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Help! Experts mixing keys-Keys/Synth are farting/distorting through PA


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We have a homegrown PA we take to bars/club that don't have house systems. It has more than enough power 2 crown 2000 watt power amps, Mains, subs and monitors. Last night my Triton was breaking up incredibly on some very bassy sound patches. I checked the channel levels and they were high, but not maxed, and the EQ's on the channel were all set on the middle. No matter how much I backed off the volume on my Triton the sound contimued to break up and distort. This was my second gig with this band and I ran the synth direct into the PA with a monitor mix back. Any advice on the best way to mix keys into a live mix?

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Unless you play synth bass lines, you could use a high pass filter around 80 Hz (a regular feature on good mixers), to avoid bass mayem together with kickdrum and bass guitar.

 

Did you check the gain, it sounds like you entered the mixer on mic level rather than line level.

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phantom power.

 

not so common, but i've had it happen to me (when i wasnt up to snuff on all things PA)

 

the soundguy took the 1/4" outs from my keyboard, and plugged them into the snake using XLR > 1/4" TRS jumpers. global phantom, and my keys were horribly distorted.

 

that got sorted once we went through a DI box. no clue why that wasn't there in the first place... glad the line drivers didn't get fried!

 

also worth checking - your synth's outputs (not just the phones out) into another PA (or computer), just to make sure the outputs are fine.

 

of course, im assuming you're using line outs and not the phones outs...

 

hope this helps!

 

AS

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Originally posted by Audiopile


I'll bet it was fuzzy and garbled, but not just farting on the low freqencies?

 

 

yea, across the spectrum...

 

it even did it with the keyboard's volume completely down! but i suspect that has more to do with the quality of the keyboard itself (not a pro model, but a yamaha PSR-x000 IIRC)

 

AS

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Wow!!! All of this info helped tremendously (and has made me the wiser!) THis was my second gig and we did push things further (a bigger room) than the first gig. One thing which I've done (which I haven't tested yet) was to take the bass down on my Master FX EQ on the Triton itself. Nearly every patch for the Trton is shipped with the bass frequency 2-5dbs over normal limit. It lends to that thick, warm sound in the studio, but playing live I think it helped to contribute some problems.

 

I bought myself a Yamaha MG10 10-band mixer with four passive inputs. I plan on running my keys into this first, and then stereo out to a DI and the into the main PA, I will also have a JBL EON behind me for stage monitoring with I will run Aux out. I think that will lighten the load... give some ample stage volume and allow a mix to bleed into the PA. The rooms we play are small (100-200 people) and I don't need a blaring low keys mix direct out of the PA.

 

 

I will check all of the other issues addressed above. Thanks for your help.

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