Hi All

WE had a disappointing experience with our L1 at our biggest ever gig last night.

We are a duo (2 guitars , 2 vocals & Bass/drums via IPod).

Up till now the loudest we have had the L1 is 1 o’clock on the remote, and we have been getting an awesome sound from all elements.
But the venue last night was large – about 150 foot square (guess) and we reckon it would hold about 600 – 700 people seated. There were about 350 there last night.

The stage was about 2.5 feet high and located about 40 feet out from one of the corners – so we had a long throw requirement to the opposite corner, and the sides, also around the outside of the room there were raised areas with seating and tables which were about 3 feet off the ground.

So we needed to turn things up pretty loud, Getting the volume up to 3 oclick filled the room with vocals beautifully – really nice sound -
BUT---
Our problems came when we turned the IPod on (Bass and drums) when we went past 2 o’clock – the bass and drums lost all clarity – the highs went and the lows as well into a kind of middly mush with no definition. No amount of EQ tweaking could fix it.

So we ended up putting everything through our and into channel 3 of the PS1 mixer then another mixer output into the house system which had multiple speakers around the venue, the L1 (vol at 12 o’clock) was placed behind us and gave us our monitoring and cover of the immediate dance floor in front of us.
(Note; we would normally put the vocals into chan 1&2 of the PS1 then everything else into the mixer then chan 3 of the PS1),

Over all we had a great gig, but I was disappointed the L1 sound characteristics changed so much as the volume went past 2 o’clock - could we have been over loading it?? During the sound check when we noticed the problem all we had going though it was Bass and drums?
AM I EXPECTING TOO MUCH? Have we reached the limit of the system at the 2'oclick position for what we are putting though it?

One other thing is the L1 did start to hum a little once the house system was plugged into another of the mixer outputs??? I guess a ground loop – we plugged all our kit into the same source as the house system and that reduced it but it was still discernable once we stopped playing? It seemed odd (no hum on the house system). Basically I had everything panned left on the mixer and then assigned to the sub bus and the left out of the sub bus into chan 3 of the PS1, then I patched the sub bus to the main out as well and took the left main out to the house desk - as soon as I plugged the house desk in (even with all the faders on the mixer down ) the hum started. I also tried using a balanced lead (no different). The mixer is a soundcraft folio 8. Any thoughts??

~SparkyG September 24, 2006~

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