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Post subject: 3 or 4 microphones = terrible sound
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:39 am
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We have a 250 that we use for all kinds of activities at our school. We are usually very happy with it except on occasions when more than 2 microphones are used at the same time. As soon as you start turning the volume up the quality of the sound becomes absolutely horrible. I am no expert, but it feels like the system can't process more than 2 microphones at the same time.

1 or 2 microphones and the stereo input works wonderfully.
(The stereo input is usually used for an ipod etc)
Please advise me what can be done,

Thanks

Peter


Last edited by isp on Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: 3 or 4 microphones = terrible sound
Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 12:12 am
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How are the microphones plugged in?

Are you using balanced cables?

If you are not using balanced cables, then what might be happening is that, as you turn up the volume, more signal interference is coming through the speakers.

If they're plugged in via XLR then it's definitely balanced.

If you're NOT using the XLR inputs, but instead the "Line In" inputs, then you have to make sure to use a "Balance TRS" cable. This is basically a stereo cable, similar to the ones found on headphones, except with a larger connector.

You can tell if it's a balanced TRS if the connector has 2 black grooves instead of one like on a guitar cable.

Using balanced cables allows for you to use longer cables with a lot less signal interference. It also allows for much higher headroom before distortion, meaning you can turn it up louder, without having issues with distorted sound.

So yeah, if you're using the "Line In" inputs, you want to also be using balanced TRS cables.


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Post subject: Re: 3 or 4 microphones = terrible sound
Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 6:33 am
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AND....is one of your mics out of phase? That will suck the volume out of it.


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Post subject: Re: 3 or 4 microphones = terrible sound
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 1:28 am
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I am using XLR cables.

We have some old, some older and a few newer microphones.

The problem seem to be the worst when we have 4 singers at the same time doing harmonies, this is often combined with a mic for an acoustic guitar and sometimes a harmonica. The performers are usually very close together, could this be part of the problem?

The instruments in these cases usually use an XLR -> Jack cable, connected to line in on the stereo channels....could this be a problem?

Would it help if I bought a set of 4-6 microphones, and if so any suggestions on what mic's we should buy.

Thanks for all your help,

Peter


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Post subject: Re: 3 or 4 microphones = terrible sound
Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 1:16 pm
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I'd recommend that you use XLR for everything, if you can. TRS can work just as well, but people can be confused about TRS vs TS cables, and for that matter, instrument vs. speaker cables, since people tend to see a 1/4" cable and become clueless about the different types. Stick with XLR. It's a single standard. There aren't different kinds of XLR cables.

That said, if by "guitar" you mean "electric guitar", then it should have a 1/4" instrument cable, not an XLR cable.

Oh. I just reread what you are doing. I can interpret this a couple different ways. The problem may be that you are perhaps plugging in two different mono sound sources into one of the stereo channels. That means that the four singers have their microphones playing through both speakers, but the guitar is only coming out of one speaker, and the harmonica is coming out of the other one, and only one volume knob is controlling the volume for both.

Or maybe the guitar is being plugged into the left (mono) channel of one stereo channel and the harmonica is plugged into the left (mono) channel of the other stereo channel. This is better than what I described in the previous paragraph, but you may need a pre-amp for these two channels because they are expecting line level input, and you may be supplying only mic level input. That would make it sound bad. The singers would still sound good, but the instruments would suck, and trying to balance volume levels for all this would probably make everything suck. If this is the setup, you either need a pre-amp for the instrument mics, or you need to upgrade to a Passport 500 so you'll have six mic-level, mono channels.

For the cheapest effective solution: I'd recommend that you get an omnidirectional mic and have the singers gather around it, and use cardioid mics (probably what you have already) for each of the instrumentalists. That way, the singers will tend to balance their individual singing volume acoustically around the mic, while the sound technician balances that group with each of the instruments. Besides, it will look really retro and cool to have the singers gather around one mic. Oh, and don't aim the speakers at that mic.

The better solution would be to get a Passport 500 which has 6 mono inputs. Then you can give each of your six people a mic with a separate volume control, and everybody plays through both speakers. Meanwhile, that costs money you probably don't want to spend, unless your 250 is getting old enough that you were already intending to replace it soon.


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