Running a live PA system virtually?

  • Thread starter Thread starter NRS
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NRS

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Saw a sound reinforcement guy at a local bar a couple of years back who appeared to be runing his entire PA rig off a laptop computer without a physical mixer. First time I'd seen anything like it and was astounded but now that I'm in the market for some kind of multi channel firewire recording interface, I can see the potential and I think I should also explore this option.

Just wondering what type of program and/or interface he was likely using or would just about any multitrack program and multichannel firewire interface be suitable for this purpose (so long as it had the proper connections)? I would also think the potential of latency and PC crashing would make this a risky thing to do live, no?

Also, I havent dismissed the possibility that the guy had a small mixer that I just didnt see and he was really using the laptop to multi track from its inserts, but I really dont think so. Just wanted to know if anyone else is doing this or knows anything about it as it seems a rather uncommon practice in the sound reinfrcement world.

Thanks.
 
If you're starting from scratch, it's expensive. Price out the laptop plus 16 channels of firewire interface, and to be really effective, a control surface. Compare that to an analog 16 channel mixer. Sure, the computer gives you instant recall of settings, and you can track while mixing sound, but on the other hand, so can a digital mixer and HD recorder.

I think it starts to make sense if the band is using loops or canned tracks (like Ashlee Simpson ;) ), but beyond that a mixer is hard to beat, especially in a dodgy club where riding the faders and EQ is very necessary.
 
I'm planning to do precisely this for an upcoming church gig in the spring. One goal is to put in some small notch filters on a per-mic basis to reduce feedback....
 
the big problem is latency. anything above a few ms will begin to cause serious problems. on a small scale, it's quite hard to do, but most stadiums and big concert venues now use digital systems like Peavey's Nion system (don't be confused by the "Peavey" tag - this stuff is actually good.
 
Many guys who do that are only using the laptop as a control surface to control a digital mixer via Bluetooth or some other wireless system. No audio is passing through the laptop.
 
Interesting.... but what of latency on a small scale when using only 8 or less mic channels? (assuming your PC is fairly decent). Also does the amount of effects and actual type of effects being applied to each channel make a big difference with latency or is the number of channels more a concern? Say would EQ's and compressors be far less taxing on processing than reverb and delays would be? (Whats really more attractive than any complex modulation or delays to me is the possibility of just plain independant compression and enhaced EQ options on each channel)

Also, what about using the firewire interface and laptop in conjunction with a live mixer for just multi effects processing? I currently own a Berry MX3242 which has just about every insert and effects send option you could ever imagine and would love to route 8 independant fX send/returns to a PC interface for FX processing rather than bulk up on more rack gear. I was already considering something like an old digitech studio quad anyway so this would be like having two of them.
 
latency is going to kill this idea, i think. plugins do have their own amount of latency. compression could be used for sound shaping and to prevent clipping the output but it won't prevent the inputs from clipping.

i would try it at home first and see what you think. i've tried it a couple of times and did'nt like what i heard. i had my sound card buffers set for about 6ms latency. you might as well try it and see what you think.
 
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