Let me first say that the L1 is quite the unit. I will admit, there was more than a little hesitation and reservation about giving up the setup we have been using for years. However, the lugging of the Bose 802's and the racks of amps, mixer, keyboard, and misc stuff, the setup time and work was just getting too much. Particularly, since we reduced the group to just my wife and myself. We sing with trax and also with a SP88 keyboard. I was soooooo happyyyyyy with the current sound and moving to an L1 would a significant change.
After listening to a couple units via some musicians traveling through, we drove to Minneapolis and actually demo'd an L1 Classic with our trax at Guitarcenter (warning, the staff may appear a little scary, but they couldn't be nicer!!! They treated us "older folk" with kindness and patence). Needless to say, when my wife saw the ease of tear down and setup, she was so hooked IMMEDIATELY (ever mind what it sounded like, right????)
Both of us loved the sound (granted we were in a small guitar demo room) but could envision the possibilities. After much prayer and discussion, decided to sell the current system (after all, we are a non-profit entity and so far, it has worked out perfectly...the non-profit part, that is!!!!)
I sold most of the system to a local church and took the plunge and ordered an L1M1 2 bass unit on June 26th. Of course, I would hit the time frame of the Order Entry system at Bose being converted, and then there was the July 4th holiday and then UPS lost part of my order (:>( however, it all came together July 13th (a most fortunate Friday for me!!!) - BTW, I would like to thank Dennis Gravelle for the most kind and heartfelt service during this time. I did not know you could actually get anything from Phoenix to Bismarck, ND overnight???? Dennis did it!! I set it up that night and from then until now, here are my initial thoughts and observations.
With the old system, there were songs were you had to really back off the mic or you would hit the limiter on the gain and distort. On the L1, I have the limiter basically turned off with the wireless mics and the feed from the mics to the unit turned max. It is really "hot" but I cannot get the LED to flash "red" on the L1. The vocal can get really "loud and intense" but stays clear and clean. Another thing I have noticed is that some of our trax are not as "clean" as I thought. There are sections in trax where the intenseness causes it to be muddy and sure enough, when I load up that trax in Audition, I can see where it is "outside" the boundaries and peaking on the frequencies. There isn't too much I can do about that at this point, but found it interesting that I had not noted that with the previous system.
I love having the remote handy by the trax computer, makes for slight adjustments a breeze and you don't have walk over to the "mixer". I "think" I miss some "effects", but not sure. One for sure, it does make you realize some bad habits you've allowed to develop. Man, you can clearly hear some vocal "slides" into notes and stuff like that. It faithfully reproduces what you put into it. I have been really practicing hard on hitting the pitch "spot on" and not sliding to it. Linda has had some struggle initially,(missing her Bose 802 monitor) but I really think it has helped her as well. the only bad thing at this point is she tends to stand sideways to "hear" the sound. I will have to try some L1 repositionings to see if we can solve that. I currently have the L1 in line with the computer, back about 7 feet, so we end up standing "off axis" from the L1. I love to walk around the shop (our practice "room") singing and being able to hear clearly all over. I can even go outside and hear everything pretty good. To realize that all that sound is coming from a "stick" as Linda calls it - is pretty amazing. The efficiencies are outstanding having a"matched" system. I thought I was doing really good with the Mackie mixer and amps - using Shure SM58's into the BOSE speakers, but it is quite a difference between "that" and "this". I bought some used Audio Technica wireless (Freeway600 and a Digital reference 2500 -- just for fun (they were really cheap) I just set the TONEMATCH eq for "wireless mics" and it made them sound like super duper shures! The hi's and bottom and all there and they are crystal clear. As a matter of fact, I had to take a little top end off of Linda's channel - it was almost too "bright". ( somewhat reminicent of a condenser mic).
Because the keyboard and trax go through channels 3 and 4 - there is NO eq on those, the trax are great, but the keybaord is a little "flat" if you know what I mean. Plenty of bass with the double bass units, just the overall sound seems a little flat or gray. Don't know what I'll do about that yet. the best solution is to sell the Mackie mixer (cfx1200) and use that money to get the optional ToneMatch box which would give me 4 more channels and then I'd have more eq and effects and compression and all that stuff.
Overall, at this point, I am a very happy camper. Dennis ended up moving heaven and earth to get the completed system here to Bismarck. Our practices are going well and the adjustment is moving along. It IS an adjustment after years of singing with monitors parked in front of you (yes, even if they are Bose!!!) with a tradtional "house" system, but I think it is going to nothing but "good" to hear EXACTLY what the "folk" are hearing. The other BIG item for us, is the number of trips in and out to unload and the time to setup. Safely, I would estimate we've reduce haul in and setup test times from 1.5 hrs to .5 hours MAX. Also factor in the load OUT time as well. It will be nice to take some time to talk with people instead of spending it tearing down!
That's about it for now - more after August 5th when we have a gathering outside!
Lloyd & Linda Ministries
