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The following tips are written in layman’s terms to be understood by everyone. If something is unclear please write and let us know. We would be happy to explain or rewrite for clarity. If you have specific situations or additions to what you see hear write to us and we will accommodate to the best of our abilities. mailto:[email protected]?subject=Cable Care Question
Sound check: Okay, so you have everything plugged in and your ready to make noise. Turn your gain all the way down and your eq’s flat for each channel you will be working on. Now bring your channel and main fader to the 0 position, which is usually about ¾ up. Have someone start the sound check song (check,check, 1, 2, 1, 2) or play the instrument for you while you slowly bring up the gain until your meter reads 0 also. Now your board is zeroed out. Check your processing gear to insure it is also set at 0 or it’s preferred gain input/output. All of the zero’s mentioned mean the sound will come out not higher or lower than the optimum for this piece of equipment. It does not mean that no sound will come out. All of the checking you have done can be done with no amps on so this is a good way to zero out for recording too. Remember during the performance to turn off or down any mic’s that aren’t used, usually the background vocals (BGV’s). This will insure no ambient noises make it to the speakers. IE: off axis drum sounds, guitar amps, stomping onstage, etc. mailto:[email protected]?subject=Cable Care Question
Sound Check loud: The sound check might be very loud and more than you would ever use but you have now tuned the system to itself so it will run efficiently for you. Bring the faders down to a comfortable listening level without bringing down the gain inputs (preamps). mailto:[email protected]?subject=Cable Care Question
Ring: Now you have your board zeroed, mark your gain settings then slowly bring it up until it starts to ring. Don’t let it escalate but try to maintain this soft ring while you find the frequency on your eq and bring it down. Do this one channel at a time with the others muted. Often this is done without anyone around so they don’t create ambient noise and so you don’t hurt their ears. This will insure that if you need more sound during the performance that you will have clean headroom, less chance for feedback. Now do the same thing with your monitor eq’s. mailto:[email protected]?subject=Cable Care Question
EQ settings: Start flat then cutout what creates feedback in each venue. Some people like to boost area’s as well. Each venue will sound different so if you set it and don’t change it you could be missing out on some better sound. This goes for church’s that have different sized groups in each service. The people and their clothing will cause sound to be dampened so just when you think everything sounds great! The audience arrives and soaks up all your sound causing you to have to turn it up. Good thing you rang it out for headroom! mailto:[email protected]?subject=Cable Care Question
Eliminate Feedback. The best way to become used to your system and the many different functions is to play with them. Have a friend talk into a mic while you play with all the different bands on your eq so you can hear the difference. This will help when your at a gig, you’ll be able to head directly to the right frequency that is causing feedback. mailto:[email protected]?subject=Cable Care Question
Whats that noise? Hiss/static-cables, wireless antennae, cd player w/wireless. Squeal- amp failure, mic position relevant to speaker, gain too far open
Muffled sounding vocals no matter what I do. Bass and guitar are too loud even though they are turned down: You may be hearing the monitors very loud. Because the are facing away from you they will sound muffled. Monitors are nice to have and essential for large or loud bands. But if your in a small setting or a low ceiling area they will create problems. As the band gets going things get loud onstage. The guitar player needs more bass and vocals (vox), the vocalists need more of everything and pretty soon the stage noise is louder than the front of house (FOH). Instead of bringing up levels in monitors and FOH, try bringing other things down or out. This will help you maintain a decent sound level without having it escalate throughout the performance. When you bring UP something you couldn’t hear instead of bringing other channels down you create a competition for sound instead of a smooth blend of music. mailto:[email protected]?subject=Cable Care Question | 