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sub mixer just for drum inputs?


jeromegreenday

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Hey guys, to follow up on a thread i've got a mixer amp with 6 inputs i was thinking vocals maybe d.i the bass in and that leaves for inputs but in the future we might want to have a 6 mic piece set for the drums, someone posted back about running the 6 drum inputs into a sub drum mixer, mixing them there the running that into the 6 channel mixer amp, is there such a device! Cheers J

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been doing some research and the soundcraft spirit e6 sounds like the perfect mixer to hook up to the mixer amp off the top off my head my mixer amp is 200w so i assume i can mix the 6 drums on that and put it into 2 inputs on my mixer amp? off the top of top off your head will that work and sound ok?

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Concur with "the DW". You don't have enough power to add drums and I wouldn't even add in the bass guitar direct unless you don't have a decent sized bass amp. 200 watts with just vocal input will have a hard time competing with a spirited drummer, all by itself.

 

When submixing drums or anything, unless you have a LOT of input channels on the primary/master mixer, I'd just go mono. IME, most of the time submixes are used is to add more mixer channels OR minimizethose channels used on the main mixer or transmitted through the main snake. So SAVING channels is a big consideration. And stereo in live sound isn't that big of an improvement and can be a detriment in many circumstances. (Although I still think submixing is a bad idea in this particular case, the more you know, the better you can plan ahead ;>)

 

Boomerweps

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i've checked and my mixer amp is 250w, at what kindda power would i need to do the things im talking about, but this is alot further down the road, im sure my band wont be playing at brixton acadeny for a few years!

 

Well power. Hmmmm As I put on my engineers hat... K... The amount of power you need is dependant on a few things...

 

1. How loud you play music (rock, Jazz, metal) the louder you want it the more power you need.

 

2. Size of the venue. The bigger the room, the more you need. This is also effected by how big the crowd is, how absorbant the room is.

 

Those 2 are your primary power consideration..

 

250 watts for vocals and drums. Not worth the try.... In a moderatly sized room, that power is not really enough for unless its a very low level that your band has its stage volume. If your the normal kinda rock band you are most likely in the clipping range. If you get there you are damaging tweeters and your audience wont be too happy with that nasty sound your PA is doing... With only 250 watts, Who made this... Also 6 inputs kinda indicates to me that this is a pa for like playback of presentations or for speaking. Not really a music PA.

 

Now the next thing to think about. Where is most of the musical energy of a drum kit.. Think about the kick and toms... Low frequency energy. That needs more power than Mid frequencies and the highs. Back when Bob Carver was doing his initial research for his company called Phase Linear. He did lots of measuring of things. Like, To reproduce a Piano to the original volume level using moderatly efficent speakers requires peaks of over 250 watts. Now were not talking about the piano being louder than the original performance.

 

So as you can see, you're way under powered for a decent PA. Do your band and your listeners a favor and keep the drums out of that mix. The sound you will get if you're a rock band will be harsh and distorted... Not a good place to be for a band starting out. Also something to consider here too is that most live drums are compressed so they dont soak up all the power and protect the mains from damage.

 

If you need more information about this question, Please give us a few things.

 

Type of music played, Size of average venue, And what you currenty have. PA brand, Model number would help.

 

And yes you can run a submix into that mixer. You would take the line outs from the submix and take it into the main PA via line input jacks. If you want stereo drums you would need 2 line inputs. And then those could not be used for vocals... If you want mono drums. you would crank the pan pots on the submix to one side. Say the left. then you would feed the left out into one channel of the main mixer....

 

Hope this helps ya out a bit..

 

Mike

 

I now return to my drum hat. :badump:

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