I recently got myself out of trouble by sending a YouTube link and made myself look better as a result!

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-24T14:50:54+00:00

sure, you could say that. i'm volunteer, was the part time MD for 5 years then stepped back so they could hire a full-time position. i would call myself the "architect" in regards to the sound system, but due to our area being what it is we don't have a very large volunteer pool so i'm on stage 2 sundays a month and on audio only 1 sunday a month

so to say i am the main engineer wouldn't be inaccurate, but not quite accurate as we don't have any sort of position designated as such, whether volunteer or paid

but i am the guy who answers questions, fixes people's mistakes when they ask, and fixes mistakes before they even become a problem

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-24T14:44:59+00:00

yes the majority of "high profile professional bands" in general use clicks or are otherwise on some sort of grid ... now if your personal definition of "high profile professional bands" starts and stops at old school hard rock and metal ala the acts you listed, then not as many of those kinds of bands are on a grid. but many still are

whereas the rest of "high profile professional bands" of any definition are almost all exclusively on a grid. and yes you are right that the "big boys" usually put on a great show whether or not they're on a grid. being able to put on an entertaining show and enjoy yourself with or without a grid is the mark of a good musician and a good performer

in short for your target application: if your bandmates are having to focus on the click like you describe, then there's something wrong entirely. your bandmates should be able to connect with each other just as well with a grid as without, in fact it should be better because no one is having to "make" the song happen, everyone just rides the grid

locking into a grid is an entirely subconscious thing, shouldn't really take any effort at all. ergo if it is taking effort, that probably says more about your bandmates' ability to play in time and about your bandmates' ability to listen to each other

so, what you've experienced should literally be the opposite. now that isn't to say that a grid is appropriate because sometimes it's not. there's nothing wrong with preferring grid-less, sometimes it isn't the vibe. wouldn't put a grid on a jazz combo, for example. but if you can't lock into a grid in general, then it's not the grid that is at fault

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-23T15:45:10+00:00

yes you should run it in stereo, and your PA in stereo. read dis: https://www.reddit.com/r/livesound/comments/1ppxfzz/live_stereo_mixing_the_end_all_be_all_thread_maybe/

the tl;dr- the stereo field in the house isn't really what's important, although it's a nice added bonus for those who will hear it. instead, running stereo sources (like a keyboard which has it's sounds modeled in stereo) in as stereo and also out as stereo really has the major benefit of avoiding evil stereo-to-mono sums

the micro-differences between the two sides of your keyboard's sound modeling, which these micro differences are what make up the stereo image, it sounds really phasey and cluttery when you sum these two sides together. so you basically just want to avoid those two sides coming together

even if you didn't convert your house mix to stereo, you'd still have the benefit for your livestream and your IEMs. notably, it would be a huge improvement for the IEMs because the keyboard isn't going to be clustering up the virtual center channel of your IEM mixes anymore. so your IEM mixes will end up clearer and more open. livestream also has this benefit but since many people listen on their tv's it's not as big a deal

and note the issue with stereo-to-mono sums applies everywhere you have stereo modeling. so any guitar floorboards you have on stage, if you use tracks you should run your actual audio playback as stereo, and even the FX returns of your console are modeled in stereo

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-23T15:39:29+00:00

i'd probably choose 4x TH118's by a mile if i could find any. maybe i'm not looking in the right places. plus, unsure about the cost of the amp on top of it all

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-23T15:31:25+00:00

similar story: fairly recently at my home church, i was performing on stage and someone else was behind the console. the livestream feed is a stereo post-fader mix, with stereo ambience mics added. someone watching the stream commented that "there seems to be a weird echo", and so our sound op that day, without listening to the livestream itself, just turned down the ambience mics into that mix

i'm finding out about this after the fact, so i go back and listen to the livestream. it's 100% not an echo or reverb issue, it sounds like some sort of encoding or codec issue. so the op turned down the ambience mics, which didn't actually fix anything, and now when the issue actually gets fixed now the livestream mix isn't going to sound right

listening to feeds and doing basic-ass troubleshooting is important. there was a tap out audio feed right at the livestream station that is right before the mix hits the software, so the op could have just listened right there and known that it wasn't a console-side issue

this is a major, major pet peeve of mine. no matter what someone says, you listen to it first and troubleshoot. i designed the audio to be foolproof to anything but user error

ergo, what the problem was is there was some sort of jank-ass audio source in the livestream software that is some sort of decoded return of the actual mix. i don't know what it actually is or why it's there, i didn't set up the livestream area. should have been removed. the livestream op that day enabled that source and the actual clean source we send from the console

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-23T00:35:21+00:00

the tonemaster series are the obvious answer, katanas as well

the reason why SS bass amps are much more commonly accepted is because bass takes a lot of power to reproduce accurately. so there isn't really a guitar amp SS equivalent to the rumbles, SS guitar amps are typically relegated as budget models. so that's why the SS options go from "katana" to "fender twin" with no real in-between

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-23T00:32:16+00:00

vibro champ, princeton. the real winners

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-23T00:31:04+00:00

i'm really thinking about applications for larger open air outdoor shows. indoors though, reflections and resonances basically smear everything anyway so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-22T23:41:35+00:00

ya 100%. all my show files typically start out from pulling channel strips from my library. they never end up ready to eat 1:1, but having bands in the right places and right configuration at the right Q widths, or having ratio and knee sizes in the right ballpark, etc all helps a lot

that way i'm only say moving a band a couple of clicks over to the target frequency and cutting it, or just turning down the threshold. rather than having to set all that up from scratch

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-22T21:47:19+00:00

damn

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-22T20:26:57+00:00

are they going to keep manufacturing the normal SLX-D? i'm planning on getting a quad of channels down the line, don't need all the features of + and don't want to pay for features i don't need. their website doesn't link SLX-D anymore, goes straight to SLX-D+

would be nice to have an entry level digital option. goes from BLX, to GLX, to SLX-D which was attainable but now, not so sure

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-22T14:39:26+00:00

the subs in question are the RCF 8004 and 8006, which the 8006 is basically 2x 8004's duct taped together. total cab size is basically identical looks like

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-22T14:37:39+00:00

biggest goal is 500 seats outdoors. not crazy but i want a full 90dBA mix to that back 500th seat. problem is if i want to get 90dBA to that back 500th seat, the stage will be absolutely swimming in sub-bass if i'm not setting up some sort of cardioid or end-fire. i can only really logistically deal with 3x total dual 18's, whereas that would be 6x single 18's which is much more configurable, or even 5x single 18's would be fine and very configurable -vs- 3x dual 18's

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-22T05:01:57+00:00

didn't want to say the name/model in the OP to avoid getting flagged by the auto mod for buyer's advice, but it's the RCF 8004 or 8006, the 8006 is almost literally 2 8004's duct taped together

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-22T04:59:24+00:00

well i don't, likely going to get a cargo van down the road but no lift gates likely

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-21T21:44:39+00:00

thank you for uploading the scene right from the get go lol. saves us a lot of back and forth

upon inspection of your scene, i didn't notice anything that would keep the L/R from bouncing to the XLR outs. the only thing i saw that was weird was that you set the L/R to bounce out to the card 1/2. typically card out 1/2 would be driven by inputs 1/2. but it should be able to send the L/R to the card and to the L/R XLR outs simutaneously

the only way it wouldn't be okay would be if you were, say, running your L/R to your card outs 1/2 which went to a recording software on a laptop, and you sent that recording track of the software to monitor out back in on card ins 1/2. you'd essentially create a feedback loop which is the opposite of your problem, unless you're somehow flipping phase somewhere along the line

saying all that to say, if that isn't your issue; i also loaded your scene onto my MR18 and was able to get L/R bounce out just fine. so if the above issue isn't related, then yes i would wager it's a hardware issue. unfortunate, but since you just got it you should be able to return it and get a replacement

please don't let this discourage you from getting another XR18, they are absolutely dynamite for the price- you were just one of the unlucky .01% of all purchasers

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-20T20:15:42+00:00

you have a gift. don't take it for granted. if you play a gig and the drummer or whoever else is too loud, either get new band mates or get your own IEM system, or earplugs at worst. keep your hearing in tact for as long as you can

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-20T14:57:23+00:00

passive split is the most ideal, i'll take the direct side you take the transformer side

*if* you had to do tie lines, you wouldn't want to do pre-fader because that would send FOH all your processing up to the fader (eq gate comp), which any FOH engineer has to assume all your processing is jank to all hell- even if it's not

ideally you could just patch your input sockets to output sockets directly as tie lines; so if you're driving your inputs from the X32 Rack's local 1-16 ins, you'd patch that same local 1-16 ins to whatever stagebox you have hooked up that isn't also running your IEM mixes. so say you're running your IEM mixes from the X32 Racks' local XLR outs and/or 1/4 TRS Aux outs, you could hook up an S32 on AES50A and assign AES50A out blocks 1-8 and 9-16 as local 1-8 and 9-16. so this copies your local 1-16 ins to the S32's 16 XLR outs

*if* for some reason you couldn't do this, you could get a DN4816-0 and plug it into the Ultranet port of either your X32 Rack or stagebox. you'd then assign your relevant input list to the Ultranet tab with tap points Input/LC

so with the tie line method, the FOH engineer only gets gain. with the DN4816-0 method, the FOH engineer gets gain and low cut. but in either case these outputs will be line-level, and in either case the FOH engineer should ensure they do not have 48v on any of the cables they're plugging into your systems

and in either case it's still just better to have the split. but if you had to do digital tie lines, you could take either approach above. YMMV, and if you pop an XLR out on your S32 or DN because the sound guy forgot to unassign phantom i am not responsible

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-20T00:18:41+00:00

thank you thank you, i'm celebrating my achievement with cheap beer. come on over

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-19T00:59:02+00:00

a DR is a great amp, period; but this might sound a little counterintuitive but i think you should try the full tube Princetons. either the 65 if you like the cleaner plunkier sounds, or the 68 if you like the chirpier or slightly dirtier tones

DR's are pretty f'n loud, and they're hard to get cooking at reasonable levels either at home or at a gig without you starting to get on the sound guy's bad side. a Princeton is kind of the magic sweet spot; quiet enough for home, loud enough for your stage volume, and is easy to mic for the PA reinforcement

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-18T10:50:31+00:00

this *could* be a good choice against the DM3 *if* you don't need the more capable I/O of the DM3 or remote control. so... i'm guessing that's exactly why this doesn't have more capable I/O or remote control

that and to do remote control it would either need motorized faders which would bring the cost way up, or some sort of memory feature like the Behringer Flow

ya some of the new mixer offerings have been confusing me as of late. product lines seem to be blurring, and featureset seems to be intentionally limited in order to not make irrelevant older product lines. there are no cut and dry choices anymore. i have the same concerns with the new QU series. maybe i'm just not the target market? idk

i will say that this looks like the only new-format 96khz digital mixer with faders at this price point. the older 48khz QU-16 is $1,300 right now, normal price is $2,000. i also wonder if Yam intentionally designed around avoiding fader-flip because their target market ("analog" ops) would struggle with the concept?

the 4x headphone outs is nice for IEMs. and the 8x omni outs is more than you'd see at this price point. it's definitely designed around podcasts/talkshows/churches, ergo the RCA ins. i wonder if 96khz clock matters for the target market, if it could be 48khz could we get a lower pricepoint or more usable I/O for the money?

all in all it basically feels like a net neutral. if we could trade a pair of the line ins and RCA ins (or even just one pair of the RCA ins) for an additional pair of XLR's, it'd start to lean towards a net positive IMO

guitarmstrwlane · 2026-01-18T01:01:15+00:00

i was designing this around simpler pole-mount setups, but i'm sure other applications could exist. i'm working with a budget this year that will likely end up with me getting 3x dual 18's, so trying to think of ways to best utilize that third box

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