Active Monitor Volume?

[ROYAL]

I have Event 20/20bas. and a Mackie 1604 I was wonderin if I should turn the speaker gain up or keep it lower I keep the bass and treble controls at 5 so should I keep the volume at 5 or 1 or 10 is their a rule or should I just see what sounds best?The speakers are plenty loud were they are so thats no problum I just want to know what would be more effecient and better fer the speakers.I dont have a manual.Know where I could get one? THANKS

[maestro_dmc]

The way I would do it, (I have actives and a mixer too) would be to set up all your gain stages properly on the mixer to start with.(Look for that info on a separate thread! Proper gain staging)

First, turn the input control on the monitors fairly low.

Next, start playback on a music source, CD player, Audio file on the computer or whatever.( if you usually mix a multiple sources on the mixer, not the computer, then you should play a file or something that you would normally mix instead of a CD)

Set the fader(or faders!) for the CD to unity gain (0 db) and the fader(s) on the Main outs ( hopefully what your monitors are connected to.) to unity as well.

Now bring up the volume on the back of the monitors to a nice, loud mixing/listening level. This may be a very low setting on the monitors trim, or probably closer to the middle ground of the pot. The position of the control isn't really important. What is important is that the monitors are getting a signal that is within the best operating range of the mixer. This helps you with two things:
1. Headroom. You can mix within the range of your faders without running out of room to go louder, or OTOH, having to keep the faders really low.
2. Noise. By having good gain staging you keep all your signals well above the noise floor. This means you shouldn't hear hiss unless you crank the faders way up on the mixer.


Now you have optimized your mixer to your monitors!

[ROYAL]

Thanks a bunch thats what I needed to know.