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Can my band live without an RTA? We play cover Country and Classic Rock, in small to medium venues. We have just about everything else in the rack, but have a hard time getting the EQ even close. Keyboard player says boost the low end, and cut the mids(cures every problem)LOL. The drummer who owns all the PA gear twist knobs, and we all agree it's muddy. We are using Crown Macros one 1200, one 2400, and one 3600 with JBL SR speakers 12's with horns, and two 2x18 subs. Instrumentation is two guitars, keys, electronic drums, bass, and two lead vocalists one of each gender. IMO we are running too much low freq, the sound is not "bright" enough. Also the vocalist like a lot of reverb and delay, I don't think this is helping much. The male vocalist can shatter eardrums without a mic, the female vocalist is about normal volume wise, she needs twice the gain as he does. Any suggestions for cleaning this mess up, will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks, John

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Try setting all eq (including channel strips) flat. The SR boxes sound pretty acceptable flat out of the box. It would beat bad eq every time. If that improves things, a little constructive (and correct) eq would be an improvement. If it doesn't improve things, there may be other troubles that obviously eq will not cure.

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The sound man we used to use in another band had a DOD RTA and used it at every gig. Of course he had some nice Ashley 31 band eq's to deal with. You didn't mention anything about your monitor mix. We always kept the effects off in the monitors. Sometimes having too much effects creates like a feedback loop and you would have to cut alot of highs out to keep feedback from happening. Just my .02 cents...

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You might be candidates for a dbx Driverack. There are a lot of mixed opinions on here about them, but I've been using one for a while now and find it does wonders for setting up a flat room without a permanent soundperson available. It also might let you eliminate some of the stuff in your rack.

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Originally posted by Rumblejohn

Can my band live without an RTA? We play cover Country and Classic Rock, in small to medium venues. We have just about everything else in the rack, but have a hard time getting the EQ even close. Keyboard player says boost the low end, and cut the mids(cures every problem)LOL. The drummer who owns all the PA gear twist knobs, and we all agree it's muddy. We are using Crown Macros one 1200, one 2400, and one 3600 with JBL SR speakers 12's with horns, and two 2x18 subs. Instrumentation is two guitars, keys, electronic drums, bass, and two lead vocalists one of each gender. IMO we are running too much low freq, the sound is not "bright" enough. Also the vocalist like a lot of reverb and delay, I don't think this is helping much. The male vocalist can shatter eardrums without a mic, the female vocalist is about normal volume wise, she needs twice the gain as he does. Any suggestions for cleaning this mess up, will be greatly appreciated.


Thanks, John

Maybe its those 12 foot woofers.:eek::cool: I recently bought a DOD RTA and the first time I used it,I was surprised to see that we had very little tweeking to do. They are handy. NTL,without actually hearing your system,I'm guessing you may need to cut somewhere in the 100-400 range. There can be a lot of mud in that area. But that is just a guess. It would be pretty easy if I heard the system. Where are you crossing over? Try sweeping that and see if it helps. I cross over in the 85-95hz range. Also,is everything muddy,mainly the vocals,or what? Do you have low cuts on the vocal channels engaged? Does your channel strip have a semi-parametric mid control?

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Originally posted by tlbonehead

I recently bought a DOD RTA and the first time I used it,I was surprised to see that we had very little tweeking to do.

 

Generally, most systems we have serviced are WAY over-tweeked. If the system doesn't sound acceptable flat (most decent speakers will), then EQ's (generally) not the answer. Once the system sounds ok flat, eq is a wondeful tool for fine-tuning to get the best results from that system.

 

This is why the pros tend to select a certain class of speaker box, so that they are almost there without relying heavily on eq to correct for bad (or improperly set up) gear but instead as a tool for fine tuning.

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Originally posted by agedhorse


Generally, most systems we have serviced are WAY over-tweeked. If the system doesn't sound acceptable flat (most decent speakers will), then EQ's (generally) not the answer. Once the system sounds ok flat, eq is a wondeful tool for fine-tuning to get the best results from that system.


This is why the pros tend to select a certain class of speaker box, so that they are almost there without relying heavily on eq to correct for bad (or improperly set up) gear but instead as a tool for fine tuning.

Yep,that is true. But what I actually meant was that I was surprised that my "ear tweeking" turned out to be pretty accurate.

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Thanks guys, you gave me a good starting point. We ususally have the cross over set at 150, maybe that is a little high. And my bad, I didn't think to check the high and low cuts on the appropriate channels. Guess I need to get my head out.

 

Thanks, John

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