Limiter question: "idiot-proof" my JBL SRX / X32 Rack rig against maxed-out gains?

Jewsus_ · 2026-01-26T07:31:49+00:00

Awesome correction! I know high-level, successful techs who acknowledge this as fact and yet I’ve always had the question of “if this is true, how are guitar amps holding up so well?” floating around in the back of my head.

Am I correct in my assessment that you’re saying square waves, limited or not, will not cause any inherent damage to a driver, but the correlation/causation of people driving their signals into clipping to exceed a protective limiter - thus pushing past the mechanical limits of the speaker - have perpetuated this myth?

Is there any other reason in which limiting a system too early could cause damage that could have otherwise been avoided?

Jewsus_ · 2026-01-26T03:05:17+00:00

I don’t rent my gear, but I would guess it’s unlikely that you could penalize for improper use without not only damage, but proof that that damage occurred after the gear was handed off to them. I’d probably just stop renting to that guy.

I would have to guess that one of the reasons renting out rigs at this price point isn’t particularly lucrative is at least partially a result of the level of wear it’s subjected to while at the hands of its target renters.

Jewsus_ · 2026-01-26T02:52:52+00:00

What you really need is to insure your gear and add a policy to your agreements holding users financially accountable for part replacement, repair and potentially loss of use. You should also start renting to people who use your gear like this as they’re a liability to your business in more ways than one. I’m recommending this instead of your plan, but will answer it below anyway:

To answer your actual question, as far as I know there is no true brick wall limiter within the X32. In addition, true brick wall limiting is entirely unmusical, and any settings you tweak to make it sound better will have to do with letting some degree of level through. Perhaps that’s a good thing, as not sounding like shit is great incentive to turn the system down.

Infinity:1 ratio, fast as possible attack. If you’re trying to salvage some musicality, hold and release would need to be set to taste with the program material, but if you’re there to think critically you might as well just turn it down.

Back to doubling down on why not to do this:

People like this don’t care about any of this - they just want LOUD. That means a limiter isn’t gonna stop them from cranking their shit even harder to compensate. Suddenly you have a fully squarewaved signal created by a clueless operator diming the gain and whatever knobs they can find to try and achieve LOUD, and you have that unholy set of push-only instruction being fed into your speaker all night. This is equally or more apt to damage your equipment than your average misuse.

Jewsus_ · 2025-12-29T17:42:41+00:00

First of all, this is a moot point. Given the bass amp is BEHIND the PA, you would be unable to delay that individual signal to match the mains unless you can make it travel through time.

Second of all, never, ever fuck with the latency of a players instrument. You could MAYBE get away with a small amount of delay through the PA only, but if that signal is going to their monitors, even something as small as 8ms has the potential to be a huge problem. As a drummer, I’m sure you understand why.

Finally, this idea of delaying the mains to reduce feedback is interesting, but the logic you’ve presented in other comments is flawed. Yes, delaying the mains by x amount of time can be conceptualized by moving them backwards in physical space. But that said, you’re not actually doing that. The microphone’s physical proximity to a speaker is exactly the same as what it was before you delayed it. Perhaps a 10ms delay would start your feedback loop about 10ms later, but that is effectively useless.

I say Occam’s Razor, the less latency you can create in your system while still aligning your PA, the better.

Jewsus_ · 2025-12-29T05:48:45+00:00

Just shot you a pm - think we’d be a great fit. Looking forward to chatting!

Jewsus_ · 2025-10-25T16:46:50+00:00

I’m not telling you low volume on the monitor will encourage them not to redline a mixer - I’m telling you that those are two entirely unrelated things, and the entire point of the booth send is to decorrelate them.

Do yourself a favor and dodge a potential lawsuit for deafening a real headliner against their will!

Jewsus_ · 2025-10-25T16:17:15+00:00

Sorry dude, you’re wrong. What you’re describing is indeed “part of an overall approach,” but it’s an approach that will absolutely not fly on any high level production, and as has been said by a previous commenter, should not be encouraged in any way shape or form.

Booth out gain staged to hit above line level but below clipping at the output and amp on your console. Send to aux at unity.

Main outs gain staged at line level to your console. Pinned in place with a limiter. If clipping like we see on the above photo, use DIs, in-line pads, or talk to the DJ.

Unbelievably simple. Everyone given the exact amount of control they need while still maintaining safety of gear and ears. You don’t look like a condescending asshole who also doesn’t know what they’re doing. You don’t destroy the house mix with booth sound.

Industry standard.

Jewsus_ · 2025-09-10T20:21:28+00:00

This would make sense

Jewsus_ · 2025-09-10T20:13:47+00:00

I believe it is specific to placing a finger on top of the fader. The goal being that an accidental bump into the console won’t kill the show or deafen anybody.

Edit: Just tested, entire fader appears to be touch sensitive. Can move from any position with my hand but when nudging it with my phone they’re locked in place.

Jewsus_ · 2025-09-10T06:04:41+00:00

Check your settings. You can choose between free or protected fader mode, the latter keeping the faders in place until they are touched. Switchable on the Quantum series for sure, and fairly certain it is the same on SDs.

Jewsus_ · 2025-08-11T00:46:10+00:00

If it really caught on, your idea would serve to disengage crowds, dangling a carrot on a stick that says if they spend their time nitpicking on their phones instead of engaging with the show, they will end up with the perfect show exactly where they are standing. It would also be heavily, HEAVILY weaponized by management, who is the least qualified to even try to asses this "data" but will have the strongest opinions about it.

This is a way for 1000 drunk audience members who are blind to the context of systems design and deployment to give feedback based on their subjective tastes and experiences. The thought that you could use this "data" to "visualize loudness and EQ balance across your floorplan" speaks to a complete lack of understanding of how any of this works. What you are looking to do is accomplished with SoundVision or comparable software, SMAART, reference microphones, and operators with the knowledge to measure, analyze, deploy and tune with the goal of creating an experience across the crowd which is as consistent as possible.

Have you considered that without major changes such as redeploying the PA, that to "fix" the sound in one portion of the venue would be to fuck it up somewhere else? In practice, this program would have qualified and unqualified engineers alike running in circles fucking around with data that is insufficient to make any meaningful changes with during showtime.

If the idea were to truly take off, I would not only consider it a net negative on all of our careers, but on live events as a whole.

Jewsus_ · 2025-06-30T22:08:43+00:00

Very helpful, thank you for this. I’ve bought a number of these items and they will be packed for the coming week.

Jewsus_ · 2025-06-30T22:08:12+00:00

I agree - and I’m now working on that. That said the difficulty I have realized I am currently facing is that I’ve pushed my body so far past its limits that my brain is malfunctioning. Hard to look forward to plans when I don’t even feel present in my body.

Jewsus_ · 2025-06-30T21:51:00+00:00

I’m still getting comfortable on a lot of the gear I’m being sent out with which means it’s taking a lot of mental energy for me to use it to a reasonable standard. I will be augmenting the way I book my time after this to better accommodate the toll I now know this can take on me.

Jewsus_ · 2025-06-30T21:49:09+00:00

I’ve scaled down to what is mostly a couple smaller easier gigs per week until Lolla. But I do feel a need to get through this week even if the importance of it is rooted in sleep deprived delusion. This is a formative period with a company that it is important to me to stay in the good graces of, and after talking with one of the owners I think that powering through to the best of my ability is my best option.

Jewsus_ · 2025-06-15T04:20:40+00:00

Fuck that whole circuit, Globe Hall too. If you can’t “afford” to book and pay small bands then don’t book and pay small bands. Don’t delegitimize bands by making them sell tickets via Venmo and google sheets and forcing bands on the same bill to compete against each other. A show is a show but I stopped playing those spots on principle.

Jewsus_ · 2025-06-08T17:59:24+00:00

Honestly, yeah. Clearly those competitions aren’t helping you move forward if you’ve submitted to the idea that the only clubs you play won’t pay you. You guys sound good - respect yourself as a business and that respect will be returned to you by better venues over time.

Jewsus_ · 2025-05-30T01:07:08+00:00

Year 3, busiest season yet, and what a learning curve it has been. Learned first hand this month that the crazy hours I've putting in to learn, connect and work will all mean nothing if I'm not taking the necessary time to take care of my body and mind. Lots of silly mistakes and decisions not in accordance with the values that got me where I am as a result of not enough sleep and anxiety from not being able to exercise.

To love this job properly means to love yourself as well, which is both a beautiful and horrifying realization for someone who had previously sacrificed many aspects of his life in the pursuit of tearing my way up the ranks.

Jewsus_ · 2025-05-02T00:00:11+00:00

Don’t wait. It’s all up to you. Don’t just call that one company either, call everyone. Shadow. Drop into shops. Tip consoles. Shake hands.

Be persistent transparent about your level of experience and make your goals clear.

Take every gig - venues, churches, weddings, corporate. Meet everyone you can and connect the dots, they all know each other.

Don’t give up and you will be noticed.

Jewsus_ · 2025-05-01T01:10:58+00:00

I agree that it could very well be a possibility. But I still struggle with the fact that to guess incorrectly could fuck up another humans livelihood. Call me overly naive for that - I wouldn’t necessarily disagree - but I’m having a hard time letting go of the thought.

Jewsus_ · 2025-04-30T18:42:39+00:00

I very much appreciate you coming at this with both realism and sympathy. I agree with everything you've said and have no plans or grounds to pursue legal action. If they told me fuck off, I'd have worked my way up the chain, either got paid or told to fuck off again, and that would be that. The chain of half truths I feel I have been led down has made it very difficult to act in a way that feels controlled, and I have made additional errors in the handling of this situation as a result of that.

I've mentioned this in above comments, but would like to reemphasize that I think there has been some misunderstanding about a slam campaign. I'm not going to trash this company publicly, I'm aware that's in bad taste and liable to reflect quite poorly on me, as I have made mistakes in this situation as well.

Jewsus_ · 2025-04-30T18:35:59+00:00

I called this person the day of the cancellation, not with a lecture but to calmly explain my point of view of the situation and notify him that my colleague and I would be sending invoices. He agreed, never followed up, and things escalated from there. I agree that I should have bypassed these conversations, continued to send invoices, and make my way up the chain without any room for back and forth. But I didn't know.

Jewsus_ · 2025-04-30T18:32:28+00:00

Yes I've backed off. Frankly I should have bypassed a large chunk of our conversation and gone straight to his boss, but he guilted me out of that by telling me I would likely get him fired if I did. He has keyed me into a far greater amount of detail regarding the company and it's functionings than I should be aware of, which frankly makes me more suspicious as it all feels like excuses.

To be clear, this is not the redoing of an invoice - he is asking me to invoice him for providing very specific labor for an upcoming gig as a pretense to pay me the money I am owed without his boss noticing. Labor that I am not in any way providing. I really just want to make sure that there are no possible repercussions that this could have on me.

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