Phil Starr

If you don't want it then I'll have it You wanted physical controls and this will give you that and be a great way to get used to all the upgrades without losing the 'feel' of a physical desk and this is a crazy low price. You could use this for a year or so and then sell it at a profit, enough to buy a new CQ18 probably. To me if you wanted 😂 I'd take their arm off. The only downside is that I like a stagebox mixer and I couldn't really afford one of these new but this is just what you've been looking for.

Mixing for another band is a great thing to do, quite apart from giving them some help too of course More or less the first thing I did when I got my digital mixer was to run a gig for a friends band, it gave me a chance to get used to running it without the distraction of playing. I could learn to drive the thing without distractions just concentrating on the sound. I'd forgotten how much fun it is running sound and also discovered how shot my hearing is from all those years of not wearing in-ears. Your drummer's monitoring issues (mentioned in your other post) would be solved by him wearing in-ears. It's almost obstinate not to do the complete fix when it is so obvious. Can't you try to get him to use 'cans' at a rehearsal? I gave my drummer my in-ears at a rehearsal just once and he wouldn't give them back! They were only a cheap pair of ZSN's so I donated them in exchange for a pint If he insists on an incomplete fix then there are a couple of things to try. Swap out his mic too. A more directional mic, carefully positioned could give you a little more gain before feedback and a smoother response might remove a critical frequency. Look at moving his monitor around, if his mic is cardioid then the monitor needs to be pointing along the mic sitting in it's dead spot, if it is super or hyper-cardioid it needs to be at roughly 135deg but that varies a little from mic to mic and with room acoustics Digital mixer again. You can ust the same technique as in the video to identify the problem frequency and notch it out. The horrible bodge! get him to have one in-ear or badly fitted ones. Split his mic signal with something like a Micromon so he gets plenty of vocal and can turn down the gain on the rest of his montoring. The best I could do without in-ears was using a B205D for monitoring. You can stand mount them and are tiny so keep the clutter round the drums down. Again he can adjust his own vocals in the mix. That pushes the responsibility back to him as well. A rack of graphics was never really a runner, good for FOH and Monitors but a parametric eq is what you need on the channels for pulling out those problem frequencies.

No, I like it here

I can't help you with that @ratman is probably the one to ask. The problem is likely to be with using an older iPad, they seem to be long lived and I've seen a Gen2 still working but anything with a battery will eventually stop working. You've still got the Onyx pre amps built in and Mater Fader as the control software so the mixer should be OK

You always have the option of using an ethernet cable for making a connection. I've never had a problem but my mixer has a dual band router so it's never been an issue. It's sensible to think these things through though as we all probably have different workflows at gigs. I use a wireless connection on my bass and do a final soundcheck out front with my iPad, after that I don't touch FOH so if everything went down the sound would continue unchanged anyway, all i'd lose would be access to my own monitors. I sing bv's as well as play so having the iPad on my mic stand is a must and a stage box mixer the only practical option and losing the big analogue mixer has really cleared a lot of clutter from my part of the stage. It might be worth a look at getting a used Mackie 1608 which has an iPad dock Mackie DL1608 You'd need a separate router to use it without the dock and you are reliant on having an iPad of the right generation but they are available for very little used. I've seen them going for as little as £250 used with an iPad included. They run with Master Fader. I do get the attraction of the A&H though. You may find that once you've identified what is important to you your choices are fairly limited.

Ah, I hadn't spotted that it is only 2.4GHz

I'm not surprised, my son has just returned from Japan after 10 years teaching there. The Japanese attitude to used stuff is culturally different from ours and they are far more likely to buy new rather than used so second hand prices tend to be rock bottom. Generally there is a desire for shiny new things especially tech, but that even stretches to buildings, partly because of long experience of earthquakes they tend to be flimsy and designed for a short life. The majority of their ancient buildings turned out to have been rebuilt many times, destroyed by earthquake or fire. Cars are replaced long before they become unreliable and you don't see old bangers on the road. There is a flourishing trade in used cars flowing from Japan to the UK as a result. It's a fascinating place, like a sci-fi world where two cutures are separated hundreds of years ago and developed at a similar rate making rational but slightly different decisions, all rational and all with slightly different unintended consequences which they live with unquestioningly, just like us There is much to admire and an equal amount of 'what the hell Japan?'

Just looking at one of the tutorials on the Master Fader/Mackie app and came across this on taming some harshness in a female vocal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtrNYh36FHQ the relevant bit is one minute in.

Thanks @ratman I did look at the DL1608 as a used one came up locally, but it isn't in production any more and for the moment my RCF M18 meets my needs. For my own use I'm just planning for the next upgrade if I outgrow the M18 or it ceases to function. For live work and no sound engineer the stagebox mixer is perfect so the DL16 and DL32 are in the running as are the A&H CQ series. Master Fader though looks really great in that context, really user friendly whilst giving you access to a lot of features when you have more time. I'm particularly interested on how you get on with it when you are playing live. I genuinely think the sortware/apps are more important to look at than the physical hardware which increasingly at this price bracket does much the same things and way more than most of us will ever use. Like you I hate the Behringer app, I appreciate the flexibility but what I need on-stage is the ability to make accurate adjustments in seconds not that horribly cluttered screen a time lag and sometimes unreliable connections. It's interesting that you see the physical faders on the DL1608 as a downside, that was my biggest fear when I went digital but now I wouldn't go back, with a decent app the on screen sliders are actually easier to use than physical controls. So anything you can share about using Master Fader in practice would be really good

Is anyone using these or any experience of one, it all looks good on paper and on You Tube but there's nothing like real life experience, how do users get on with these?

I must admit i did look at using the X touch before I went digital for the same worries we all share. The RCF has a feature that the volume controls all have a tap feature which turns them up or down 1db at a time which means hittint the wrong spot wouldn't be a disaster, The 'sliders' on screen are so big that I've never hit the wrong one. It's a neat feature others should copy. I've had one drop out of the wi fi connection in over two years and that was the iPad's fault not the mixer, Apple decided it needed the intrernet and tried to tether to my phone. It's never a disaster though as all the settings remain as they were so you lose the ability to adjust not the sound. Turning off the tethering fixed the problem. It's been so reliable that I've ceased to worry. You are far more likely to suffer from a noisy pot or some other physical failure.

You might find your solution with Mackie. I've been wondering what I would do if my RCF mixer ever went down. It's not made any more. I've been looking at the Mackie DL16S as an alternative to the CQ20, my other favourite amongst the 'just about affordable' mixers. I'm mixing on stage and playing bass at the same time so in a way software is so much more important to me than extra bells and whistles and flexibility I won't use and both these mixers have all the eq and processing options I'll ever use anyway. I've two priorities, a single box solution with a decent router and an intuitive workflow so I can just reach out and tame a problem in seconds. I don't want to think about anything other than music at a live gig so the screen I want needs to be just a touch or two away with a big well labelled button I can't miss on the screen. The DL16S seems to have adressed the router issue and Mackie's Master Fader 5 software looks promising and does Allen and Heath's. This is only a recommendation of what might be worth looking at, I haven't tried either yet but the Mackie DL16 is £629 v's £759 for the CQ20 so in a similar price bracket to Behringer if you price in an external router and so much simpler to operate if you don't have a sound tech.

All speaker design is a matter of compromise. Mass is one of the factors that affects the resonance of a panel but only one. Adding mass to a composite will alter it's properties and most plastics used in moulded cabs are loaded with fillers. Stiffness is important too but again not the only factor I have a hi fi cab at home made of lead. Lead certainly isn't stiff but is inherently self damping and lead panels really don't ring when you tap them. Contrary to popular opinion even Trace never used lead in their cabs If you look at historic hi fi designs you will see that not much hasn't been tried out at some time. So the best material is not really something you can give a straight answer to. For portable PA weight is a real issue even for big touring rigs where you have teams of people to shift and set up the gear. Portable means it has to be tough and preferably repairable it also has to sound good. Poplar ply is lightweight but fairly soft compared with other hardwood ply. MDF is stiffer, more uniform, self-damping is good and as a man made product it is possible to optimise it for speakers, but it is dense and doesn't cope with water too well so it doesn't get used for portable PA gear too often. So how light does a cab need to be? I'm a fit 70 year old and can still comfortably carry a 23 kg load a short distance. I wouldn't want to lift a 23 kg speaker above head height though. I can carry a 10kg speaker several hundred metres but I'd rather not and it will feel a lot heavier by the time I get there. Anything much more than that and weight becomes an issue I tend to grab a 10" speaker for rehearsals over my 12 because it's 2kg heavier. I applaud Barefaced and others that have re-thought bass cabs but I've also felt the paels of GR Bass and Barefaced and yes they still have resonances that you can feel and hear. I've also felt quite a few old poorly braced 3/4" chipboard cabs with less panel resonance. A lot of that is down to detailed design. Maybe I should stop touching up speaker cabs though, I'll get a reputation 😂

Possibly because I build more prototypes than finished cabs I deliberately cut my holes slightly loose and use a gasket to seal them (gaffer tape usually) Once I have a finished size I seal it with whatever sealant is in my mastic gun. So far nothing has ever moved but a tight fit would be better. I'm saying this because I want people to know that there is always a solution and it makes it easier to start a build knowing any minor errors are soon sorted

That does look lovely and I'm sure lot's of people are going to pinch the luggage handle idea. I do love a successful build. How about a bit of a review when you've gigged it a few times. I'm interested in how you get on with the 4" tweeter

I've been one of the chief stirrers on this issue, I want to emphasize that I don't think Markbass are any less reliable than other brands. My amp broke because I dropped it and had previously been 100% I can't blame Markbass for that. The issue are the contractual arrangements between Real Electronics and Markbass. Real have been given a monopoly for after care by Markbass who then take no further responsibility and apparently no further supervision. No circuit diagrams or parts supply are made available to third party repairers so you have to accept the terms that are offered or go to hell. I can see the advantage to Real in having a monopoly and Markbass in being able to forget about any amp past the guarantee period. I imagine Real pay Markbass for the monopoly just as car dealers pay to become main dealers but have no information on this. All the disadvantages pass on to the customers and extra profits go the the companies. Ironically I've hd no trouble in getting parts from Music Tribe (Behringer) or Wharfedale via their UK distributors in the past so poor support from Markbass looks extremely shabby. Our only comeback is not to buy from companies that don't support their products.

As a serial builder you'll know the joy of self building is that you can adapt the design. I stick with drainpipe because it is going to remain available for a very long time and because as @tauzero says you can buy a cheap holesaw to cut the port. Cutting small holes is much trickier than cutting the larger radius holes if you are using a router or a jigsaw so the holesaw with just a drill is the 'easy build' solution. A bigger port would be nice with this cab but a 10cm port just won't fit, I did consider a slot port but it increases the complexity of the woodwork. As it happens a 75mm port is in the Goldilocks region for this cab and I'd already calculated for it 12.5cm is the length that port is just too short but changing the tuning by using it as it is wouldn't change the response by much. I wouln't be concerned if you used the port as it is and you could add the extra length by finding something to slide over the end of the tube if you care to improvise. I've a small stock of cardboard packing tubes I keep for this but I've seen people use tin cans and all sorts. I've also moulded whole ports out of papier-mache.

I'm a commited listener to other people's PA's and serial offender of industrial espionage Sometimes I even listen to the band! I'd have thought your PA (at leaast as far as speakers) was a similar price, The 712's are quite a bit cheaper than your EVOX8's and the Behringer subs aren't expensive. Your set up might be more expensive even if it was the EVOX8's rather than J8's. In a way it's not a bad test of two different strategies when buying the basic PA. There's too many variables to be sure but the vocals could be down to the mics you used, eq or even just that your singer is better. The most important thing in any PA though is the fleshy bit that operates it. If it was down to the speakers it could be because the stick systems do vocals pretty well, they typically crossover at 200Hz so no crossover distortion in the vocal range and those little 3" drivers cover the vocal range best of all. The 712's would be crossed over probably higher than 2kHz so a lot of the vocals would be coming out of the mid/bass driver and 12's aren't a great starting place for vocals. The 735 and 745 would be much better with lower crossover points but really are much more expensive. Interesting though, I do like the vocal quality through the EVOX speakers.

You'd probably expect the SRM450's to be louder. I think the original models used RCF drivers and all other things being equal you'd get more volume from a 12 than a 10. My memory of the SRM450's is that they were slighly bright sounding wheras the ART310s are very neutral. I mainly use mine as stage monitors where a flat response helps keep feedback down. Remember too that the 310's are the base model in the range and now discontinued apart from a batch that Thomann are selling off at a good price. The ART 710's and ART 910's are slightly more sensitive (louder) and probably better sounding, but I haven't tried them. The QSC 10 would be worth a look too but is slightly pricey. Adding a sub to any speaker lets you push it harder as well as improvingthe bass response. You shared some video of your band with me that I enjoyed, I don't think you are looking for out and out power and you might get on well with a couple of decent 10's and it does reduce the carrying in and setting up to use appropriate speakers. The vocal quality of the RCF 310's is great and they do acoustic instruments well. They are also reliable and hold their value well. If you are looking for a compact system at a good price they are well worth thinking about. I don't think I'd use mine with a loud drummer for a full on rock band in a bigger venue. Up to 100 people with your style of music I'd say you'd be OK and they are a damn sight easier to get onto the poles than the ART745's

The post on p6 (just a few posts above) was obviously just a screenshot but I've now added a link to the PDF. I put the link to the PDF on p1 because that is where most people are likely to find it first of all unless they have been following this thread for a while. I'm not doing the drawings but so long as you can make out the dimensions that's what I'll use for the prototypes and I think it's as well to wait until all the gremlins have been discovered before making too many changes. Poor @Bassybert will be doing this as a full time job otherwise Changing that dimension crossed my mind when I drew up a cutting list, I might do it when I actually get the table saw fired up. All our other designs have been built measured and tested before publishing but I''ve made a lot of people wait too long for this so I decided to publish a 'beta' version so you could get on with a build if you want to.

Hi all, we have our drawings, many thanks to @Bassybert for drawing them up and @SamIAm for checking them, any mistakes are mine (hoping there aren't any of course) I've swapped out the origianl hand sketch at the top of this thread and there is a link to download the drawings in PDF

That’s awful but don’t give up hope. My son’s finger was 95% severed but the tip healed. He actually had two fingernails at one point. Now you wouldn’t know that anything happened. Coincidentally Sat night I gigged without my middle finger. I sliced the knuckle with a carving knife. It was ok, a couple of runs had to be dropped and more hand shifts than usual but it wasn’t too bad. If I’d had a chance to practice it would have been better. You still have all your sense of rhythm and musicality and your knowledge. You’ll be playing bass for a long time yet.

They got tipped in the end 😀 too soon?

Sounds like heaven. The EAD looks like a nice piece of kit. I love practicality.

Three gigs is just greedy Since I bought my RCF 745 mk4's a couple of years ago I haven't needed anything else and the consistency of our sound is magic. Moving from floor monitors to in-ears has added the final part to the picture. I have subs but rarely 'need' them. I suspect your's is a more professional band than our weekend warriors and we don't really play much other than pubs and clubs. You don't mention the rest of your system (neither did I, but it is in earlier posts). I guess the big question is which mixer you use?