?Loudspeaker Management System eg. dbx DriveRack PA+

I have yet to find one that actually is as good as a bad sound engineer.

What I find is that most people (not necessarily you) show up, put speakers, adjust EQ to some thing they remember and then go ahead and listen and tune wildy whatever frequency that is off….

Sound Checking is something you need to learn from someone…

I’ll side with Terry on this one. It’s a skill, no tool has been able to adequately fill the shoes of a decent engineer. At best they are tools to make the life of someone that knows what to do a tad easier like Robert said by doing some preliminary work.

I don’t know this particular piece of kit, but I am assuming it is an analyzer and multiband eq all rolled into one.
The thing is, more often than not a “flat” curve isn’t the best solution for a venue. And if the EQs have to work too hard to flatten the curve, that usually has negative side effects too. Comb filtering can’t really be helped, unless you get rid of some frequencies which means that in the spots where there is no comb filtering you will noticeably lack those frequencies.

More important than that. If you are the DJ (not the venue sound guy, not the live sound guy), you want your stuff to sound ok, but it doesn’t have to be 100%. More often than not, disappointing sound quality begins with the source (quality of your track), the quality of the soundcard and summing amps and sound shaping elelements (FX, EQ and such) and of course the quality of the speakers and amp (either seperate or in active speakers).

I just set my set up with flat EQs on everything, play a well-known track at mid and full level and unless it really sucks leave it there. I know my speakers (Mackie HD-series) are awesome and any deterioration of the sound is most likely a result of the room acoustics. And unless you want to jump in, use a 31-band graphic EQ and spend half an hour or more getting everything just right …

And that is with an empty house. As soon as the place fills up, the sound characteristics of a room change DRASTICALLY and you might end up with a less than perfect sound despite all your best efforts.

You don’t say what brand sub you have but it is an 18″. When it comes to subs, even more than for top speakers, the adagium “you get what you pay for” is true. To get an 18″ sub to provide clean, dry, snappy low end is pretty hard to do and requires good components tuned to a T. Most lower end subs I know will start to sound muddy and rumbling as soon as they are pushed a bit. And no amount of EQ-ing (never mind compression or other tricks) will fix that.

As far as feedback goes, I am assuming you are getting this while using your mic behind the controller/mixer/whatever. Now feedback is usually a problem on stage with monitors sitting relatively close to the mic. With PA speaker preferable being in front of you as a DJ and your mic therefor being behind the speakes, feedback really shouldn’t be an issue.
And there are really no real good feedback surpressors around and those that do a semi-decent job are in a price range waaaaay removed from dbx.

Greetinx,
C.

Thanks Robert,

Guess I am lucky. The HD-series (I have two 1221s and a HD1801) are tuned well, so the x-over is just fine for my set.
I wouldn’t feel too comfortable swapping my high-end active x-over (in the HD1801) for the ones in the dbx. I have some dbx stuff (actually their seperate feedback destroyer, which is one of the few that does a halfway -no more than that though- job) and it is ok. Just don’t consider it up there with the big boys.

I can see how having presets can help. I hardly ever visit the same venue, so not much to be gained for me there.

I agree on the feedback issue with people in the room doing speeches. They are typically not used to correct microphone usage, so double whammie there. I usually use the EQ on my X1600 or MC6000 a tad and use mic’s that aren’t too susceptible to feedback. A little bit of instruction (I actually have little laminated cue card I give out when someone wants the mic) and playing with the loudspeaker balance/panning and that usually fixes things.

I actually did a feedback test when I bought my PA. The Mackie’s somehow seem to be less prone to feedback than all of the other (I tested 12) PA’s. That helps too. I have to admit that since I have the HDs, I am sometimes embarassed for the sound I used to put out with my 15″ bi-amped American Audio speakers.

The new speakers did more for my sound than I could have ever achieved with any electronic “help”. Obviously the price bracket was a bit different for that upgrade compared to a dbx box :-).

Does the dbx come with it’s own RTA mic or did you get one seperately?

Have you ever had the RTA mic calibrated?

Greetinx,
C.

I can only say that, whatever else you listen to, include the HDs (I got the 12″ cause I got tired of hauling and storing big ole 15″) in your “gotta listen to”-list. The subs are by far the tightest 18″s I have ever heard in that price range. They actually sounded better than the 15″. They also have a pretty hefty HD1531 three-way, tri-amped system packing an amazing 900W RMS digital power. They are not small, nor light, but standalone they pack a punch while delivering amazingly crisp sound (you could set them in your living room – almost) and coupled with one or two 18″ subs … yummy :-).

They may not be sexy, they may not be all kinds of modern ABS design (which is good since I prefer well-built wooden cabinets), but they are absolutely awesome PA speakers.

Greetinx,
C.

Plenty for me, mostly mobile gigs, people don’t expect earnumbing, stomach turning 103dB+ festival loudness.

I didn’t buy my sub til about a year after my tops and even now don’t always bring my sub. I’ll do up to 50-60 people comfortably on the tops alone. I did recently get two Mackie SRM450v2s as side-/backfill. Not to go louder, but to have better balanced sound and to create more of a virtual dancefloor within the rectangle defined by the speakers. But I only use those for 60+ or so groups.

The 18″ is pretty compact (for an 18″) and it truly sounded a lot better as the 15″, as tight as but with way more headroom when pushed to it’s (800W RMS digital) max. The 15″ were strugling a bit (nothing bad, but hearing them both in an A/B comparison) there could only be one conclusion = HD1801 rulez!

I often have the one sub turned down by as much as 3-6dB to keep things balanced. I have ran it loud on occassion and you can feel your dinner settle in your stomach ;-).

Not sure if you are on centimeters or inches, but the HD1801 is actually lower (by 5 cm), slightly wider (by 10 cm, which is not surprising as the conus alone is 7,5″ wider lol) and exactly as deep as your Titan A15 and it actually weighs 2kilo LESS! Thank you, lord, for digital amps :).

For all you math wizards out there, that is 13% more cubic centimeters going from 15″ to 18″ sub (a 20% diameter increase).

Greetinx,
C.

Oh, and about having two subs, my original plan was to buy one 15″ (max. budget) and then get a second one later. As I said, I ended up getting the 18″ instead (it was on sale for what the original 15″ would have cost) and never looked back into buying a second one. So worked out a lot cheaper in the end too.

Yeah, I don’t fanatically endorse stuff on here usually. Although it is no secret where my preferences lay, but where these speakers are concerned, I consider them the find of the decade for me at least.

Again, they are just about as a-sexy as they come, but I couldn’t care less.

I promise you don’t have to push the 18″s to get a loud enough boom and tight. None of the usual 18″ wobble. I turned them on at home and at less than full power had a few framed photo’s come down off the wall! And I live in a modern, concrete house :).

I’ll do any size party, but if it goes beyond 250-300 people, I’ll just rent a big PA and have them deliver :). I’d be pushing it with the HD-set, but together with the SRM450s I’d be looking at 600+600+800+400+400= 2800W RMS. At 10W per person that sounds about right for high 200s. Mind you, 10W per person is for a nice bit of sound pressure level. You do NOT want to stand in front of the front stack all night in that case hahahaha. Probably in that scenario the low would start lacking a bit, so I’d scout for a 2nd 18″.

I remember the days we took out 4!!! 18″ W-bins (big, heavy mothers), 4!!! 15″ Mid-cabinets, 2 BIG horndriven mid/mid-high cabinets and 2 high end cabinets with 4!!! drivers in each. Pffffff … Extra truck anyone?