Failure to trip db-cutout sparks feelings of PA inadequacy

[mingsta]

So we played a wedding on Sunday. The venue manager gave me the walkthrough in the afternoon as I was setting up the PA. There was one of those DB-meter cutout devices, set to 90db and about 6M away from the PA main speakers and mounted on the ceiling.

I've never had the chance to play with one of these before, so I took the PA to a decently loud level (playing some pre-recorded band tracks) to see if I could trigger the power cutout. I could see the first green bar (out of 3) blinking, nowhere near hitting the red. We're running Yamaha DXR15's and had the mains on 0 (ie not DB cut) and the desk at the same, so my entirely unscientific guess is that we were probably about 70-80% of max clean vol.

It was plenty loud for a wedding to my ears. But the manageress said that she'd had bands in the past who just could not work within those parameters and it'd ruined their gig. While I was somewhat crestfallen to see that our PA couldn't blow the power, it does make me wonder what kind of band needs to play THAT loud at a wedding!!!

Maybe she was winding me up and it was really the smoke alarm!!!

Edited June 13, 2016 by mingsta

[skidder652003]

Don't knock the fact that you didn't trgger the bloody thing, hate em with a passion! We always take the power from the room next door with a great long extention cable!

[casapete]

Did this occur when the band actually played live? If so am really surprised it didn't cut off.
From my experience pre recorded/compressed music could be made to play/sound a lot louder
than a live band. Am guessing it's the transient peaks that a band gives out that can trip sound meters.
With my old band it was usually cymbals and snare drums that were the main culprits, although their red
lighting the meter tended to be in sharp bursts. However, add a trumpet and screaming guitar and then
off it went. One residency we had, we got round this by running the mains for the band not from the stage
but from a conveniently placed cigarette machine. Did this for years, never got rumbled.
Have to say though that the meter would set off so easily, making playing even at moderate levels impossible,
with the band watching the meter all the time. Not fun.

[machinehead]

I stick tape over the microphone, on the fly. Works a treat.

Frank.

[Vinny]

The last time we played a venue with one of those or singist tripped it with the mic off. Current lead twiddler is an opera singer, so he'd probably set it off by humming!

[sharkboy]

We used to play one venue that had a dB cut-off that was, to say the least, on a hair trigger. It was supposed to be set to 90dB, but it would be triggered just testing the mics! We got round it by playing the bar owner (a renowned cheapskate who'd bought the cheapest system possible) at his own game - the keyboard player basically said to him "what I've got onstage is essentially a couple of computers worth of electronics that don't take well to losing power. If your uncalibrated and untested system causes me to lose data or wrecks my equipment I'll hold you liable for the cost to repair, recover or replace them". That seemed to do the trick in the shorter term, then the next time we played we found out that another band had gaffa taped a wad of thick foam over the sensor - problem solved!

[tonyquipment]

If in doubt, run a really long extension from a different room to power your gig 😁

Can't be dealing with these power gates which never seem to be configured correctly

[sunburstjazz1967]

One local place we play with one 'accidentally' leaves the kitchen shutter unlocked and there are hooks over the stage door to handily put your extension leads onto

Edited June 13, 2016 by sunburstjazz1967

[garyod7]

There are quite a few places with limiters around Glasgow/edinburgh where I play in a wedding band and some are more harsh than others - one last night was absolutely fine, barely bumped the yellow, and we were pretty loud, think they said it was set at 110db, had one in Edinburgh though which we tripped twice and like some folk have said, its not ideal for the gear to have power cut in that way.

[pete.young]

We run PA and keyboard off a ups.

[luckydog]

Brass used to set those demonic devices off, even unmic'd ! Bass could be loud as you liked

I thought they had disappeared from use, all gathered together and ritually destroyed ?

LD

[bonzodog]

[quote name='luckydog' timestamp='1465891261' post='3071804']
Brass used to set those demonic devices off, even unmic'd ! Bass could be loud as you liked

I thought they had disappeared from use, all gathered together and ritually destroyed ?

LD
[/quote]

I think there are a few pubs that still have to have them but they are usually connected to one mains socket and the landlords tell you to plug in elsewhere and turn a blind eye.

[crez5150]

Depends on how they have weighted that particular device.... each one is venue/area dependant so not many are the same. As a rule if its one thats tripped easy then make sure you take a load of bass out of the mix as lower frequencies are where the problem is going to be. We play venues all over the country with these installed.... you just have to adapt to the circumstances or not take the gig.

[mrtcat]

Don't fret Mingsta. A pair of Yamaha DXR15s would be more than capable of tripping a 90dB limiter, especially when you add acoustic drums etc into the equation. It's quite possible that the limiter was set to a higher setting and the venue just told you 90dB as a means of keeping you in check. It's also possible that Machinehead played there last week and forgot to take his tape off the microphone ;-)

[cytania]

There's an override switch that stops the power cut mode. Your venue must have left this on.

[cytania]

These devices are usually installed by pubs as a way of countering noise complaints. A tech bolt-on to keeping their license. I hate them with a passion.