intime-nick

I guess it’s a good time to sell my PM5 hardcore aged one then !  

As mentioned above, learn how to coil them correctly (not in a figure 8 please), use a Velcro cable tie, store them without crushing, try not to step on them if possible, don’t kink them in use or storage etc etc etc 

i have some Klotz cables that are over 20 years old and still going strong.  OBBM stuff is great - I have a few of his cables and they are top quality. 

As with all things, abuse them and they will eventually break irrespective of brand or price. One of the guitarists in our band insists on buying Fender branded cables for some reason - he stores them badly, mistreats them and can’t understand why a branded cable fails on a regular basis.....not saying there is anything particularly wrong with them (apart from possibly the over-inflated price associated with the brand name) - but it shows that just because it has a recognised name associated with it doesn’t mean it’s more immune to failure through misuse  

the best way is to teach yourself how to make your own - it’s a skill most musicians who use cables should have in my opinion but I’m an old fart like that. 

My Warwicks and Vigier have Elixirs because they sound great & last a long time. I’ve still got a NYXL sticker on my rack case from a set I got at a Midlands Bass Bash years ago - liked them on my Shuker (since sold), good sound and tension but really like the long life of the Elixirs.  Can’t remember how long the NYXLs lasted as I normally struggle to remember what day of the week it is but would be interested to try a set of 5 string 45-130s on my Streamer to compare them to the Elixirs. 

You’d have to check with Rob but I’m sure his standard quads are 1x low, 2x mid, 1x high. I ordered mine with 2x low. 

From their FB page :

Rob is very accommodating and helpful so it’s definitely worth an enquiry (tell him I mentioned LUGS on BC as I told him there may be some more enquiries coming from this forum - I’ve no affiliation with them, but it’s always nice to support a small business that’s doing good work)

5 hours ago, mrtcat said:

@intime-nick how are you getting on with the Lugs? I've just seen their D5s are £400. That's a huge amount for not much cash in IEM world.

 

Good, second gig with them this Friday and I’ve used them at a few band rehearsals.  Sound-wise, I have only my UE900s to compare them to (I have some SE215s and KZ ZS10s and, whilst OK, aren’t really in the same sort of league) and they compete favourably. Of course, it’s not a direct comparison with a custom fit vs. universals and the extra isolation provided by the customs is probably the most important upgrade.  Sound is a very personal thing but, for me, they work very well - better stereo separation  and I can run them a lot quieter than the universals.  The whole band mix sounds so much better than before and my bass (the most important thing obviously 😉) sounds well defined and has plenty of low end extension and headroom. Overall, they sound very well balanced  

Rob @ LUGS did make me a slightly different driver setup than his standard quad offering with 2x low, a stronger mid driver and a high.  Overall, for the money, cannot complain.  As with all these things, you can always spend more money but with exponentially decreasing gains - same as all gear I suppose. I will run them for the next few gigs and then see what the longer term impression of them is - I feel I may be turning into an IEM-a-holic though....

As for the other multi-driver IEMs they are now offering -  the 8 / side option sounds tempting or maybe some UE6s or something else - this is now getting worse than picking amps and cabs ! (although at least they take up less room in my house)

5 hours ago, mrtcat said:

I used to find the Yamaha DXS range of subs a bit too muddy. Theyre bandpass so can give the perception of decent volume but at the expense of clarity and good transient response. One of my bands uses RCF 745s and they're absolutely great. We have them paired with RCF 905 subs and it's a formidable rig. My other band has two FR800s. We just ordered an LF1400 to go with them as the FR800s have a lot to deal with when we all go through (we don't use any backline). I would say that a single DXS12 would definitely struggle with a full band. 

Thanks for the info Tom, I’d be interested in hearing your band with the 745s - let me know when you’re playing next with that band and I’ll try and get over to have a listen (as you’re not that far away from me). We get (in my VERY humble opinion) a pretty good sound with our current setup but I know we can do better with no extra hassle from a transportation & setup point of view. As with all these things, I’d need to hear them used in a band context to get a better idea of what we’re potentially missing.  It’s not my PA that we use with the band so I’m working on the drummer to move away from his beloved Yamaha setup.  I need more real-world info to be able to convince him !

49 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Hi @intime-nick - what are you using as the crossover on your subs? You may want to lower that to 100 or even 80 - so more low end is going through the tops. If you are crossing over at 120, theres a lot of bass energy and sonic detail that is being taken out of the foh that are at ear height and being fired at peoples feet with not a particularly powerful sub. (Not dissing the sub, it's just that it's not going to push out that much low end at high enough energy to push it a long way from the stage - especially if it's getting absorbed by peoples legs. I'm guessing the sound that you are hearing is fairly toppy from the back of the venue?

Can you separate out the kick drum on the module? Being able to compress that, and put a nice peak at around 50hz (or maybe 65 given the size of the subs) should add some bass weight back into your mix. In fact, you may want to plug the L and R into the main L and R on the XR18, put a HPF at around 90hz, and run the sub completely off an aux to give you more control over that precious low end. Realistically, you probably only want the kick to go through the sub - putting bass guitar fundamentals through the sub is going to eat up it's bandwidth very quickly.... but physco acoustics will put the lows back in when you hear the 1st harmonics and above come out of the mains.

itsmedunc's suggestion of RCF745s (or 735s) are sound. I've said many a time that those speakers are unique in what they are offering at their price point. The 3 (735) and 4 (745) inch compression drivers in those cabs, allow for the hf drivers to take on a lot of vocal duties which in other cabs, would be handled by the main driver. This allows for a lower crossover, so the larger speaker is more concentrated on producing the mids and lows as opposed to trying to get the tops sorted also. This frees up the speaker to a lot more work on the low end without muddying up the vocals. Those 3 and 4 inch VC drivers throw vocals like nothing else... and with the main speakers throwing out some serious volume as well... you have a very formidable setup. Add a sub or two to take care of the uber lows, and those 15inch drivers are only working on several hundred hz... which means your low mids and mids are going to have so much bandwidth, it starts to get ridiculous. Those boxes are light... and super efficient... and should not really exist with those drivers... or the price point! And they are potent enough to keep all but the most serious of bass nuts happy without carrying around subs.

Without knowing too much about your band however... big sounds usually require moving a lot of air... so it does sound like that your cabs are getting towards their limit. If you are compressing, you are already gaining headroom... you need to add speakers... or saturation to give the output more harmonic content... but that comes at the risk of hurty ears if you start over doing it!

Thanks Russ - I'll have a look at the x-over settings.  We don't have spare aux to run the sub independently but I will speak to the drummer re. the bass drum out - at the moment he's running L&R from the module straight into the mixer.  We don't struggle to get a good sound but I'm always looking for ways to improve things given the transportation constraints we have.  

32 minutes ago, xzodar said:

One thing that made a big difference to my PA setup was adjusting the gain on the back of the speaker appropriately (also DXR12’s as it happens although over a pair of 15” Yamaha subs).

Basically with my old Mackie setup I had been told to set the gain on the back of the speaker to 12 o’clock and leave it.

With the Yamaha’s I have done the following:

With the FOH speakers turned right down via the dial on the back, played an mp3 into the desk and set the gain on the input channel so that it was at unity.  Then brought up the channel fader to unity and then raised the main LR so that the signal leaving the desk was also at unity.

Then brought up the gain on the rear of the speakers until the signal clip light on the back of the speaker started to flicker and then just backed them off a touch.  Typically my speakers are set somewhere between 2 and 3 o’clock on the gain at the rear for my desk and setup.  (A&H QU-SB)  

Now of course, this might be a load of old rubbish or you have probably done the same, however all I can say is that I worked for me.

The other thing to make sure is that your tops are high enough for the horns to project over the top of the crowd rather than into the first couple of rows of people on the dance floor.  I’m absolutely not trying to teach you to suck eggs, but that’s just one other thing that I have learnt over time by trial and error. 🙂

 

Cheers, Pete 

Thanks Pete - we set our tops to unity gain and very rarely touch them - output on the mixer main outs is generally also at unity.  I'll give that a try at our next gig on Friday along with changing the x-over setting.  The tops are typically at around 6ft off the ground (to the centre of the main driver) so plenty high enough i reckon for most places we play.  

9 hours ago, itsmedunc said:

Our setup is a lot like yours (live drums though)but we only use a pair of Barefaced FR800's FOH. The BF are great sounding, small and lightweight and can do a venue (with the whole band through them) of about 100-150 folk (depending on the volume and bottom end you require you of course). The bass sucks a lot of power from them though and so we are also looking for a bit more out front but do not want subs (don't really like the over wooly sound that lots of bands prefer today). So, we're adding a pair of RCF 745a's in the hope that, at larger gigs we can use all 4 FOH, smaller gigs RCF's as the main PA and the BF as monitors (or vice versa). I'm hoping the RCF's will do the FOH job on their own to be honest. Lots of folk like them on here and say they are easily capable of taking a whole live band. Don't get me wrong, the BF can do that but they can run out of steam if the music you play is loud (our engineer likes loud ).

In your position, I can only think of getting a larger sub and selling the existing one or replacing your your tops with something like the BF's or 745's. Maybe you could ditch your sub too? I'll have a better idea of how the RCF's perform as soon as we get them to a gig.

 

i'd be very interested to hear how you get on with 2x 745s and no subs - that, to me, sounds like an ideal setup for our band

I’m posting this as the bass player / inadvertent sound guy for our band (EL34, rock covers band). 

We have a pretty nice Yamaha PA setup -  2xDXR12 tops and 1x DXS12 sub with various DBR monitors (for those not on IEMs) all controlled by an XR18 mixer. The band comprises 2x guitarists, drummer with a nice Drum-Tec e-kit and me on bass.  The drummer and I are on IEMs and the two guitarists have the monitors. Both guitarists and I sing (lead or backing depending on the song)

The whole band goes through the PA - drummer is direct to mixer, bass is direct to mixer (I use the onboard compression/EQ/effects) and the two guitarists cabs are mic’d.  Our FOH sound is pretty good (although I’m a rank amateur at the whole band mixing thing) but we get by !

Because my bass GAS is pretty low at the moment, I’m looking at how we could gain a bit more headroom in the FOH sound without having to cart around any more gear.  I had thought to just add another DXS12 sub but I’m not sure that it’ll help as it means another heavy box to lug around (and we’re short on space in the 4 cars we take to each gig).  What I’d really like is a little more ‘throw’ into the back of the various pubs and clubs we usually play - it is noticeable that the low end of the FOH sound isn’t carrying as well as it possibly could. I have no real complaints about the overall sound - it just could do with being a bit ‘bigger’ (if that makes ANY sense whatsoever !!!)

No real idea of budget at the moment - the sale of the Yamaha PA would need to fund some of any future purchases and I’d like to think we can make gains in the overall headroom and projection. 

Any hints, tips, ideas, discussions welcome. 

If it were me, I’d cut a strip of thin, flexible wood or plastic and drill a series of holes with which to attach the strap button in different positions. Bend and affix the strip to the curve of the base of the body and then try the strap button in the various hole positions to see which balances as you’d like it.  Fix the strip with some thin pins as you’ve already suggested or use a strong acrylic double-sided tape that won’t leave a residue if you don’t leave it on for too long. 

Or, use the cutout you’ve already routed for the bridge to attach it to as that’d hide any holes. 

That’s all given me an idea - I will design & 3D print one for my Warwick Streamer Jazzman - the angled J pickup doesn’t lend itself to a normal ramp shape.  

Just got my quad customs back from Rob at LUGS - they needed a slight tweak to the RH fit (most likely caused by a slightly 'off' ear impression as although they sealed well, it just felt slightly looser than the LH)

Anyway, he decided to remake them as the end result would be better - i also took the opportunity to change the colour from red & blue faceplates/clear shell to all black with clear thermosoft tips and, hindsight being a wonderful thing, is how I should have ordered them originally and improves the look (to me anyway)

Soundwise - great so far, nice balance, plenty of low and high extension with no obvious gaps in the mids.  I have some UE900s so I will be swapping between the two over the next day or so as, whilst they have the same number of drivers, it'll be interesting to compare the sound differences (if any - my cloth ears aren't what you might call audiophile quality !!)

Next gig in a couple of weeks so I'll be able to give them a proper test - will report back afterwards

As a side-note, Rob at LUGS is extremely helpful and accommodating, answering my many questions quickly and in detail.  The quality of the product seems good - the pricing is excellent (£380 for the quads incl. recessed sockets and thermosoft tips) and the turnaround time is great - 2 weeks from impressions to delivery. 

edit - excuse the marks on the shells....ahem....i didn't wipe them down before taking the pic !!

Good stuff, glad they have worked out well. @BigRedX, if you’d still like a set, PM me with your address and we’ll sort out details etc. 

No probs. Prototype mounting brackets have printed OK. @mrtcat, let me know where to post them via pm. 

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

All the metal bodied DIN right angled DIN plugs I've seen are very chunky. I've had plastic bodied ones in the past that could be configured for up or down cable exit, but I thinkI'm going to need left and right exits for the Helix and Adrenalinn.

This is the problem with the original MIDI spec that allowed manufacturers to cut corners and use DIN connectors instead of the preferred XLRs. You have use cheap badly made plugs for can be the most critical connection on hi-tech equipment.

what about these Switchcraft ones - (they can be bought from lots of places online - this was just the first one i found)

http://www.actionhardware.co.uk/parts-online/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1420

I'll print a set of the fixing plates for test - happy to send them out to @mrtcat (as he asked first) - let me know details via PM.  @BigRedX - if they work OK, I'm happy to make another set - they'll only be a few quid - I'll work out the cost later

quick question - i tried a Bass Fly Rig and didn't really get on with it (i use a BDDI and RPM/RBI sometimes so i do like the general sansamp 'sound').  Apart from the sound (which I'd have to try but all the demos i've heard are good), it looks like this pedal uses those cheap, horrible, wobbly controls that are fitted to the BFR - it's really putting me off getting one.  How do they feel on this pedal ?  The BFR felt like a cheap toy compared to a BDDI or the other Tech 21 stuff i've had over the years

if the Kemper foot controller has a similar arrangement of rubber feet on the bottom, no probs 🙂

Righto, here are the fixing plates for a Helix Floor - top & bottom views shown.  They are slightly thicker and a bit larger overall than the LT versions to cater for the fact that only 4 are used to fix the unit down instead of 6 on the LT.  100% fill, printed in ABS and use the existing screws that retain the rubber feet to attach to the Helix.  Use CSK wood screws to fix to the pedalboard.

Re. the sockets on the back, i've added a bit of extra length so you can rotate them away from any interfering sockets if needed but they should be OK lined up perpendicular to the front & rear edges of the Helix

One thing you could confirm before i print some to test - I am assuming the rubber feet on the Floor are the same as the LT - if you could measure the height of the rubber feet and the diamater of the fixing screw (it should be M3), that'd be helpful

EDIT : they don't have to be green !! (other colours are available)

now that's an idea - if i can get the 3D scan data from the impressions, i could make a custom fit insert for a case....nooooooo, i'm too busy with blooming drums & percussion designs at the moment - don't get me side-tracked !!

Ok, I’ll have a doodle tomorrow and see what the CAD models look like. Will post some pics when they’re done. 

6 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I'd be interested in a set too.

I'll have a look at the practicalities of it first and then test some parts - will keep you updated on here