you hit the nail on the head.... the Driverack will not only optimize your powered speakers, it will also protect them. I feel the Driverack is crucial to ANY PA system. I blew up 2 subs in 4 weeks and then finally bought one. My system never sounded better! your wallet will thank you. thanks for the videos bro
I really appreciated this video, as it has helped me to better understand the frequency range of each of my speakers and how I can adjust the parameters of the Driverack to deliver the best signal processing, thus ensurng great speaker performance. Good Job and keep up the work with the videos.
If your sub amp is clipping, and you don't want to turn it down, make your frequency cue (size of the frequency range) more narrow. I've managed to stop the clipping problem, and kept my volume by rolling off the top end of the sub at 80-100HZ. The same thing applies to the sub's rolloff frequency. Keep an eye on your amp's clip light as you move your slopes up and down. 60Hz is the general 'peak of the mountain' for kick drums. An additional, and equally critical feature is the limiter. Set your limiter to capture the top peaks just before clipping. Setting your low frequency limiter with a knee of 1 sounds like you are blowing the speaker, it's nearly a square wave. Use a knee of 3 for your subs, and a knee of 2 for the upper speakers.
+T-Dubbie Solo I run sound for a band, and they have a QSC 2400 into 4 sub speakers. I've bridged the amp to get the most power, and still had clipping problems. It wasn't until I narrowed down the frequency, centered around 60Hz, that I was able to get a decent THUMP! THUMP! that you would expect from 2400 watts. There is an added variable that you need to check (I need to do this also). take a test tone, and determine the exact point where the low frequency becomes distorted. The way you can do this is to turn the amps power knob down to 9 o'clock, and run a 60Hz tone into the amp. Turn it up until the clip light comes on... keep turning it up until you actually hear the distortion. What you will notice is that you have about 3-6Db of extra volume, just past the point where the LED begins to barely turn on. This is a critical detail, and you don't want to set your limiter so low that your power is only 2200 watts (down from 2400 watts). Remember, when you reduce by 3dB, you cut your power by 50%.... so, this is where you can tune the system to get all of that power you paid for. This will ONLY show you the point AFTER the LED begins to light up.. where the distortion will begin. You would then need to, after turning the amp full on, run a 60 Hz tone through, and do it for real. You don't want to be doing this test with a real kick drum... a test tone will probably not blow your speaker... You just want to lightly know where the distortion begins, and set your limiter to stop it at that point. Be careful!
WOW thank you so much man..I wish I knew what you know about this situations...this really helps me alot in a long run...I will definitely use this method to optimize my set ups to its full potential and lucky for me that I have a driverack to save my presets for a quick set up and not have to worry about clipping and losing power by 50%....I will be doing another video about this method soon...thank you so much man!
Yeah, I really need to get over to my friends house, the one with the system... record a video on all of this. It was difficult for me to hold the camera, get the contrast on the Driverack PA just right, and make adjustments with one hand... I tried to shoot a video, but I don't think I like the way it came out.
The LR and BW refers to the crossover used in the speakers. LR is Linkwitz Riley and BW is Butterworth, the number refers to the slope of the curve. If you really want to get it set to optimum settings you should research the specifics of the speaker.
In my experience with the installed systems I have set up, the Butterworth crossover has a richer tonal quality, but that will be dependant on your installation. You have to use the Drive rack with an RTA mic active to get the most of your system. I have seen systems that were set up with the mic in place and then they took the mic out thinking the EQ was set up and it wasn't needed any more. The purpose of the Drive Rack is to manage the sound as conditions change and it does it very well as long as the mic is active. Also there is a Drive Rack PA + which is designed for mobile use which looks like what you have, Drive Rack PX for powered speakers, Drive Rack 260 for permanent installs as well as several other models. So regarding LR and BW crossovers take a look here. www.avsforum.com/forum/155-diy-speakers-subs/1642074-difference-between-linkwitz-riley-butterworth-crossover.html Butterworth for odd filters, Linkwitz for even. A Linkwitz is just cascaded butterworth filters. Bessel filters are for keeping an even phase/group delay. Each of the filters has a different Q value, which give different amplitude responses. BW is Q or 0.49, LR is 0.71 (which is 0.49^2), which is because it's just a double BW filter. LR filters are -6 dB at crossover, so they sum to flat (0 dB). BW are -3 dB, so they sum to +3 dB. The link will give you a good visual representation.
Going to try this. Had to use JBL 515xts and the lows were passing through even with a sub after drive rack setup. My qsc k10s have an ext. sub switch which works beast with my qsc kw181. Great video homie
LR stands for Linkwitz-Riley.....these are the last names of (2) speaker designers (men) who invented all these terminologies back in the 1920's.......its the passive crossover network (filters)......BW "butterworth" is another guy who had a slight different take on the filter design that sounds slightly different ..........6/12/18/24.....is the db per octave slope.....ak 12db per octave..........a low pass filter set at 100hz 12 db/octave will be -12 at 50hz
THANKS SO MUCH! For your info! Your info was SO USEFUL! I was wondering about the specs of my sub woofers. The driver is a Eminence BP102. The ONLY thing it says about frequency is: Resonant Frequency (fs): 40Hz. THAT's IT. How should I set the sub frequency and slope on my DriveRack?
Gilbert Arciniega Basically it means thats the frequency that the woofer makes without a box put into it.....and it depends on what box the speaker is put into it like a sealed or a ported box...a ported box is usually the best choice since you can get a better output(depends on the tuning of the box)when place inside the enclosure...and from there you just kinda listen to the woofer for the best frequency respond like say.....a 40hz.....if the sub that you put in and it is tune to 40hz within the box itself then you can set your frequency from that point on
Thanks so much, it has help me a lot but i have a question. Any i set my gear it always sound as if there is delay on it. how doi adjust delay time., please. thanks
+official kunle divine I have no idea how to fix that...I dont think the driverack will delay at all unless you have other gears hook up into it alone with it...what gear are you using?
This is a helpful video. Are you using a Driverack PX or a different one? I have a Driverack PX and my screens look a little different when setting the frequency slope. Mine has a third option for the db level.
BW am playing B &C 1400watts @8ohms bro. My speakers details is 30-1000Hz what is the best setting on my drive rack P.A+.My amplifier is a Sound Barrier PCS5000.
what I will do is daisy chain from one qsc k12s to another per side(hooking from output speaker 1 and in to the speaker number 2 input and then so on)then do the same for the right side as you will do on the left.....after you daisy chain 4 speaker per side...take the left side cable from the driverack main output and hook it up to speaker number 1 inputs where you start your daisy chain...meaning that(output from the left side from the driverack into speaker 1 inputs+from speaker 1 outputs goes into speaker 2 input+from speaker 2 outputs goes into speaker 3 input and from speaker 3 outputs goes into speaker 4 input)and same goes for the right side as well.......Now for the subs since your using them per side as a stereo set up just hook one sub to the(sub output left channel to the driverack)and then another sub to the(sub output right channel to the driverack).....you can also daisy chain your subs together(by hooking sub number 1 to the input from the driverack and then take another xlr cable and hook it from sub number 1 output into another sub(number 2 input) and from there set the driverack in mono mode to the subs...meaning that the left channel will only light up on the left side of the sub channel while the main outputs remain in stereo...hope this helps.
I notice you say 2 18s per side meaning I think you have 4 18s all together.....So for this situation you will do the same configuration as you would do to the tops per side(from the sub output channel from the driverack goes into sub number 1 input...then from sub number 1 output goes into another sub number 2 input...and then do the same thing to the other side...2 subs daisy chained together per side.
thanks a lot man! i love this driverack, i have 6 days with this unit, im now looking to use AFS system for al my mics, i use this PA system live all the weekends. did you have an email or something? cheers!
Joseph Guameh-Appiah if you cant find the name of the subs you have...keep scrolling until you see the word customize(I believe) and then from there it will take you into the next options...I have to rename my subs and then save it into presets in a long run...hope this helps.
hey, I'm looking to get this or something similar for use with my EV powered speakers. The speakers I'm using have built in DSP with limiting, crossovers, etc. I'm looking to use these for mains as well as monitors, any chance you know if one unit in MONO could do 2 separate monitor mixes, or will the DriveRack be trying to level out the volume between L and R channels? I'm mainly wanting the room EQ functions and feedback fighting. I may end up needing 3 of these, but it will be one at a time as things progress. Hoping to build a small effective rack with minimal gear, power conditioner/s, Driverack and/or EQ and feedback fighting unit of some sort. Other than that, I have plans for space for wireless mics or a tray for ones that aren't rack mountable. And a drawer or two for mics and cables, thinking 10U or maybe 12U rack. Any input helps, thanks for the video!
***** for now the left and right outputs go into sub, then out of sub to the left top and to the right top. I don't have a DBX unit yet, but am thinking that when I start doing some gigs with live bands it will be handy to have for feedback suppression. I would imagine that hooking up the FOH speakers will be pretty straight forward, but for the monitor mixes, I think I may look at one of the DBX units that might be able to do 2 separate monitor mixes, or possibly just use 2 units, one for each monitor mix. Thanks again for the reply and for the videos bro...
***** DBX got back to me, and suggested that I look into the AFS224 for feedback suppression on the monitors. I will look further into the DR PX, the PA+, and also the possibility of using a DriveRack unit only on the FOH and using the AFS224 on monitors. I mainly do mobile DJ type work, and will hopefully have a DriveRack chosen for mains soon, lots to learn. The AFS224 might be just the ticket for monitors, as the speakers I'm using have quite a lot of built in features and may work out well for monitors without too much needed beyond fighting that inevitable howl of feedback. Thanks again for the videos.
![fellow fellow - PROUD feat. INK WARUNTORN [STRING QUARTET]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BQrVkMPTdHE/mqdefault.jpg)
you hit the nail on the head.... the Driverack will not only optimize your powered speakers, it will also protect them. I feel the Driverack is crucial to ANY PA system. I blew up 2 subs in 4 weeks and then finally bought one. My system never sounded better! your wallet will thank you. thanks for the videos bro
reVIDeng Your welcome...glad that I can help.
I really appreciated this video, as it has helped me to better understand the frequency range of each of my speakers and how I can adjust the parameters of the Driverack to deliver the best signal processing, thus ensurng great speaker performance. Good Job and keep up the work with the videos.
Aquelius Young Thanks man....I appreciate that...glad that I can help.
If your sub amp is clipping, and you don't want to turn it down, make your frequency cue (size of the frequency range) more narrow. I've managed to stop the clipping problem, and kept my volume by rolling off the top end of the sub at 80-100HZ. The same thing applies to the sub's rolloff frequency. Keep an eye on your amp's clip light as you move your slopes up and down. 60Hz is the general 'peak of the mountain' for kick drums. An additional, and equally critical feature is the limiter. Set your limiter to capture the top peaks just before clipping. Setting your low frequency limiter with a knee of 1 sounds like you are blowing the speaker, it's nearly a square wave. Use a knee of 3 for your subs, and a knee of 2 for the upper speakers.
Tim Kasey wow thats very well put...I need to try that method....thanks man!
+T-Dubbie Solo I run sound for a band, and they have a QSC 2400 into 4 sub speakers. I've bridged the amp to get the most power, and still had clipping problems. It wasn't until I narrowed down the frequency, centered around 60Hz, that I was able to get a decent THUMP! THUMP! that you would expect from 2400 watts. There is an added variable that you need to check (I need to do this also). take a test tone, and determine the exact point where the low frequency becomes distorted. The way you can do this is to turn the amps power knob down to 9 o'clock, and run a 60Hz tone into the amp. Turn it up until the clip light comes on... keep turning it up until you actually hear the distortion. What you will notice is that you have about 3-6Db of extra volume, just past the point where the LED begins to barely turn on. This is a critical detail, and you don't want to set your limiter so low that your power is only 2200 watts (down from 2400 watts). Remember, when you reduce by 3dB, you cut your power by 50%.... so, this is where you can tune the system to get all of that power you paid for. This will ONLY show you the point AFTER the LED begins to light up.. where the distortion will begin. You would then need to, after turning the amp full on, run a 60 Hz tone through, and do it for real. You don't want to be doing this test with a real kick drum... a test tone will probably not blow your speaker... You just want to lightly know where the distortion begins, and set your limiter to stop it at that point. Be careful!
WOW thank you so much man..I wish I knew what you know about this situations...this really helps me alot in a long run...I will definitely use this method to optimize my set ups to its full potential and lucky for me that I have a driverack to save my presets for a quick set up and not have to worry about clipping and losing power by 50%....I will be doing another video about this method soon...thank you so much man!
Yeah, I really need to get over to my friends house, the one with the system... record a video on all of this. It was difficult for me to hold the camera, get the contrast on the Driverack PA just right, and make adjustments with one hand... I tried to shoot a video, but I don't think I like the way it came out.
lol sounds very interesting...would love to see it soon :)
Excellent. Very clear and real. Really appreciate this.
The LR and BW refers to the crossover used in the speakers. LR is Linkwitz Riley and BW is Butterworth, the number refers to the slope of the curve. If you really want to get it set to optimum settings you should research the specifics of the speaker.
Ross Gladwin Thanks.....I will sure do that.
In my experience with the installed systems I have set up, the Butterworth crossover has a richer tonal quality, but that will be dependant on your installation. You have to use the Drive rack with an RTA mic active to get the most of your system. I have seen systems that were set up with the mic in place and then they took the mic out thinking the EQ was set up and it wasn't needed any more. The purpose of the Drive Rack is to manage the sound as conditions change and it does it very well as long as the mic is active. Also there is a Drive Rack PA + which is designed for mobile use
which looks like what you have, Drive Rack PX for powered speakers, Drive Rack 260 for permanent installs as well as several other models. So regarding LR and BW crossovers take a look here.
www.avsforum.com/forum/155-diy-speakers-subs/1642074-difference-between-linkwitz-riley-butterworth-crossover.html
Butterworth for odd filters, Linkwitz for even. A Linkwitz is just cascaded butterworth filters. Bessel filters are for keeping an even phase/group delay.
Each of the filters has a different Q value, which give different amplitude responses. BW is Q or 0.49, LR is 0.71 (which is 0.49^2), which is because it's just a double BW filter.
LR filters are -6 dB at crossover, so they sum to flat (0 dB). BW are -3 dB, so they sum to +3 dB.
The link will give you a good visual representation.
between 50hz and 150 HZ i think there is 2 identical singnals thats mean a huge boost in this area the crossover need to be crossed in the edges
thanks man i have one and didn't understand the eq at all but thanks i learnt a lot in so little time.
lol no problem
Going to try this. Had to use JBL 515xts and the lows were passing through even with a sub after drive rack setup. My qsc k10s have an ext. sub switch which works beast with my qsc kw181. Great video homie
LR stands for Linkwitz-Riley.....these are the last names of (2) speaker designers (men) who invented all these terminologies back in the 1920's.......its the passive crossover network (filters)......BW "butterworth" is another guy who had a slight different take on the filter design that sounds slightly different ..........6/12/18/24.....is the db per octave slope.....ak 12db per octave..........a low pass filter set at 100hz 12 db/octave will be -12 at 50hz
Very useful. Thanks man!
Great work
thank s for the information i agree with u
THANKS SO MUCH! For your info! Your info was SO USEFUL!
I was wondering about the specs of my sub woofers. The driver is a Eminence BP102. The ONLY thing it says about frequency is: Resonant Frequency (fs): 40Hz. THAT's IT. How should I set the sub frequency and slope on my DriveRack?
Gilbert Arciniega Basically it means thats the frequency that the woofer makes without a box put into it.....and it depends on what box the speaker is put into it like a sealed or a ported box...a ported box is usually the best choice since you can get a better output(depends on the tuning of the box)when place inside the enclosure...and from there you just kinda listen to the woofer for the best frequency respond like say.....a 40hz.....if the sub that you put in and it is tune to 40hz within the box itself then you can set your frequency from that point on
LR stand for linkwise relay
DO YOU HAVE A VIDEO ABOUT WHAT A SUBHARMONIC WORKS AND WHAT IT DOES?
Thanx Man, Appriciate Your Time Sir and Where you gigging?? PeaCe
Thanks so much, it has help me a lot but i have a question. Any i set my gear it always sound as if there is delay on it. how doi adjust delay time., please. thanks
+official kunle divine I have no idea how to fix that...I dont think the driverack will delay at all unless you have other gears hook up into it alone with it...what gear are you using?
Which driverack is better the 260 or 360?
This is a helpful video. Are you using a Driverack PX or a different one? I have a Driverack PX and my screens look a little different when setting the frequency slope. Mine has a third option for the db level.
Im using a PX as well and the db level is the volume for ur mains or ur sub outputs if u press the data wheel several times
Okay thanks. I think I figured it out. Thanks for posting this helpful video.
No problem
This help me a lot Thx buddy ;-)
No Problem
Yellow I just want to know if it's out it mean u dnt use powered sub or not
how can you adjust the crossover's gain/levels? thanks mate!
BW stands for butterworth, LR stands for Linkwitz-Riley
Ahhhhhh right...I knew thats what it stands for...thanks man!
Hey man how to custom setting the driverack
Can you help me . and tell me frequency slop from pa2 dba. I need to now what number to put on high FreQ. and is say types OR and BW
BW am playing B &C 1400watts @8ohms bro. My speakers details is 30-1000Hz what is the best setting on my drive rack P.A+.My amplifier is a Sound Barrier PCS5000.
Hi man! Ims using 4 qsc k12 L and 4 qsc k12 R and 2 qsc kw18 subs per side. Wich configuration do you recomend? Is for a church for 1000 people.
what I will do is daisy chain from one qsc k12s to another per side(hooking from output speaker 1 and in to the speaker number 2 input and then so on)then do the same for the right side as you will do on the left.....after you daisy chain 4 speaker per side...take the left side cable from the driverack main output and hook it up to speaker number 1 inputs where you start your daisy chain...meaning that(output from the left side from the driverack into speaker 1 inputs+from speaker 1 outputs goes into speaker 2 input+from speaker 2 outputs goes into speaker 3 input and from speaker 3 outputs goes into speaker 4 input)and same goes for the right side as well.......Now for the subs since your using them per side as a stereo set up just hook one sub to the(sub output left channel to the driverack)and then another sub to the(sub output right channel to the driverack).....you can also daisy chain your subs together(by hooking sub number 1 to the input from the driverack and then take another xlr cable and hook it from sub number 1 output into another sub(number 2 input) and from there set the driverack in mono mode to the subs...meaning that the left channel will only light up on the left side of the sub channel while the main outputs remain in stereo...hope this helps.
I notice you say 2 18s per side meaning I think you have 4 18s all together.....So for this situation you will do the same configuration as you would do to the tops per side(from the sub output channel from the driverack goes into sub number 1 input...then from sub number 1 output goes into another sub number 2 input...and then do the same thing to the other side...2 subs daisy chained together per side.
thanks a lot man! i love this driverack, i have 6 days with this unit, im now looking to use AFS system for al my mics, i use this PA system live all the weekends. did you have an email or something? cheers!
Sure...its mixtape120088@yahoo.com
And your welcome...glad that I can help
joss
Hi T-Dubbie Solo, I'm finding it difficult to select my sub. could you please advise me on what to do. thanks
Joseph Guameh-Appiah if you cant find the name of the subs you have...keep scrolling until you see the word customize(I believe) and then from there it will take you into the next options...I have to rename my subs and then save it into presets in a long run...hope this helps.
hey, I'm looking to get this or something similar for use with my EV powered speakers. The speakers I'm using have built in DSP with limiting, crossovers, etc. I'm looking to use these for mains as well as monitors, any chance you know if one unit in MONO could do 2 separate monitor mixes, or will the DriveRack be trying to level out the volume between L and R channels? I'm mainly wanting the room EQ functions and feedback fighting. I may end up needing 3 of these, but it will be one at a time as things progress. Hoping to build a small effective rack with minimal gear, power conditioner/s, Driverack and/or EQ and feedback fighting unit of some sort. Other than that, I have plans for space for wireless mics or a tray for ones that aren't rack mountable. And a drawer or two for mics and cables, thinking 10U or maybe 12U rack. Any input helps, thanks for the video!
The driverack can do a mono operation as well but the volume will remain the same on both channels.... how are you hooking up your system by the way?
***** for now the left and right outputs go into sub, then out of sub to the left top and to the right top. I don't have a DBX unit yet, but am thinking that when I start doing some gigs with live bands it will be handy to have for feedback suppression. I would imagine that hooking up the FOH speakers will be pretty straight forward, but for the monitor mixes, I think I may look at one of the DBX units that might be able to do 2 separate monitor mixes, or possibly just use 2 units, one for each monitor mix. Thanks again for the reply and for the videos bro...
No problem bro...let me know how it turns out
***** DBX got back to me, and suggested that I look into the AFS224 for feedback suppression on the monitors. I will look further into the DR PX, the PA+, and also the possibility of using a DriveRack unit only on the FOH and using the AFS224 on monitors. I mainly do mobile DJ type work, and will hopefully have a DriveRack chosen for mains soon, lots to learn. The AFS224 might be just the ticket for monitors, as the speakers I'm using have quite a lot of built in features and may work out well for monitors without too much needed beyond fighting that inevitable howl of feedback. Thanks again for the videos.
No problem
how can i fine the main volum on the driverack
+Fire Tete The main volume is located on the set up menu and then from there move your cursor to the db level of the unit
0 flat better then 80 hz
is this the driverack px?
Cincinnati Harry yes it is
now you can say you know your shit
"7"