Using a monitor w/ my VPro Kit

[cproctor]

Hi all,

I have a question regarding the best way to setup my VPro kit. I play at church in the praise band and in the past (because of lack of inputs on the board) I've only used the mono output to the board and used the other output for my Mackie. Now, they want to go stereo and I thought I'd just use my Mackie for a monitor of the complete mix rather than just my drums. We've tried bringing the monitor mix into the "mix in" and plugging the Mackie into the headphone jack. Obviously, that doesn't work.

Does anyone have a recommendation as to the best way to set this up? I'm not very "techie" when it comes to electronics, but I'm willing to learn!

What I would really like to have in the end is the Mackie having a complete mix of all instruments, but I'd also like some control myself. For instance, I would like to be able to control the volume of the Mackie from my kit. It would be nice to be able to have so,e control of the mix, but I'm assuming that's probably impossible, right? I'd appreciate any input! Thanks!!

Chris

[Boingo]

Rather than go into a long winded post, could you provide some more info? When you send the feed to the house, aren't you sending a balanced signal? The TD-10 is unbalanced. That's bad for runs over 15-20 ft. Are you converting to balanced using a direct box? Does your direct box have 2 female 1/4" inputs (unbalanced) and a XLR (balanced)? They could help you.

What kind of inputs and outputs does the Mackie have? How many inputs? How many outputs? Does it have a line out? Are these balanced, unbalanced or both?

Do you have a mixer you can run the TD-10 and/or house signals into?

I can come up with 2 or 3 ideas, but it would be better to work around existing equipment rather than tell you to spend a bunch of money.

Advise....

[cproctor]

Wow, Boingo! COuld you ask a few more questions?!!! ha ha. I don't know the answers to your questions. I'm going to take your questions tonight to practice. Hopefully, someone there can answer them so I can get back with you. I know that I am running it unbalanced because I don't have a direct box. However, we use plugs on stage, so it doesn't go over 20 ft. My Mackie SRM450 has one input and one thru XLR connector. They accept both balanced and unbalanced signals.

I do not have a mixer either from or to the house. They can mix it back at the board I assume, but I obviously don't have any control over that!

Hey! Maybe I did answer all your questions. Also, I do not want to use headphones because I have live cymbals.

Thanks for the, Boingo!

Chris

[Boingo]

"What I would really like to have in the end is the Mackie having a complete mix of all instruments, but I'd also like some control myself. For instance, I would like to be able to control the volume of the Mackie from my kit. It would be nice to be able to have so,e control of the mix, but I'm assuming that's probably impossible, right? I'd appreciate any input! Thanks!! "

OK, lets take a simple approach that gets you there. Generally, trying to control your volume by adjusting the TD-10 is bad news since you would be adjusting it for the house also. I'm assuming you are using the master out's only due to board limitations. I would think a mixer would get you what you want. Run drums to the house. Have the house send you a feed to a mixer. If they could send you drums, vocals and/or instruments as separate feeds to your mixer, that would give you even more control. The minimum requirement would be for them to send you one feed with everything and you would use hand signals or whatever to have them adjust the balance. Keep the mixer nearby or mount it on a stand so it is within your reach. Pan your mixer settings to the center and send the mixer's output to the Mackie. Get a typical volume level set with the Mackie and then tweak it via the mixer sliders. That's a simple approach with minimal cost.

You shouldn't have to mortgage the house for an adequate mixer and if you pick up a used one, you could do this for cheap.

When I play, the house sends drums to a monitor (KC500) and we have a separate wedge for the vocals/instruments. We adjust before we play and use signals to tweak during playing. It's bad news if I need to adjust the KC while playing since it is not within easy reach. We used to use a headphone mix which sent the house to the TD-10 mix in (no drums) and I would adjust drum volume to taste. Now we are looking at going with in ear monitors since we just opened up our new Sanctuary. My first practice in the new building is tonight. It should be interesting.

[cproctor]

Thanks for the input, Boingo. I'll be sure to give this a try. I found out that we do not have the direct boxes you spoke of, but we're planning on getting them!

Thanks again.

Chris

[RayPat01]

mixers

Don't know if this will help or not but Mackie recently introduced two new DFX mixers which should meet the needs of this application.

Check them out here.

Neither should go over $400.

[Schuh Man]

Another potential "solution" to consider if you want more control over the drum part of you monitor mix with just two signals to the main board. Not sure if its what your looking for because it doesn't give you a true "stereo" send to main board with just 2 sends. I'm making the assumption "they want to go stereo" really means "they're giving you another input at the main board". Having said that, the solution I'm proposing would work in your old mono set up as well (just eliminate Direct 1 from the discussion below and this should do what your asking for with your old setup)

Here's what you'd do:

1. In the TD-10, assign all the TD-10 inputs to either Master or Direct 1 (example might be kick & snare to master and everything else to Direct 1).
2. Pan all the inputs of the TD-10 to center.
3. Send Master Left and Direct 1 Left to the main board.
4. Send Master Right and Direct 1 Right to your mackie (your monitor mixer).
5. Have the sound man send the full mix back to you and plug that mix into a channel on the mackie.
6. Run the output from the mackie to your SM450 monitor.

This setup should give you flexibility to adjust the volume of the drums in your monitor mix (you're not limited to the level of the drums in the main mix).

Good luck and hope this helps.

[clymore]

We tried the "stereo drums" thing at my church and the drums sounded differently, depending on what side of the sanctuary you were sitting on. To get the same sound throughout the huge room, we went back to mono. I have a direct box with an output for a Fender Bassman60 amp (the new design like a keyboard amp).

Terry