blown speaker, drum machine the culprit?
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Posted on Dec 16, 2010 09:36 am
jhouse
Member Since: Dec 16, 2010
Hi all,
Newbie here, and a non techie as well. I did a search for this, and googled it a lot, but no luck, so hopefully someone can help.
We just blew a JBL 15 in our small p.a., and suspect the Alesis 16 drum machine, possibly along with my inexperience. I need to figure out how to run our drum machine to get a bit of decent volume & punch, whether through the p.a. or a keyboard or bass amp, or a combination of the two. And, not blow any more speakers.
This is a duo (vocals, bass & guitar), along with an Alesis 16 drum machine, small venue & moderate volume type thing, trying to fill the dance floor area with sound, but not the whole venue, what with the small p.a.
The gear:
Mackie 808m mixer, 600W main, 600W monitors.
Another mixer we may use: Yorkville 810, 400W main, 400 monitors.
2 JBL Eon1500s
2 Yorkville monitors (10" speakers)
We plan on running vocals in the p.a., (at our volumes hopefully the bass & guitar amps will carry in small venues)and possibly, the drum machine We're also looking into running drum machine through a keyboard or bass amp, if it's that much of problem in the p.a. Or, the drum machine through both an amp & a little in the p.a. if the amp alone doesn't cut it.
So far we've been rehearsing in a small space, not playing terribly loud but trying to get some decent volumes. We ran the drum machine into line in on a channel, and ran it just under clipping. Sound wasn't distorted at all, got yellow lights occasionally but not red. And, not getting that much drum volume in the JBL's -- probably not quite enough for a gig. Other than drum machine, just vocals in the p.a.
A soundman I know suggested trying different ways of running the drum machine into the mixer, including the high-z input, so I did that -- didn't sound distorted, but not sure if that was a good idea
The speaker just blew in the middle of rehearsal, no bad sounds or warning. .
Any advice on using drum machines live -- and keeping speakers intact -- would be greatly appreciated!
thanks,
Jan
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Dec 16, 2010 05:15 pm Hey Jan.
Well, the issue may not lie in the drum machine. This could just be a EON issue. EON's have the 15" built into the face plate. And the support structure for the 15" is not all that great. I have ran into this before.
Your going to have to take it to a repair center. This is not something you want to try on your own. Have them look it over an see where the problem is, and then look to see what caused the issue. If it was over excursion, then we'll see what we can do for you. But, I suspect that your going to find that it's a mechanical issue instead.
Now, for the volume issue that your running into. This is just how loud the EON's are for bass. They are not the greatest for filling spaces with a ton of low end. If you find yourself in need of that much punch, then your going to have put some subs under the EON's. JBL makes an companion EON sub that goes with the EON 1500's. I think that you will find that will give you the oomph that your looking for.
One question that I have for you, is why are you running a self powered mixer with speaker's that have a built in amp? To me this seems a little strange.
