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Post subject: WHAT AM I DOING WRONG !!! argh !!
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 7:15 pm
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I just recently purchased a brand new pair of Fender passport studio monitors. I cannot figure out why I can't get any volume out of these speakers. They sound like they are 1.5 watt speakers instead of 150 watt speakers. I have them plugged into Power, with the power supply correctly chosen, have the cable from the left speaker going to the right speaker, have the cables from my drum machine going into the back of the fender passport, and I get very very little volume. I have the volume on my drum machine turn to 3/4 volume and the passports to do level knob turn to 3/4 volume, and I can barely get any volume out of them. I cannot believe this is normal. Am I missing something where I have to hook an amp up in between my drum machine and the fender passport to try and boost the volume. It's as if I have the volume on any other speaker volume one or two out of ten. I don't think I should have to turn the volume up on my drum machine or keyboard all the way up to get very little sound out of these Fender monitor should I?. I don't know what I'm doing wrong as I have them left and right outputs of the drum machine going into the left and right inputs of the fender passport. Everything Powers up correctly on the passports, I just get very little to very light volume. I can't believe this would be considered normal because if it is I'm returning these immediately. I can barely hear them when I'm sitting in front of them. Any assistance is appreciated or any idea of what I'm missing would be greatly appreciated. Thank you


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Post subject: Re: WHAT AM I DOING WRONG !!! argh !!
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 5:35 pm
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Rock Star
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Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:14 pm
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Location: Linningrad
You are doing something very wrong. What model Passport do you have and have you followed the Fender set up instructions?

You should have one speaker cable coming out of the power amp outputs one for each speaker and not daisy chained.

What ever you want to hear needs to be input into the front end channels. Microphones; keyboards, drum machines ect.

Have you ever used a PA before? Because it sure doesn't sound like it to me.

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Post subject: Re: WHAT AM I DOING WRONG !!! argh !!
Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2017 3:02 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
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You said you bought Passport STUDIO MONITORS. This is a model that Fender doesn't show on it's current Web site among its products. I had to dig a bit to find the manual.

Here's what I found:

https://support.fender.com/hc/en-us/art ... ker-System

You don't tell us a lot about the type of cables or adapters you are using or about the connectors you've plugged them into. I'm suspecting that you've plugged a "mic level" output from your drum machine into the "line level" inputs on the monitors. You haven't told us anything about your drum machine. What's the make and model?

The documentation for this model of Passport is not as good as for other Passport models. It doesn't mention, for instance, which inputs are line or mic level. It does talk about concern for clipping for signals that go in through the 1/8"TRS stereo input on the FRONT of what they show as the left speaker. They also mention something about an "included" cable, without actually describing the cable or showing any pictures or drawings of it.

So, I'm suspecting that they are expecting the 1/4"TRS balanced mono inputs (two of them) to be line level input, and maybe the 1/8"TRS takes a wider input range. You might do better connecting there. This may require an adapter. I can't be more specific until you tell us more about the drum machine.


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Post subject: Re: WHAT AM I DOING WRONG !!! argh !!
Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 7:46 am
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Rock Star
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Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:14 pm
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Location: Linningrad
You're trying to use computer speakers for a PA?! With no mixing console? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


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Post subject: Re: WHAT AM I DOING WRONG !!! argh !!
Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:28 am
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
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No need to harass the guy. He's got a drum machine that he wants to hear out loud. The 150 watt Passport Monitor should make it about as loud as acoustic drums. If he gets it hooked up right, it should work just fine for his purposes. He doesn't need to mix anything. He wants to make one thing louder.

The issue is that musical devices tend to work on one of three signal levels. Line level is the level common to most devices in home stereos or professional Sound Reinforcement installations. Mixers work at line level.

"Dynamic" microphones use tiny magnets and coils of wire to generate electricity in tiny amounts, based on how the mic's tiny cone vibrates when sound hits it. This produces a "mic level" (pronounced "mike level") signal. Line level is in the neighborhood of 20 times as loud as mic level. Mixers combine signals from microphones and line level sources by using "pre-amps" for the microphones. That's an amplifier that works on the signal before it gets to the line level input, hence the name "PRE-amplifier".

The 1/4" inputs in the back of the Passport Monitor Speaker don't have a pre-amp. That's why, if you plug a mic level signal into it, it will sound like listening to headphones from 20 feet away. Yes, you can hear it if you really try, but it doesn't sound very good.

So, you either need to get adapters to send your signal into the 1/8" stereo input in the front of the monitors, or you need to get a "mic pre-amp" to go between your drum machine and the monitor speakers. Your choice.

You asked what you were doing wrong. This is probably the problem. I could help you more, but to do so, I need to know what drum machine you are working with. I could then look it up and see if it has a line level output somewhere for you to patch into. It might be a switch on the drum machine, often called "pad" that should be turned "off", because with it off, you get a line level signal, but with it "on" you get a mic level signal.

Oh, and the third level is "speaker out" level, needed for passive speakers. This doesn't apply to the Fender Passport Monitor.

So, tell us about your drum machine. Who made it? What model is it?


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Post subject: Re: WHAT AM I DOING WRONG !!! argh !!
Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:58 am
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Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2017 6:53 pm
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Thank you so much for the info and not being too hard on me. I have an EMU MP7 drum machine and a roland fantom x6 that I plugged 1/4 tsr cables into the back of the input Jack's of my fender passport studio monitors . The volume is very weak even with the level of the monitors turned all the way up and the volume of either the keyboard or the drum machine I have hooked up turned all the way up. I purchased a tascam 24sd recorder and with the keyboard or drum machine plugged into THAT and the outs of that going IN to the fender monitors, the volume is a bit higher, so obviously there is no amp or booster in the monitors and the Tascam is boosting the signal. I guess I assumes the monitors were amped/powered and would not need an interface in between them to boost the signal :-) stupid newbie mistake ! Are there special cables I should be using as the cables I am using have the "ring" on them and are 1/4 inch. Are there "powered " cables ? I guess I don't have a problem routing it all through the mixer though if need be.. . Thank you again for all your help again AND guidance everyone...thanks for your patience too :-)


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Post subject: Re: WHAT AM I DOING WRONG !!! argh !!
Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 11:41 am
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
Posts: 434
For the MEU PM7 make sure you plug the "Main" L and R 1/4" into the L and R plugs in the back of the monitors. Make sure you crank the volume up on the unit. You said this, but looking at the manual on the unit it looks complicated enough to be possibly mistaken. I'm not sure the "Master Volume" knob next to the headphone jack actually controls the volume to anything except the headphones. There seems to be a software volume control likely involving the "volume" indicator light among the "Quick Edit, Program, Volume, Pan" group of indicator lights, the LCD readout, and the software assignable knob in the upper right corner of the control interface.

The Roland looks like it's an out-of-manufacture keyboard synth. Again, make sure you connect the "Main" line level outputs to the 1/4" inputs for the Fender Passport monitors. Make sure you turn up the main volume on the keyboard, and not just a headphone volume.

It would also be good to make sure you are using "instrument" cables and not "speaker" cables. Both use 1/4" TS plugs, but instrument cables have thin, shielded wiring (one wire is at the core of the cable, with the other being a shield wrapped around the one wire), while speaker cables have two much fatter wires that run parallel to one another. It makes a difference.

The Roland probably has one output port marked "Left (mono)" and the other marked "R". That means that if you connect only one, make sure it's the left one and not the right one. The right one doesn't work unless there's a cable plugged into the left one. Most keyboards are like this.

Note that if you try to plug the keyboard into one port and the drum machine into the other, that's what you'll get: A keyboard playing out of one speaker and a drum machine playing out of the other one. You'll need to go through a mixer to make both sounds come out of both speakers.


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