I'm such a dummy

[Gary in NJ]

At our last gig I thought I heard my monitor distorting during loud vocals. Sure enough, during rehearsal last week it was doing it again, only more so. Must be a blown speaker, so on Friday I ordered a new driver for the box (Eminence 12A-2 for a Club SM12III Monitor).

 

This week during rehearsal I didn't want to be without my monitor, but hadn't yet received my replacement driver. So I removed a woofer from one of my FOH speakers and placed it in the SM12 for temporary duty. All was good during the rehearsal, but during the last two songs I noticed a little of that same "quacking" coming from my speaker. This time from the horn.

 

Then it hit me. I never did recheck my level inputs on the mixer from our last gig. Sure enough, my mic was off the mark - by quite a bit.

 

DOH! What I perceived as a blown speaker was actually clipping from overdriving the input signal. I'm such a dumb ass.

 

I guess I was due for a new speaker for the SM12 anyway since it was the only speaker effected by the overdriven signal.

[agedhorse]

It's the only one that you heard anyway.

 

This is why I always say there's a lot more to running sound well than fancy mic preamps, fancy gear etc. Getting the basics right is job #1 and that's what you learned. The good news is that you will always learn more from a mistake, and others can learn form your error too.

[mddittman]

No problem, now you have a spare. Keep it with your stuff with a pencil soldering iron and you're set.

[Craig Vecchione]

Gary, sorry but I had to change your thread title....HC forum rule; no swearing in thread titles...if Dora the Explorer wouldn't say it, don't use it:)