On 10/13/2012 06:43 PM, David Pickett wrote:
At 05:51 13/10/2012, Dave Hunt wrote:
I have long been dubious of the common practice of turning all PA
amplifiers up to full and doing all level adjustments prior to that,
often at the mixer. This increases the gain of system noise, hums
etc. It can also mean that the mixer is working at a fairly low
level, bad enough with analogue mixers but worse with digital ones as
the final D/A conversion then throws away the highest bits.
Why would anyone do that? The only sensible thing is to operate the
console at its optimum level and then provide whatever amplification is
necessary to turn that into sound at the desired level.
a somewhat convoluted line of reasoning, if i may, rooted deeply in
years of sound grunt work experience:
1. p.a. is expensive.
2. very rarely is there more amplification than strictly necessary
3. therefore, you will almost always use the power amps at close to max.
4. rocknroll is _very_ dynamic
5. headroom is actually used.
6. for safety reasons, always mix away from your limbs and torso (aka
"the only way is up").
7. mosh pit crowds are nice to look at, but often not so nice to be in,
let alone to wade through in a hurry.
8. depending on the concert, the distance from f.o.h. to the ampracks
can easily be 30-100m.
9. you don't necessarily want to be wading through 30-100m of mosh pit
in order to bring the amp gains up to be able to deal with the upcoming
grand finale of the tune.
10. even if you are, you will very likely be late :)
10. therefore, amp gains are all the way up, right from the start.
because they would be anyway, by the end of the concert.
--
Jörn Nettingsmeier
Lortzingstr. 11, 45128 Essen, Tel. +49 177 7937487
Meister für Veranstaltungstechnik (Bühne/Studio)
Tonmeister VDT
http://stackingdwarves.net
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