I posted this question in an earlier thread, but I think it got buried.

Does anyone have any suggestions for presets for pre-recorded backgrounds? In my case, I use midi sequences - just curious if there was a preset that made accompaniments sound good. Right now I'm using channel 2 with the flat preset, and tweaking a bit with the remote, and it's pretty good, but I'm feeling I can get a better sound - especially considering how great the vocals sound. Any ideas?

Hi Jazzman.

Can you tell me more about your setup - sequencer, tone sources, instruments that are being sequenced, music style, etc.?

I've done a pretty sizeable amount of sequencing and am currently in the middle of a project using sequences, humans, and (of course) the Bose systems.

Would love to hear more about your approach.

Thomas

I don't know if our experience helps, but here goes.

My wife is a singer/songwriter that uses pre-recorded background tracks. We use a Nomad Jukebox 3 MP3/Wave player with a 40GB hard drive. We purchased that model because it has a "play once" feature that stops after playing one track.

My wife wrote ONE song that uses ME on background vocals, and she likes to do a couple of songs at the piano when we go places. So, we are using two Audix OM-5 mics in channels 1 & 2. That leaves channel 3 for the MP3 player. We have found a good level for the MP3 player, and we just leave it there. We adjust the mics and main around that.

The sound is awesome on the background tracks. We left them in WAVE format to have the best fidelity. Every place we have gone, we get comments about the sound and system. People often say it's the best sound they have heard. We are frequently singing in medium-sized churches that have their own sound, but we prefer to use our own. So, the people are used to hearing the traditional system, and they are comparing that to the Bose PAS.

The only thing here that might be helpful to you is the suggestion to pre-record your MIDI tracks, mix them down, add effects, etc. and get them to the place where you are happy with the sound. Then, run them as wave or high-quality MP3 files. The NOMAD has a volume-equalling function that works well for us.

Obviously, we aren't using any equalization through channel 3.

Anyway, those are my thoughts as the roady/manager/background vocalist/financial counselor/psychologist husband of a singer/songwriter.

OK - a little more specific: I use a Roland MC-80 with it's internal sounds for a sequencer. With my traditional system, I did have to tweak a bit - in general I would say I boost the highs and lows a tad, and cut the lower mid range. I tried this with channel 2 on the PAS, and it was better - tolerable, even. But with the unbelievable sound I'm getting out of my vocals, I can't help but think that I can get it to sound terrific!

Hi. I'm new to this forum. My wife and I, yes another married duo! are considering buying the PAS. We also use midi backing tracks and I was curious how they would sound. This forum has been helpful. Guy, I noted your use of the Nomad Jukebox. I've considered going the MP3/wav route. Unforunately you can't seem to find a retailer that knows all the ins and outs of those units. In addition to the one play feature [great!]is there any kind of file management system? Can you locate the next song quickly? Thanks.

Hello Jazzman!
My Daughter and I perform as a duo using one PAS system w/two B1's. We use MIDI sequences, via a laptop, into a Roland Sound Canvas SC88. She uses a Canvas for her keyboards, too.
We tried everything... Using a mixer, running the modules into channel 2 so that we could have tone control, etc. What we finally did was to run the modules into channel 3, with no EQ's at all. This turned out to be the best sound that we've had in years! The PAS is really well balanced, tone-wise.
What we do is get the gain on our mic's (channels 1/2) set and then turn the levels, on the remote, to 12:00 (straight up). then we adjust the level on the sequence channel (3) to balance, volume-wise, with the mic's. Once that's done, we control the mix using the mic and main volumes. This is really the easiest, and best sounding, way that we've found to use this system.
Hope that helps? Good luck!

Jeffrey

My wife programs each concert as a playlist.

To advance to the next song, she just hits FF then Play.

I prefer to use the PC interface (Creative Play Center) with the Nomad Jukebox rather than programming the Jukebox directly. It just seems more intuitive and user-friendly.

Our Jukebox has a 40GB hard drive. Therefore, we store her soundtracks as Wave files, so the quality is perfect.

I find that these MP3 players all have about the same file structure, which is similar to Windows Media Player or iTunes. You can sort/find by playlist, artist, album, genre, etc. You can program your own playlists.

I hope that helps!

After some serious tweaking, I have settled on my solution: I run my sequences (a Roland MC-80 using the internal sounds) into am Alesis Mixer, (I belive it's the USB 8), do a bit of tweaking with the built in 3-band eq on the mixer, run into channel 2 preset 00. My sequences have never sounded better. You MUST find a thread about gain staging and follow the advice to the letter (I started asking some questions last week under the "what do you think" category. I thought that the gain staging issue was mostly for people struggling for volume or feedback issues, but doing the gain staging right helped my overall sound and EQ immensely! I went from OK sound the first night to fantastic sound the second night - and I thought I was doing my gain staging OK in the first place!