Set Up An Entire Live Sound PA| Passive PA, Monitor Speakers And Mixer
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- Опубліковано 7 лип 2024
- Get better mixes, faster with my 3-step guide to perfect EQ:
www.offshoreaudio.no/eq
My entire live sound set up
I know a lot of you are rigging up your own venues and events so I thought I’d make a video just for you, to help with setting up the PA system.
Whether you’re confused about how to set up your PA and stage or you’re curious about how I set up speakers and mixers, this video should help you out.
In this video:
Get an overview of everything you need for a complete PA system so you know what you need.
Learn the correct way to connect the mixer to the stage box to the amps to the speakers.
Get your system ready for gigs, events or services by testing and tuning the PA
Links:
Full guide to routing on X/M32
• Why Do I Have No Sound...
Delay speakers
• How To Set Up Delay Sp...
Front Fills
• Understanding Front Fi...
00:00 Introduction
00:52 Free EQ Guide
01:26 What you won't learn
01:46 Before you rig up your PA
03:00 What you need to set up your speakers
04:13 Speaker placement
06:43 Placing your stagebox
07:40 Connecting main PA to amplifier
08:45 Connecting subs to amplifier
09:22 Connecting monitors to amplifier
09:43 Setting routing on the mixer
12:39 Testing all speakers
14:27 Summary
Regarding the Subs on AUX vs external processor vs everything on mains debate... Unless you work at a single venue with a single configuration, you should absolutely know how to do them all... intimately. If you don't, it will come back to bite you in the posterior some day. I work in a 3rd world country, and most venue consoles are such garbage that I usually bring my own 6U X32 mini rack. The variations of mains & subs I run across means that if I didn't understand how to configure all these options on my console, I'd frequently be out of luck, so to speak. Worth noting that the mains, mono-center & matrices on Behringer / Midas / Wing boards have not just shelf style high / pass low pass options in the parametric EQ, but also Linkwitz Riley, Bessel and Butterworth options as well. These are the same three filter algos used in any number of external processors, so don't discount the abilities of your console... the Behringer family are far more competent than their price might suggest, and their crossover processing can definitely get the job done, no problems at all for most point source speaker systems.
Your a legend, much love from us in Miami 👍🏽
Thank you very much for making this video! Very clear, and exhaustive👌🏻 keep on with the good work!
Glad it was helpful! Just let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to cover :)
Thank you so much from Ethiopia🇪🇹
You're very welcome!
Hi! Great Video! i have just a little issue with the Aux-fed subs. I believe that it could be better, even for beginners, to run the whole PA through a matrix that divides Main LR and Subs. In this way you don't need to worry about sending stuff to the subs and you just need to focus on getting a good tuning and a good mix.
Again Plus one on the DBX Driverack or similar controller solves the sub feed problem and others , these videos are a wealth of live audio production info THX
Excellent. Covers the exact system I own. Just upgraded with the live card for 32 channel recordings to SD cards. Found it handy to have 2 100 foot 1 50 foot, and one 25 foot Ethercon cables and 3 Ethercon connectors to enable cable to the stage box from 25 foot to 275 feet in 25 foot increments for almost any venue.
One difference I was taught for noise level control for good S/N ration, is turn down all the speaker amplifiers, set the mixer for the nominal signal levels, then turn up the speakers for the venue as needed. It helps control feedback and if recording, produces nominal signal levels for recording and for the FX if used as the console is not run at very low levels, but always near the nominal sound levels when you trim inputs.
Glad it was helpful :) Sounds like a reasonable way to set it up as well.
Great and quickly way video! cheers from argentina!
Glad you liked it! I'd love to visit Argentina some day 🙂
Thought this was good. After 25 years in TV audio i jumped to live events also and now music. Still learning and shadowing now.
Glad it was helpful. I hope you're enjoying the switch.
For small stages with no need for customizable monitoring, the monitors can be connected in parallel to save an amplifier channel and to exploit the most out of the amp (Most wedges are 8-ohm and most amplifiers support 4-ohm load. The nominal power output at 4 ohm is twice of the value at 8 ohm.)
Same thing can be done to 8-ohm, single-speaker subwoofers. But for dual-speaker subwoofers whose impedance is normally 4 ohm don't try this. Paralleling will result in a 2-ohm load at the amp side, which will make the amp overload and explode.
To be even more compact, a quad-channel high-power amplifer (e.g. FP10000Q) is enough to power a whole PA system with 2 to 4 tops, 2 single-speaker subs (or 1 dual-speaker sub) and 2 floor wedges.
Lol I was excited thinking finally a full video of setting d&b pa in English . But great video tho. I’m also a sound engineer using l acoustic , eaw and Meyer but I’m a huge fan of d&b, sadly the company I work with is already deeply invested in l acoustic
If im using 2 speakers and i have separate high and mids amplifiers and an amplifier for the subs, is there a need for a crossover, or i can connect the amplifiers directly to a stagebox.. which will consist of 6 outputs...??
Sir, thank you from the U.S.A, huge fan of your work and your company. Question, would it be possible to make a video filming the back of a passive speaker line array and explaining the SpeakOn cable connections on that end? Please and thank you.
Hey thanks so much, Great suggestion! I've actually got a video in the works about hanging and connecting line arrays. Only problem with filming the back of a line array is that whenever I'm working with hanging line arrays then time is tight, and I can't usually stop and film. I'll try and get whatever footage I can just now and get a video out.
Hey man, I Love the Crazy Hair!!!
Hi Audio University, I have a question. Most of the time in live sound applications, the speakers sound distorted when the full band is playing. (Keys aren't hearable, bass sounds muddy, drums isn't clear) Do you know what causes this? When I test them alone it's fine and it sounds good. I also checked the amplifier and it's not clipping at all. My gain level on the digital mixer is always -18dbfs.
Can you Do a video for DJ’s
it's a little old but maybe this will help ua-cam.com/video/D0jrUPNN-XQ/v-deo.html
Could you please show us a setup with a processor?
Hi, I could next time I'm around one. Is there a particular processor you're interested in seeing? What is it about the processor you would like to see?
@@OffshoreAudio none in particular. I'm just curious how the wiring goes
@@Uzrdinma Cool cool, I'll try get one made then in the next couple of weeks.
@@OffshoreAudio Thank youuuuuuuuuu ❤️
Interesting that you just crank the amp volumes
Yeah, I think If and when I make this video again I'll go into more detail/ be morespecific, but if you turn the amp to unity then you can always turn the master down. But if you're running the amp low and you need more volume, you might push your mix bus harder/ compress/ limit/ distort to get the level. I'd rather have the headroom and use those elements creatively than have to use them to get to my desired volume. If that makes sense hah.
@@OffshoreAudio yep agreed absolutely
Personally don’t like subs on a separate feed. External crossover is far superior!!
Awesome, I agree most of the time but for demonstration purposes that's what I did this time! I don't think any way is better but I'd love to hear your thoughts why external is better?
There's a lot of ways to do it and There's a great video by Dave Rat about having control of subs.
ua-cam.com/video/hpFK1XOZuUg/v-deo.html
I was about to comment firstly to say thanks for another great video but also to ask how often you manage the system processing on the desk as opposed to an external DSP eg driverack or Galileo style box (for Meyer world)? Whilst I am still v new to live sound engineering side I would imagine preference is external so even mentally you can separate out the system tonality and level variance from the mixing itself but I guess it can often come down to budget and type of gig in terms of benefit gain from external v internal.
Thanks, saw that video awhile back!
ua-cam.com/video/qdDFrZt7vzs/v-deo.html
( especially reason #4 in this video )
@@michaelanderson4265 interesting take. I can't say I agree with him. Ultimately if it gets the job done and gets everyone good mixes then it works. I don't like the bottom up approach, I prefer to use bus/ matrix EQ and processing and work back the way. Either way, if it works it works. thanks for sharing the video 😊
@@nickevansaudio Hey Nick, pretty spot on yet again. I did this mostly for demonstration purposes but that is actually how that venue is set up, with the crossover on the matrix. I'd say 90% of the time you're going to use a proper drive rack and processor. There's so many reasons to use them, nowadays manufacturers like d&b, l'acoustics and Meyer use amps with dsp and presets for each speaker that configure delays and impedance among other things. They're so much more than just a crossover that I would always recommend using the tools that the manufacturer specifies for the job. But yes, sometimes you get some speakers and some subs from another brand that come with a generic amp and you've got to put it together. I guess the aim of the video was to show how everything would together in that case. Hope that makes sense 😁