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Post subject: Stuff I've learned about the Passport, Part 1
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 6:45 am
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
Posts: 434
Here are a couple of reminders to people of stuff I've learned about the Passport:

1. If you want to record on a Fender Passport 500 Pro, be sure that the USB FLASH drive is formatted to FAT32 and not ExFAT. Larger drives these days are always formatted ExFAT. The 500 Pro will not work with ExFAT or NTFS or Mac OS X partition schemes. Reformat as necessary. The manual tells you how on the Passport itself, or it is easy enough to do on a PC or Mac, if you understand how to format a drive to FAT32 (The Mac Disk Utility calls it "MS DOS").

2. If you are going to record, try to not use channel 8 on the mixer, so you can use the colored LED for that track to adjust the recording level as needed. There is no master volume level for the recording. You only get the sum of the individual channels. The channel 8 LED only shows you the recording level while you are recording, so assuming that you are not using channel 8 in your mix, you have to record during the sound check in order to see how your levels are doing in the recording. Dark means your level is extremely low. Bring up all the channels. If it remains green the whole time, your levels are still too low. You need to have the LED on channel 8 go amber during peak times, but not go red. Technically, you can go red some, but if the level gets too loud, you get digital clipping, which is a hideous clicking noise that drowns out all acoustic sound. Don't go there.

In other words, set the channel levels for balance and for sum for recording purposes while recording and watching the channel 8 LED, then use the master volume to adjust the house speakers for the live performance. If you focus on the live performance, don't count on a good recording by happy accident.


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Post subject: Re: Stuff I've learned about the Passport, Part 2
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 6:47 am
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
Posts: 434
3. The Passport is a great self-contained system if you need portability and clarity at reasonable volume levels for small venues (high-school basketball stadium or smaller, so restaurants, bars and small auditoriums work great). Meanwhile, it is also expandable using other gear, making it versatile.

3-A. Adding a powered subwoofer gives you much more volume for electric or electronic music with lower bass and more power than nature provides with acoustic instruments and human voices. Something around 400 watts balances well against the 500 watts for the rest of the music.

3-B. Adding an external, line-level mixer gives you the ability to create a separate monitor mix. This is the biggest design compromise of the Passport. Some performance settings require a separate monitor mix. The simplest device that can give this to you is a separate mixer with that feature built-in. If that mixer has stereo output, use channel 7 on the Passport to bring that mixer's output as input to the Passport. If the mixer's output is mono, use any channel on the Passport except 8, if you are recording. See item 2 above.


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Post subject: Re: Stuff I've learned about the Passport, Part 3
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 6:47 am
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
Posts: 434
Some would argue that you could replace the Passport with active speakers if you are using a line-level mixer for that separate monitor mix, but the fact is, most powered speakers anywhere near the price and performance of the Passport are heavier and bulkier than the Passport, making the setup a lot less portable and easy to set up, and you don't really want to have to walk around to the speakers to adjust their volume level. It's also less convenient to have to run power cables to each speaker. I love the 15 pound speakers on the Passport.

3-C. The Stereo Out port on the Passport adds a lot of versatility. It's line-level output can connect you to headphones, for monitoring what is coming out the main speakers, or can patch into a recording device that has the master volume level that the USB FLASH recorder built into the Passport 500 lacks, or it can patch into another Passport if you want a portable system with four speakers. This either yields more volume (more watts in the room), or better dispersion, especially of treble sound in halls that are not acoustically ideal.

As an amateur sound guy who gets surprisingly professional results, I love the Fender Passport, even as I wish it had a separate monitor mix built in.


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Post subject: Re: Stuff I've learned about the Passport, Part 1
Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:00 pm
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Hobbyist
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Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 5:06 pm
Posts: 46
Location: Just north of Calgary Alberta
Another informative post contra.Mabye I'm brainwashed with the passport , but I'm so tiered of walking in a bar or pub and it's here we go again with speakers the size of a door and sound like s----t, I see it over and over again.I owned a pub and seen it many times .I've been asked to play for an event in July today and they said " you don't have to bring any thing but your guitar cause the sound system is supplied "I said I play with my equipment or not at all which is my 500. I went and and a look at the Mackie 150 last weekend which I' m gonna get on your advice. I find in some cases where you can't always have the speakers behind you cause of lack of stage space, without a monitor you are pushing your voice too much without really realizing it.


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Post subject: Re: Stuff I've learned about the Passport, Part 1
Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 5:54 am
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Sun Jun 02, 2013 6:16 pm
Posts: 894
Thanks for the info! I've got a Passport 500, but haven't really put it through it's paces, yet. If I ever need help to figure out anything, at least there is this source.

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