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David Raehn wrote:The 1642 will have 4 auxes that can be used as his outputs for the four (quad) mains.

The 1642 is what he requested in the rider, but it's not the affordable mixer the venue has. It makes sense that the one he requested is a viable candidate. Makes me think he should bring his own. Maybe he's a big enough name that he can make these requirements.


The mixer in question is the Behringer Xenyx X1222USB.

Rich4349 wrote:Maybe he's a big enough name that he can make these requirements..

How big could he be to playing a 20x40 room......My house is three times bigger than that.

There is no Mackie 1642, and won't be.
EDIT: Oy, vey. The go between guy NOW tells me he has a 1642.

Above, I was referring to the house mixer that will be there. It has the aux sends.

I talked to them, and the artist is set upon having simulated quad / dual stereo sound. I did what I could, so now I do my best to get him the best of what he's asking for.

I believe the *desired* setup is far too complicated and expensive for me (or the venue) at this time. (I was wanting to meet the performance goals as closely as possible, and I love a challenge.) But 8 days is not enough time to swing this.

The venue has powered "speakers on sticks" with line outs. We realize true quad sound is out; just going with I plan on just running the signal as such:

Performer's console (not sure what he's using) -> XLRs
DBX -> XLRs
(Possibly Ashley 3102 EQ) -> XLR
Split:

lows to XTI
Sub

mids/highs to
house mains
aux / line out
Ashly amp

(Is there maybe an easier simpler way?)

And, NOW that there IS a 1620, will having 4 independently controllable channels on the performer's mixer help anything? I'm thinking not with out 4 separate amp channels +1 for sub. So this has me back to using my tube amps for the mains. Wow my head's starting to hurt.

Bruce Weldy wrote:

Rich4349 wrote:Maybe he's a big enough name that he can make these requirements..

How big could he be to playing a 20x40 room......My house is three times bigger than that.

I hear ya. Friend of a friend. And maybe it's 24x50!

Bruce Weldy wrote:

Rich4349 wrote:Maybe he's a big enough name that he can make these requirements..

How big could he be to playing a 20x40 room......My house is three times bigger than that.

The big names don't list mackie on their riders , more like Avid sc48

Rich4349 wrote: Friend of a friend.

And that's why you are trying to figure this mess out instead of telling them to pound sand.....I get it - been there, done that.

Remember that no good deed goes unpunished.

The speakers on sticks won't need processing, go straight from his Mackie to their inputs.

Done.

If you're going to run your subs, there should be an line output on the powered speakers, use that as your input.

Process for protection.

Done.

Friend of a friend or not, if He's inside the quad pattern, he should have a handle on the overall volume.

His art.
His performance.
He is the talent.

If he can't pull it off, it will reflect on him, not you.

Enjoy the show.

David Raehn wrote:The speakers on sticks won't need processing, go straight from his Mackie to their inputs.

Wouldn't RTAing stick speakers improve their sound?

My confusion here is that I keep bouncing back and forth in my head about trying to do true quad (since they WILL have the 1642 mixer after all)

and just keeping it simple with dual stereo. If we do go simple, using the house powered speakers on sticks, and a pair of mine, say powered by the Ashly, that leaves the Crown for sub duty. Anyone care to do a bit more hand holding and give a rough lay out, concerning line outs, etc? I go this afternoon for the first and probably only practice.

Rich4349 wrote:

David Raehn wrote:The speakers on sticks won't need processing, go straight from his Mackie to their inputs.

Wouldn't RTAing stick speakers improve their sound?

My confusion here is that I keep bouncing back and forth in my head about trying to do true quad (since they WILL have the 1642 mixer after all)

and just keeping it simple with dual stereo. If we do go simple, using the house powered speakers on sticks, and a pair of mine, say powered by the Ashly, that leaves the Crown for sub duty. Anyone care to do a bit more hand holding and give a rough lay out, concerning line outs, etc? I go this afternoon for the first and probably only practice.

David's point is that powered speakers have DSP and should be (reasonably) flat to start with. Does that mean you don't correct for the room? No, but you don't have the ability to do that with one Driverack. So, let those run the way they are and get your speakers tuned up correctly.

On to the setup. Run your speakers out of the main L and R outputs of the board. Let that be your main sound. Use 2 Auxes to feed the powered speakers - consider these the fills. The artist can then pan between the "Mains" and use the Aux sends to put whatever he wants in the other two speakers. Probably best to run the Auxes as Post Fader so that any volume change he makes on the material will be reflected on all 4 speakers. Unless he wants to put material in only the speakers on the Auxes ..... then you'll have to run them pre fader.

I was also thinking that if the artist was bringing a 1642, maybe it was the intention that he would be using the mixer as part of his instrument, so to speak, and would be in control of the quad mix himself.
(wow, that is SUCH a run-on sentence, but I think it is still grammatically correct... )

Thank you, Bruce, your information was very handy and comforting to my semi-panicking mind.

I set up following your guide, and got sound to my mains, but was unable to get anything but a single channel of mono out of the house mixer, a Behringer Xenyx X1222USB. I flipped plugs back and forth to eliminate cable problems, and it's just the mixer doesn't seen capable of sending a pair of aux stereo signals. I tried just about every plug on the thing, to no avail. I'm counting on the relatively much nicer 1642 to take care of this shortcoming.

Yes, I think very much that the artist does use his mixer as part of his instrument.

Right, then.

My idea: Let him drive the 4 powered mains from the 1642.

If those powered speakers have a line out, take those into your X1222USB as four inputs.

Let your output from the X1222USB go to your DBX, amp and subs.

This will do at least two things:

1. Allow him to work his quad mix.
2. Allow you control and protect the subs.

Hope this helps.

This thread reminds me of a gig I had a couple weekends ago. The artist request was he wanted to input L & R signal into my Yamaha LS9-32 from his Behringer X18air (i think) it was not the X32. I have no idea why their sound guy didn't want to just let me unplug my mixer and let him send his signal thru my snake to my racks and stacks. It seems like it would have made his life easier but that is not what he wanted. He used his own mics and plugged everything into his mixer.

I made him happy but I have no idea why he insisted upon going thru my mixer from his. It sounded great and everyone was happy but I am perplexed. His artist was using a lot of backing tracks thru an Apple laptop.

Late last night I realized that although the house mixer (not the 1642 that will be there for the show) didn't allow for 2 extra outs, both of my amps, as well as the powered (house) speakers do, so there are a number of ways to configure for dual stereo. (Still not sure how the liaison / acquaintance was rather surprised when I told him I was (at that time) unable to get sound to all 4 speakers, considering I warned him of such about 5 times!

Well, I survived the gig. The artist, Adi Newton, was professional, super calm, and quite patient with a rookie. But the best part of the night was at the end when he informed the venue manager that the sound that night was notably better than that at the big city venue in Chicago.

Thanks to all for all of the advice. We ended up keeping it simple with dual stereo, and it actually didn't sound bad. The 1642 is a very nice and capable board, with tons of inputs and outputs. I think with more brainstorming that thing could ACTUALLY do quadrophonic.