Mixer/Floor Monitor Question

[jackets63]

Im hoping someone can help me with my setup. Im not sure if I have the right equipment together.

First, what Im trying to do: Im in a hobby-band that plays in a basement. We basically need something that you can hear vocals over the rest of the band (drums, guitar and bass amps, keys ect.) Up till now we were just using a friends Marshall acoustic amp that had a mic input. But with the combination of it not sounding great because its not designed for that and not wanting to have to borrow it for every band practice, I needed something better. I figured that a powered mixer and a floor wedge monitor would do the trick for what I was looking to do.

So for a mixer I got the Behringer Europower PMH880S mixer. The reviews said it wasnt powerful enough for a big club setting but sounded like it should be fine for the close quarters monitor setup I was looking for.

For the monitor, I got the Samson RS10M. I've connected the two with 16ga 1/4" to 1/4" speaker cable.

Ive never worked with any of this stuff before but it seemed pretty straight forward. The Monitor output to the speaker's input with all levels off.

The problem is when I sing or even play into it, I have to turn all the levels up to at least 3/4 of the way before you can even hear anything out of the speaker. It is nowhere near the level it would need to be to hear over anything else playing. Am I missing something here?

When I hook the mixer up to my Rokit5 powered recording monitors, it sounds fine but those are powered. I would assume I could practically play my iPod directly through that and it would sound fine.

So I dont know if its the speaker or the mixer or something else Im doing wrong. I dont even know enough to know if you would need to know ohm ratings and such to even know what info I can give to help you help me. But I can find that.

So any help anyone can give would be great. Oh, and I know that Beringer and Samson dont have great reps here but for my application, I figured the cost/quality would be sufficient. Thanks.

 

[Dani Pace]

Wedge type monitor speakers are designed more for on stage use, to get the most from them they need room to "breathe." In close areas you will be likely to get feedback before you reach volume levels adequate to hear vocals over the other instruments. In confined areas monitors like "hot box" or other smaller monitor speakers often work better. Your other option is to turn the other instruments down enough to be able to hear the vocals. Practice volume does not need to be anywhere near as loud as gig volume.

 

[jackets63]

Thanks for the reply, but maybe I wasnt clear. The problem is that just testing it out, with nothing else playing and no other noise, I had to crank it up to be audible at all. Even at the 3/4 settings, the output signal was still just below the input signal. My point is that at those settings it should be blasting me. I would think that a setup designed to be heard over all that on stage would be much louder than that, leading me to think something is wrong.

 

[jackets63]

Is there more info I should be providing to make it easier to help?

 

[Dani Pace]

You can try a different speaker (hooked to the powered mixer) to see if it is the speaker or mixer. I'm not familiar with the particular mixer you have but you should be getting a lot more output volume than you described. For practice I use a little Crate 65 watt PA which isn't enough for anything bigger than a small piano bar but is plenty powerfull in my practice room (we get pretty loud btw.) Does your mixer have two speaker out jacks? If it does you need to connect a speaker to both outputs (using just one can damage the circuits.) Be sure you are using the "speaker out" jacks, not the "line out" jack. The line out doesn't have the nesassary power to push a speaker. If after trying a different speaker(s) you still aren't getting a reasonable volume output, there is something wrong with the mixer which needs repair.

 

[jackets63]

Thanks. I figured it out last night. The 1/4" outputs I was using werent powered for some reason. I figured all the outputs should be powered but only the back ones were. So basically only the Speakon outputs are powered and the 1/4" ones are all line level and require a separate amp. I get it now (though it seems kind of pointless).

Thanks again.

 

[gecko zzed]

(though it seems kind of pointless).

Thanks again.

No . . . it's not pointless. The powered mixer gives you a number of options:

1 An amplified output that goes through the speakon connectors to feed unpowered speakers, which is what your wedge is.

2 Line-level output (via the 1/4 jacks) which you can use to feed powered speakers, or to send to a recording device or similar.

Just about every powered mixer you get has these options.

 

[jackets63]

No . . . it's not pointless. The powered mixer gives you a number of options:

1 An amplified output that goes through the speakon connectors to feed unpowered speakers, which is what your wedge is.

2 Line-level output (via the 1/4 jacks) which you can use to feed powered speakers, or to send to a recording device or similar.

Just about every powered mixer you get has these options.

True. I understand that function. But what I dont understand, is that this is designed (again, I know its not the best model) to be used as a mixer/amp for a live setting. If the left and right speaker outputs go out from the back, then where would you run your monitor mix? Through the monitor output and just use a separate amp, Im guessing?

 

[TeyshaBlue]

True. I understand that function. But what I dont understand, is that this is designed (again, I know its not the best model) to be used as a mixer/amp for a live setting. If the left and right speaker outputs go out from the back, then where would you run your monitor mix? Through the monitor output and just use a separate amp, Im guessing?

Yup, or you could run mains off of one side (L) of the amp and monitors off the other (R) by panning all channels being used to Left then routing your monitor send into an unused channel and panning that channel Right. Just be sure to turn your monitor sends down on that channel so you dont establish a feedback loop.

There are a couple of other considerations to make if you choose this route....and I need more info on your amp and speakers such as wattage/ohms.