Keyboard hook up - question

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erichmiller

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Hello everyone,

I'm quite green when it comes to audio hook-ups if it's not explained to me in detail. I have had an Ensoniq VFXsd keyboard for quite sometime and I bought new speakers a little while ago. They are Kustom KPC215 (4ohm/300 Watt RMS & 600 Watt Music). They don't have pre-amps built in so a friend of mine mentioned about buying a mixer. I just received my Behringer XENYX X1622USB in the mail yesterday and I hooked everything up today. XLR female - 1/4" male (from mixer to speakers) and 1/4" male - 1/4" male from keyboard to mixer.

Now, I am getting sound - been playing with the settings with the mixer and trying to read what little the manual provides - but I know it's not the best. I have my keyboard all the way up on volume. But when I play with the Main and Line-In volume controls on the mixer, the sound can get quite muddy when it's not even that loud.

Does anyone know what I can do to make this sound better? Did I buy the wrong kind of mixer?

Thank you for your help!!
Erich
 
If your speakers aren't powered and your mixer is not a powered mixer, I'm surprised you are getting any sound out of the speakers at all.

You need to run the audio into some kind of amplifier to drive the speakers. I don't see that you have any amps in your signal chain....and that's what the problem would be.
 
Wish14 said:
If your speakers aren't powered and your mixer is not a powered mixer, I'm surprised you are getting any sound out of the speakers at all.

You need to run the audio into some kind of amplifier to drive the speakers. I don't see that you have any amps in your signal chain....and that's what the problem would be.
Click to expand...

Any suggestions for a modest stereo amplifier? I guess I had thought that it was built into the mixer itself - but it doesn't seem so - unless it's a very low powered one.

Thanks...
 
erichmiller said:
Would something like this work?

http://www.amazon.com/Crown-XLS-402...cal-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1284611741&sr=1-4
Click to expand...

Yes,

That will work fine. I'm not going to go into all the different brands and issues surrounding amps, but that one should work fine.

You will need a couple more cables (stereo). Here's how I think it will end up looking.

1) Keyboard 1/4" males to the Mixer.

2) Mixer's Main Outs (XLR or 1/4", either will work) to the Crown amp.

3) Cables from the Outs of the Crown to your speakers.

(Not sure what connector the Crown uses, but usually you have a couple different types to choose from. One Example: Banana plugs on the amp to 1/4" going into your speakers. Check the specs on the Crown, if that's what you buy. More than likely, though, it's 1/4" jacks there, too.)



Ok, one comment about Amps: Spend the extra money to buy an amp with almost zero Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). If your amp has noise in it (THD), you will hear it, sense it, feel it, and overall not be happy with the sound coming out your speakers when the volume is up some. To get close to zero (like "less than .01% THD), the amp will cost more because the components that are used to get that result are more expensive.

Also, the cables from your Mixer to your Amp are usually no longer than 3' or 4', since they are so close to each other. You might want to buy heavier guage, and shorter, cables to run from your Mixer to your Amp. Buy longer cables from the Amp to your Speakers, obviously, so you can place your speakers some distance away from the amp and locate them for better sound for your audience.
 
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Awesome. Thanks for the great info guys. I don't know if a powered mixer would have been better. I guess that's what I thought I was getting when I bought this. But I suppose it will still come in handy if I want to bring in other things down the road.
 
Couple of Tips

You will also most likely want make sure your in stereo. Meaning you have the Left output going to a Left/Panned input on the mixer, and the right output to a right/panned input.

Also when you get everything hooked up have all the faders and knobs turned down before you power up.

Racherik
 
One more question and then I think I am done. :)

Is the wattage of the power amp important to take into consideration with my speakers? When I look online, there are all sorts - 200W, 1000W, 5000W, etc etc... I don't want to get something that's going to blow up my speakers...or be too weak either.

Thanks!
 
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