So, I recently upgraded my rig after constant nagging from the band. We are a trio, bass, guitar, and hand percussion. We use at least three mics on the percussion and one each for voices, I also DI my guitar, an acoustic. I went on eBay and found some great gear, i didn't cheap out either, i got great gear for a decent discount. I bought a Mackie CFX 12, a QSC 2450, a Mackie 1400, and a Crown XLS 602d. One of the amps is an extra. I also bought a Furman M-8L power conditioner, and rakced everything.
My real question is, we play fairly small clubs now, but I wanted to make sure that i always had enough power no matter where we play, or if we played outside, but when i mentioned what i got to a friend he was like "Wow, that's way too much power". Now i am from the school that as long as it's controlled, power is good. I use their house speakers, and Monitors, and bought a seperate amp for each. Now i am really nervous that i am going to blow their speakers the first time i use this stuff. I know i went overboard and don't really need 380w @8ohms on each side, but i figured that it would be better to have the power and turn in down. It's always better to have nice gear that you won't outgrow tomorrow.
Suggestions about what to do? Also, did i go overboard, i don't think i did.
well you didn't go overboard, more power is better.. you should always try to have more than your speakers can handle anyway... i run 450 per side into speakers that can hold 350rms, but i never max it out... always turn your amps up all the way and controll with your board, unless you are bi-amped then thats an entire different world... you did good
No matter where you go.... There You are! Law of Location
Yeah, no problem as long as you don't crank the amps.
I disagree with Leear about maxing the amps and then controlling the volume from the board. Any amp cranked to max makes lots of noise, including PA amps. Otherwise a volume control (actually an attenuator)on the amp would not be necessary. :wink:
I operate the opposite way (and many pros use this method) of starting with the strongest signal (but not distorting or clipping) from the beginning of your chain. I can get tons of clean volume with my amp barely turned up at all with plenty of headroom.
So you start with a good strong mic signal (but not clipping and allowing for a little headroom), as you go through each stage you get the maximum clean signal. By the time you get to the amp you will not need to crank it whatsoever. Try and see.
Here is a good page that explains what I am talking about:
http://www.headwize.com/tech/levels_tech.htm
"The rule here is to take as much gain as necessary to bring the signal up to the desired average level, say, +4 dBu, as soon as possible. If you need 60 dB of gain to bring up a mic input, you don't want to do it with 20 dB here, and 20 dB there, and 20 dB some other place! You want to do it all at once at the input mic stage. For most applications, the entire system S/N (more or less) gets fixed at the mic stage. Therefore set it for as much gain as possible without excessive clipping. Note the wording excessive clipping. A little clipping is not audible in the overall scheme of things. Test the source for its expected maximum input level. This means, one at a time, having the singers sing, and the players play, as loud as they expect to sing/play during the performance. Or, if the source is recorded, or off-the-air, turn it up as loud as ever expected. Set the input mic gain trim so the mic OL (overload) light just occasionally flickers. This is as much gain as can be taken with this stage. Any more and it will clip all the time; any less and you are hurting your best possible S/N.
Once you've set all the input gains, and then created the overall desired mix (involving all sorts of art and science I'm not going to get into), then you must set the output level controls in a similar manner: advance the output control until the output OL light begins to flicker. This is the maximum output level."
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
I have personally not had any real noise issues with amps maxed.. I look at is as choking the amp. That amp is meant to run (just making example) 400Wx2x8ohms. That is based on the amp running wide open, so if you don't do that then you are choking the amp, its not driving its potential your speakers are not getting the fuel they need. The amp is working harder to produce a lower wattage as well.. A Good analogy is its always harder to keep tempo playing a softer slower songer you tend to rush and you have to work extra hard and keeping the tempo steady and teh song softer... The amp is having to work extra hard at the lower level... But its all preference either way works...
No matter where you go.... There You are! Law of Location
Just to be clear, if you turn the amp down, and the master signal up, you get the same power to the speakers. And in most cases you get less noise that way as well.
One other reason that it can be confusing it that some systems will use the final EQ or a limiter as a volume leveler.
Mixer -> Limiter -> Amp
In this scenario, the mixer output is running at +4dB, and the amp is turned all the way up, but the output of the limiter may be at -10dB, thus reducing the signal to the amp.
Bingo LAZ maybe I should have been more clear. My signal chain is mixer>EQ(w/limiter)>Amp. Thus my mixer is at +4db my eq sitting at nominal and my amps all the way up. I still have loads of headroom too... Thanks LAZ I left out that important bit of info.
No matter where you go.... There You are! Law of Location
I've always thought that running the amp at less than full power was safer, too. Does this logic make sense?
It seems to me that that volume knob would limit the maximum power the amp can produce. If you're running the amp at half power, then there's much less of a chance that speakers can be damaged, even if something on the board gets bumped. If you have the amp wide open, then all it takes is one misplaced finger to spell disaster, which would scare me even more if I were using somebody else's speakers. It's just my preference though.
