DJ Jules
24-07-2009, 10:57 PM
I've just come back from a Yr6 Prom night held in our local community centre and I've had a bit of a mare of a time. I did a Football presentation in the same room a few months ago with their volume limiter and didn't have any trouble at all, but went back tonight to find this:
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It looks like someone has taped over the mic, and then pulled the plug out (so I guess someone want the music a bit louder...?) Apparently what that someone didn't know is that if the external mic is removed, the device reverts to it's internal Mic.
Now... I didn't have a problem last time I was there (even with JBL tops and subs and about 2kw of amps) because the Mic was several feet in front of me, pointing at me, and properly calibrated to a sensible level. This time I only had the JBL tops and one amp (approx 600w total) and had big problems, firstly because the limiter box was about a foot from my left hand cab, and secondly because the mic was pointed INTO the room so it now picks up on any background noise (not just me!) and the kids were having great fun popping the balloons and SCREAMING at the limiter to try and make the lights go red!! Fun game huh?? :bang:
The photo below illustrates how close I was to the limiter:
6168
Anyway, long story short, it didn't cut out anyway, but I had to back the volume right off a couple of times to account for all of the balloons popping noises and so on! I ended up bringing the cab in closer to the rig and discovered right at the end that if you put a couple of parents between the speaker and the limiter you can push it a lot further as well! I wish I'd found this tactic earlier as most of them were just propping up the bar anyway :)
On the plus side I actually got to use smoke tonight for a change as in the photo below the little orange ball is a kids ball which has been cut open and rammed over the smoke detector!! The grumpy guy managing the centre wouldn't commit to me being able to use the smoke machine or not (and just said that it was my problem if the fire brigade came out) and the woman who booked me was happy to deal with them if they turned up, so I gave it a go and got away with it.
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Bit of a weird night all in all.
Julian
6167
It looks like someone has taped over the mic, and then pulled the plug out (so I guess someone want the music a bit louder...?) Apparently what that someone didn't know is that if the external mic is removed, the device reverts to it's internal Mic.
Now... I didn't have a problem last time I was there (even with JBL tops and subs and about 2kw of amps) because the Mic was several feet in front of me, pointing at me, and properly calibrated to a sensible level. This time I only had the JBL tops and one amp (approx 600w total) and had big problems, firstly because the limiter box was about a foot from my left hand cab, and secondly because the mic was pointed INTO the room so it now picks up on any background noise (not just me!) and the kids were having great fun popping the balloons and SCREAMING at the limiter to try and make the lights go red!! Fun game huh?? :bang:
The photo below illustrates how close I was to the limiter:
6168
Anyway, long story short, it didn't cut out anyway, but I had to back the volume right off a couple of times to account for all of the balloons popping noises and so on! I ended up bringing the cab in closer to the rig and discovered right at the end that if you put a couple of parents between the speaker and the limiter you can push it a lot further as well! I wish I'd found this tactic earlier as most of them were just propping up the bar anyway :)
On the plus side I actually got to use smoke tonight for a change as in the photo below the little orange ball is a kids ball which has been cut open and rammed over the smoke detector!! The grumpy guy managing the centre wouldn't commit to me being able to use the smoke machine or not (and just said that it was my problem if the fire brigade came out) and the woman who booked me was happy to deal with them if they turned up, so I gave it a go and got away with it.
6169
Bit of a weird night all in all.
Julian