Needing some help with setup
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Posted on Jun 22, 2011 10:18 pm
Jwh1
Member Since: Jun 22, 2011
I have been assigned to our church sound system and I am new to mixers and such. The setup has a Peavey XR 680E powered mixer set up by a "sound guy" a long time ago and there is no one to teach me how to use it so I am working on learning it little by little the thing I am wondering how hard would it be for me to hook headphones up with this mixer. The church sound system is oddly placed so I can not mix it properly and was hoping it would be easy to do we do not have enough money to buy a new system so I have to make do.
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Jun 23, 2011 07:02 am Welcome to HRC.
What does your church use it for? Are you just mixing spoken word and signers, or are you a more progressive church that has full band setups and such?
As a whole, since it is a permanent installation (I assume) you should be able to pretty much set and forget at a high level, I assume the room, if originally set up by somebody that knew how to do it, is properly rung out with EQ, so that should be good, if so then it is strictly a matter of level mixing when the attention goes from person to person...am I correct in this assumption?
As far as headphones go, if there is not a phones jack on the mixer, you'd have to add a headphone amp on the main outs before the amps, but that really should not be necessary...there most be a headphone jack on there someplace.
Jwh1Member
Since: Jun 22, 2011
Jun 23, 2011 10:10 am Here is what I know so far we use it for music and surmons right now because we are a small church we have a piano player that sings while she plays and then we have singers that sing to background music tracks like from cd and mp3's. There are enough setups for a band if we ever get the players theres a drum setup and a place for bass and guitar I think. As for its set up it was set up around 20 years ago im not sure how perfessional but since then there have been kids and other people messing with things and the current pastor did not know anything about it so he just figured out how to get the sound for the music and his pastoring from the sound of it it needs a bit of fine tuning but im sure i can manage that pretty easily I was just wondering about the headphones because size of the room the main part is 50ft by 30ft and the sound booth is at the very far back but the people in the church only fill up the first 5 pews wich is maybe 10 feet and I do not want to blast them out of their seats to be able to hear where the sound is going
Jun 23, 2011 10:36 am With that size of a room and that tight of a congregation, why have a sound system at all? Seems completely unnecessary.
I just looked up the mixer manual...OK, one of those little amp head type mixers, and yeah, appears to be no headphone output, bummer. The monitor output appears to be unpowered, so you could put a headphone amp unit from that jack it appears.
Given what you have said, it seems like a set it up and forget type of installation, not something that needs constant oversight, and is likely used at very low levels for sound fill in back seats...but by and large, unneeded...I would think spend a couple service sitting right behind the filled seats, listen, walk back, make a tweak, walk back up, sit down and listen...rinse and repeat.
Keith WarrenMans reach exceeds his graspMember
Since: Oct 23, 2007
Jun 29, 2011 12:07 am Actually Deebs, and I might be wrong, but this system has two mono tape outputs which should devise the left/right sum of the inputs plus any effects added via the main board. He should be able to apply an adapter; RCA Mono L and RCA Mono R to single 1/4" TRS Stereo from the tape out jacks to receive a live signal from the board.
He may still only receive the mono sum of the signal, but it seems that in such a small room, this would suffice.
Just a thought.
Jwh1Member
Since: Jun 22, 2011
Jul 01, 2011 01:35 pm I just thought of that Keith I forgot about the tape output but would I need a amplifier of any sort im not sure if the output is a very low sound or not just wondering I could try it out when i get some extra money
Keith WarrenMans reach exceeds his graspMember
Since: Oct 23, 2007
Jul 03, 2011 12:21 am Honestly, I have no idea if you'd need an amplifier or not.
It can't hurt to have the RCA to 1/4" stereo in your arsenal though, and if it does work, great. Problem solved with little money spent, right? In my mind, it should- most tape recorders from that time didn't have a line amplifier to my knowledge, so they relied on the line in for input levels.
If it doesn't though, I'm at a bit of a loss. I don't deal with live systems like some others on this site do. I'll try to get their attention to the matter either way though.
Regardless, go to radioshack or a trusted music supply store and get your hands on a dual RCA to 1/4" cable. At most 20$ and if it solves it, 20$ worth spent. If not, you've got it for the future and we move on to the next option. Of which I have no idea, but I'll get some people turned on to this thread.
Honestly though, and I hate to do this, but if you want fast answers for live equipment, ask a user by the name of Rob Stemple. He's an absolute magician with this stuff and has been in the business for years upon years.
Note to Rob- your years are experience and wisdom, not age!
But seriously, he's the go to guy for this kind of equipment.
Jwh1Member
Since: Jun 22, 2011
Jul 03, 2011 01:17 am Yea I already have one and will take it to church with me tomorrow and test it out ill let you know how it goes. Ty I will im thinking about upgrading the churches sound system a bit too if I can get enough money.
Jwh1Member
Since: Jun 22, 2011
Jul 09, 2011 12:31 am Ok I tried the stereo out to headphones and nothing came out so I am going to bring powered speakers for like a computer and see if that works if not I will be at a loss. I know I can tweak and everything by going around and listning and going back to change it I just need to set it up initially. The whole system was set up oddly I looked at the back of all the component and checked some of the connections and found out almost all of it is either unplugged entirely or partly. I have found a wireing diagram in the manual that I think might get it at least working well enough for the pastor not sure about the music. On a side note does anyone know what a Digital Key Transposer is? The one that is hooked up has Stereo in and out wich im not even the slightest on how to hook it up to the sound system. I am windering if the cd/tape player hooks into it then it goes out from the transponder to the mixer? Well anyway wish me luck on the amplified speaker try if that does not do it I will be stuck to trying to walking back and forth a lot lol
Jul 09, 2011 01:59 am In order to listen to the Stereo out with a pair of headphones without an amp, you will need a pair of 600 ohm headphones. There are not all the hard to find.
On the front of your mixer, you will see a section marked Output. Under the output, there will three 1/4" jacks. The first one is marked Main. You can take a TRS cable out of the Main to a headphone amp, or to another amp to run a pair of speakers. the output is hot!! +18 dB hot! So, careful with the input knobs on the amp. Keep them down first. And slowly turn them up! It just might take your head off otherwise!
Jwh1Member
Since: Jun 22, 2011
Jul 09, 2011 01:49 pm so i would have 2 amps? wouldnt that be a bit too much power for the speaers? I do not mean to be a burden I just dont know much about this stuff and do not want to fry myself/the equipment.
dB i just read over your post where you said the monitorspeakers were unpowered I am not sure what that means if there was no power the sound couldnt come out or is power different?
Jul 10, 2011 01:27 am Most self powered heads only draw around 7 amps at start up. This means when you first turn it on, it draws the most amount of power. Your powered head, and an additional power amp will not draw enough to blow a 15 amp breaker. You should be fine.
Plus, a headphone power amp only draws about 2 or 3 amps max. So, no worries there.
Jwh1Member
Since: Jun 22, 2011
Jul 10, 2011 06:09 pm Ok I have been looking into headphone power amps would you be able to link me one so I can use it as a refrence I googled and found some things but nothing that had an output to the monitors
I see that this power amp has an output for external equalizer and back in to the mixer to the internal amp. I was wondering If i could utilize this for the headphone amp.
Kind of like this?
www.amazon.com/Behringer-...6513&sr=1-3
or somethng like
cgi.ebay.com/Samson-Audio...=item43a7ebb23e
Jul 10, 2011 06:45 pm Well, your on the right track. But, the model that your showing here is a mic level in as opposed to a line level in.
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/pr...dphone_Tap.html
This one has a TRS 1/4" jack on the back that has a pass through as well. And if you wanted to run an additional amp for monitor speakers, you can use that output.
Now, I wouldn't use the EQ output jack. Being that your headphones are not the same as the speakers that you are using. So, it will give you an incorrect reference.
A question for you. Is the area that your powered head is at, is it sealed? Meaning, will the congregation hear the monitor speakers that you plan on using? Something you may wish to think about before buying them. Because you don't want them to be heard by anyone else.
Jwh1Member
Since: Jun 22, 2011
Jul 10, 2011 07:36 pm The congregation can hear the monitor speakers sometimes because of the size of the church but I try and keep it to the stage area only. I will get a pic so that i can post it.
Ok with the one you posted the amp parallel in would connect to the pa out from the mixer then the speakers would be connected to the parallel out?
Jul 10, 2011 08:03 pm < ? >
If by PA you mean monitor speakers, then yes.
But not if you mean the main PA of your church.
Jwh1Member
Since: Jun 22, 2011
Jul 10, 2011 08:48 pm Ok on the back of the mixer there is 2 PA1 and 2 PA2 outputs PA1 if im not mistaken goes to the Monitors and PA2 goes to the Main(out to the congregation). Or thats how this ones set up.
The other thing I was thinking with that headtap it would only be mono sound to the headphones?
Jul 10, 2011 10:38 pm OK, on the set up. Yes, that is normally how they are ran. But, understand that PA1 and PA 2 are powered outputs. (This is only for clarification.) And you can not put anything else other then a PA speaker on those outputs.
For the headphone amp, it will be in mono. Which is fine. And you should hear the sound in both sides of the headphone amp. When you engage the monitor button. It sends the signal mono to the output on the front of the powered head.
Jwh1Member
Since: Jun 22, 2011
Aug 24, 2011 06:50 pm Thanks everyone for the help and information I have it all set up pretty well now I took it all down and set it up according to the instructions in the manual and finnally got it to work well enough for us to use untill we raise the money for a new sound system. I am using the tape out to connect to the sound in on my computer and can monitor and record through that. I do have one other concern the specs say 100 watts into 8 ohms both channels driven so does that mean it puts out 50 watts to each speaker if i have 2 mains and 2 monitors? because the speakers we have hooked up are 100w speakers would it mess up the speakers not having the full power behind them I have heard having too little wattage could actually break speakers easier than over powering them.
