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Post subject: Vindicated!
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:10 pm
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
Posts: 434
I had my biggest gig yet. The fundraiser for our local dance is an annual dance weekend festival. It's done in a large gymnasium with a nationally known band and caller. Our caller was sick, but an excellent younger caller stepped in and did a fine job.

A professional sound guy had been doing our festival for several years, and his price kept going up while our attendance went down, and instead of making money for the group, it threatened to lose money, so I volunteered to do sound for free. More accurately, I muttered to a friend that I'd be willing to do it, but I didn't think I had sufficient gear to fill the hall with sound. He suggested that together, we had enough gear to do it and volunteered the two of us to do it, once I assured him that I could run the board for the whole event, since he had to work nights and couldn't be there to do it.

The net result was that quite a few people said the sound was much better this year than it's been with the professional. I listened to people in order to not have the event be too loud, while maintaining clarity and musical authenticity distributed very evenly in the hall.


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Post subject: Re: Vindicated!
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:30 pm
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
Posts: 434
The setup was complex (for me) with most of my gear, plus generous loans from three others. Inputs ran through a Mackey ProFX8 and ProFX12 patched together (1/4" out from the ProFX8 to a stereo channel on the ProFX12), with the output via XLR going to a Behringer UltraCurve DSP (for parametric EQ to kill feedback and delay to fix phase problems with mid-hall speakers).

The non-delayed signal went out via 1/4"TS to a stereo channel in my Passport 300Pro. It's Stereo Out went to my Passport 500Pro. These drove the four speakers in-line along the stage end of the hall, with the 500's speakers toward the middle to throw sound farther down the hall.

26' down the hall from the stage, I had a borrowed QSC K8 1,000watt active speaker on each side of the hall, aimed mostly at center of the back wall, not across the hall. These got the delayed signal from the UltraCurve DSP.


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Post subject: Re: Vindicated!
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:34 pm
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
Posts: 434
I combined the monitor out from the two mixers as inputs to a Mackey SRM150, providing me with a "monitor monitor", so I could hear the monitor mix from the mixer table, or use headphones to hear the house mix. Mono output from the SRM150 went to a borrowed Ashly MQX-2310 equalizer (stereo, 31-band), parallel wired to both input channels, with output going to a borrowed Crest Audio ST1000 power amp, with one channel going to two EV QRx 112-75 floor monitors and the other going to a McCauley SM90-1 floor monitor.

So, my system provided four front speakers, a friend provided two mid-hall speakers, another provided three floor monitors and a power amp to drive them, and another friend offered the DSP to fix feedback and phase-echo problems with the speaker placement. Everyone I talked to about this recommended that I put the more powerful speakers up front, but they didn't understand my goal.


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Post subject: Re: Vindicated!
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:44 pm
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
Posts: 434
The four Passport speakers up front distributed treble clarity to dancers who were dancing right up to the speaker stand base, barely clear of the legs. Since people get close to these speakers, I didn't want them too loud, and worked the compromise to have them as loud as tolerable to those next to them while loud enough to fill back to the mid-hall speakers.

Since the mid hall-speakers were aimed at the back wall, before the speaker was aimed at you, you'd have to be 20' away from the speaker, so it could be louder to reach deeper into the hall without deafening anyone too close. Also, aiming across the hall wrecks the phase-fixing effects of the delay. Except for very narrow zones where the front speakers were getting a little weak and then suddenly the side speakers were pretty loud, the sound throughout the entire high-ceilinged gymnasium was remarkably even and clear.

Oh, and I forgot to mention a Gemini 400 watt subwoofer connected to the Passport 300Pro, just to add some bass punch. It was a lot to keep straight in my head and manage for four very different bands (one mostly French-Canadian fiddle/piano duo, one techno-centric piano and computer DJ, one Old-Time string band, and a New England trio, though all the bands violate the boundaries of their category).


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Post subject: Re: Vindicated!
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:58 pm
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
Posts: 434
So, I got lots of good advice from the guys who loaned me gear, and more good (and gentle) advice from the bands, and some from random people from the crowd. A band member complemented me to say that he valued that I both listened to anything anyone said, and I had my own opinions, and balanced well among them.

The Fender Passports were "part of this nutritious breakfast". I prefer the mixers in the Fenders to the Mackies, in terms of simplicity of control, but I need a separate monitor mix, which the Passports don't give me. Putting a 15 pound Fender speaker on a pole is a joy, compared to hernia-inducing thrusts to get four or more times their weight typical to the speakers others use for this kind of venue. The QSCs were also a joy to work with, though to be honest, the Fenders had more full-range clarity to my ear. I heard more instruments clearly with the Fender, while the QSCs really favored the fiddle. The subwoofer belonged to the piano, and the guitar, when the octavizer kicked in.

I much prefer the sound I can get out of this kind of array of speakers than to have more powerful, fewer points of sound origin typical for this kind of venue.


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Post subject: Re: Vindicated!
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 8:05 pm
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 7:24 am
Posts: 434
Oh, and another note, since our dance is usually for a bit over 300 people, and this year's attendance was closer to 200, I had the luxury of moving the stage farther from the back wall so the band could hear better without the bass surface effect that often makes it impossible to hear anything on stage. It also gave us more space for instrument cases, gear cases, and for me to spread out during prep and take-down.

The event was a blast. Lots of sweaty grins and laughing. Lots of play time for friends. People who don't contra dance don't know what this kind of joy feels like.

Another kind of joy is the stuff that showered down on me when I fully recognized that with so many of my friends in the room, and such great talent on the stage, the sound didn't suck, and the event didn't fail because of my incompetence. I helped bring that joy to a couple hundred good people. I thank Fender for making some of the key gear that I used to make that happen.


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