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Speaker processing/crossover in FOH or AMP rack?


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The snake thread got me thinking. (thats always a bad thing!) Seems that everybody recommends 8 returns nowadays but every local soundguy I see runs crossovers/processing on stage. I have it in my FOH rack, I just like having that control at my finger tips and being able to see where my DRPA levels are at. I would imagine that an analog crossover would be at home in an amp rack on stage but only after I had it in my FOH rack for at least a few shows to tweak it.

 

What do you guys do?

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Most pros put a DSP in the amp rack because they 1) have other processing to fix the issues and 2) can generally monitor/adjust the DSP remotely anyway. It can certainly be done either way you prefer. If having it out front makes you feel better about the control, then keep it there and get a snake with channel count to allow for that. If having a smaller snake is more important, then mount the DSP in the amp rack, make your settings and live with them. It really should be a set and forget item for most shows. Gains, limiters, EQ, etc are to optimize the system. Unless the system changes, the DSP should not have to.

 

Varsity tends to mount it in amp racks for redundancy across racks, and for modularity of those racks. Junior varsity often mounts it out front for the reasons you mention. Not a slight, just the truth.

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Most pros put a DSP in the amp rack because they 1) have other processing to fix the issues and 2) can generally monitor/adjust the DSP remotely anyway. It can certainly be done either way you prefer. If having it out front makes you feel better about the control, then keep it there and get a snake with channel count to allow for that. If having a smaller snake is more important, then mount the DSP in the amp rack, make your settings and live with them. It really should be a set and forget item for most shows. Gains, limiters, EQ, etc are to optimize the system. Unless the system changes, the DSP should not have to.


Varsity tends to mount it in amp racks for redundancy across racks, and for modularity of those racks. Junior varsity often mounts it out front for the reasons you mention. Not a slight, just the truth.

 

 

This is pretty much what I see too. I have 6 identical amp racks with identical DSP's in the racks, easy to grab a rack and block of cabinets as needed. I also don't want this processing available to be messed with as all my protection algorithems are written there and this way the systems are pretty foolproof right out of the box. Very fast to set up and test too, and I really haven't had any touring engineers complain, if they need additional control, they have whatever they need at FOH. It's identical in my case to "powered" speakers because I also have written DSP for that market.

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