PA Set Up Sound Levels

[mykoolbuble]

Perfect, that's just the information I was looking for... so ultimately I set the gain and master so that they are as near to 0db as possible and the speaker at 12 o'clock (normal) and then control main volume from the independent channels for mic/music... Cool. I'll have a play about...!!

 

Thanks again, I'll be posting again at some stage asking advice on a sub (they all run for the hills) but will post in the right place when the time comes.

 

Much appreciated.

 

MKB

[sam.spoons]

Firstly, nobody has mentioned the 'gain' control on the desk, this needs to be set to an appropriate level for the mic and track signals. Follow the instructions in the mixer manual to do this first.

 

Next set the speaker to 12 o'clock and the desk master to -∞ (i.e. right down), set the mic gain to, say -10 and bring the master up until the mic is about loud enough, then add track to taste. This way you can balance the track and mic using the channel faders and adjust the overall volume of the system with the master (so you don't need to get at the speakers during a gig).

 

It sounds to me like the system is more powerful than you need for some venues (I'd expect the green 'signal present' LED to be on most of the time if you're running towards the top of the systems range) so the master on the desk may be quite low. If this is the case you can lower the speaker volume to let the desk master sit in the middle of it's range just make sure you have plenty in hand if the speakers are inaccessible during the gig.