into the Xover to try and adjust the Mids, the Pa+ would not let me go to the "M" on the screen. It just hopped back and forth from H to L.

I may be messing up the input. I have a Pre-Fader Aux output that went into the Right input on the PA+, then my right Mid output goes to the monitors? This is what I was doing and it did not work.



Sorry, I fall into the Newbie category. I can fix airplanes and cant wire a PA system, lol.

Dra

You have to set-up a "bi-amp with subs" (2x5 or 2x6) config to gain access to the Mid section. I just checked the link, and item #4 is a little misleading. You can't select any powered top and any sub and get access to the mid section. You MUST select "Custom" - "Bi-Amp" - "With Sub".

DRA

Gadget

As Dra said.. I fixed that in the thread also.. so re-read and try it again, make sure the upper left hand corner has the H M and L before you even try this...

G

HHQuartet

Well thank you guys for following up. I thought I was completely nuts when it would not let me select the M in the Xover. I was running a 2X3 with all custom speaker and amp settings. I will try it again at our next concert on Sunday. If I can't get it worked out, I'll just go back to our partial setup through a DOD EQ for the monitors until I get more time with the setup.

While I have your attention, the guide says to use custom settings for the speakers. If I am running Mono (Left Channel in, Left Hi out) for my tops and Mono (Left Channel in, Left Low out) for my subs, would it be ok to use the configurations that the PA+ has for my speakers or should I configure the Xovers custom?

Once again, I appreciate all the help!

Dra

Again, if you select ANY speaker that.... 1) does not offer a biamp option in the wizard, or 2) select ANY powered speaker... the Driverack will set-up a 2x3 or a 2x4. And that means no Mid ouput or x-over band.
If you want to use the x-over settings for freq and slope (filter type), just select them then open up the program and write down the settings and enter them yourself in the custom program that you set up. Don't get caught up in the wizard's recommendations. There is nothing magical about them. "Some guy" manually entered those numbers. SOME of which MAY be actual test results, but MOST are just guesses, based on the size of the woofer in the top cab. Even some of the guesses in my opinion are just plain wrong. Amp settings are typically in the ballpark for stand-alone amps. Powered speaker amp levels in general should be a representation of at least some level of experimentation or mathmatical formula.

DRA

Gadget

"Some guy" manually entered those numbers. SOME of which MAY be actual test results, but MOST are just guesses,

Actually I know EXACTLY who designed those setups and the first round they purchased EVERY speaker that is in the PX ...or got the info from the manufacturers...then, for the DRPA+ the same person (engineer) came up with a spreadsheet program to predict the speakers behavior and it works pretty well.

G