Are we on the right track?

lefty4par

Hello all... totally new to the forum, and have a general question. I may not even have enough info to post a good question but here it goes:

Church setting... sanctuary that can seat about 200 people... We have 4 main speakers paired but all hanging above the stage center of the room (room is a rectangle) and one sub off to one side. Each pair of mains are going to an amp, and the sub has an amp. Currently the sub mix is only going through an eq that is cutting everything about 150hz, but it's not an actual crossover. main mix is also going through an eq

We have made some modification which has brought down stage sound quite a bit (in-ears and such).

Now, I'm looking to "brighten" up all the sound in the house. make it fuller, get all that the speakers we have are able to do (nothing fancy, and a little old, but they are doing OK). Is the PA+ the right way to go or should I be looking at something more simple? Can you give me some good feedback with this much info? Thanks for any help you can give!

Dra

Assuming that you will buy new, DBX has a $100 rebate through June on the DRPA+. That will essentially buy the RTA mic (if you get it).

Yes the DRPA+ will vastly improve the sound. Assuming that you have the 4 cabs flared in a semi-circle to cover all areas of the room, it will allow you to control them (pairs) separately, depending on configuration hang.

Can you be a little more specific on the speaker models, amp models, and how they are hung and aimed? What is your budget for what you want to accomplish?

DRA

lefty4par

Thanks for the quick response. I'm going to get hardware specs (speakers and amps) tonight or tomorrow... the amps are QRC, but don't know specs or models right off. yes, they are flared in an arch type shape and angled about 30* or so to fire primarily to the center of the room.

The PA+ is within the budget we have left for equipment. One of the sound guys already has a reference Mic so I wasn't planning on buying one for this application. We are looking for a good balance of quality and expandability. We are going to put some TVs in the foyer and had even thought this could be used to feed the audio to those as well. Would that be the case?

Dra

Many times in a cluster hang, some of the cabs are hung upside down and at different angles to get better zone coverage. Reduced volume to the short filed and increased volume to the far field. If you have intent to send an audio feed to other rooms, and be able to still zone the main auditorium, I would suggest stepping up to the DR260. It is a couple of hundred dollars more, but really worth it.
In your case, if you mix mono, you can set:
Output 1 - Auditorium zone 1 (separate filter set-up, 4 PEQs, separate limiter)
Output 2 - Auditorium zone 2 (separate filter set-up, 4 PEQs, separate limiter)
Output 3 - Sub output (separate filter set-up, 4 PEQs, separate limiter)
Output 4 - Foyer (separate filter set-up, 4 PEQs, separate limiter)
Output 5 - Nursery / Mother's room
Output 6 - Dedicated monitor mix (dedicated 31 band EQ + all the above + AFS) from alternate board output, or another room
Outputs 1-5 share a 31 band eq (in this config)

Or a stereo mix:
Output 1&2 - Auditorium L (separate filter set-up, 4 PEQs, separate limiter)
Output 3&4 - Auditorium R (separate filter set-up, 4 PEQs, separate limiter)
Output 5 - Mono sub (separate filter set-up, 4 PEQs, separate limiter)
Output 6 - Mono foyer (separate filter set-up, 4 PEQs, separate limiter)

DR260's can be bought new in the $700 range (Sorry no rebate on this one) or much cheaper used on ebay. Northern Sound & Light usually has as good a price as any. The kicker with the 260 is that you have the Driveware GUI (Computer control, and no scroll, press, turn through the menus) for mouse select and adjust or keyboard entry. Easy-peasy. Download the 260 driveware and play with it. Also download / watch the tutorial.

The DRPA+ will allow force a dual mono mix (if sending a signal to the foyer):
Output 1L - Auditorium zone 1 & 2
Output 2R - Foyer
Output 3L - Sub
L has a 31 band eq.
R has a 31 band eq.
Each output has a limiter.
Output 1 has 3 PEQs.
Outputs 2&3 have 2 PEQs each.
AFS is share between L&R.

DRA

PS - If you think that you could get 2 DRPAs (after rebate) for the same price as a 260, consider that the 260 is STILL more machine and offers more flexibility. One DRPA+ would do a good job for the auditorium alone. The 2nd would be used only for the foyer, though you could control up to 2 more rooms. The DRPA+ does have a superior Auto-EQ to the 260, but that is it. Great unit, but not in the ballpark with the 260 (flexibility and EASE of use).