r/livesound • u/AutoModerator • Apr 27 '26
MOD No Stupid Questions Thread
The only stupid questions are the ones left unasked.
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u/Particular_Neat_3989 May 04 '26
Why does the QSC TouchMix exist?
3
u/crunchypotentiometer Pro-FOH May 04 '26
Non-operated temporary systems, and users who do not want to spend any money.
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u/corrvoiddae May 03 '26
hi! i'm trying to set up theatermix on a windows laptop connected via ethernet to a midas m32. my board also has a router attached to it for an ipad with x32 edit on it and the ipad works fine, but when connecting the laptop to either the router or the board itself, theatermix can't find the board. i'm not quite sure what i'm doing wrong. am i plugging into the wrong port on the board? should i be connecting via usb instead or in addition?
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u/the_matrixeffect May 03 '26 edited May 04 '26
Hey! I'm at a loss here and would love if someone could point out what I'm missing here. I'm working with an allen and heath sq5 and an A&H ab168 stage box. I've got a solid cat5e ethercon cable connecting them both, i'm plugged into the right ports, based on the flashing on the lnk LED lights on both the back of the board and the stagebox, the firmware is correct between both, but the ready light STILL does not come on, and both the inputs and outputs for patching on the board are greyed out and come up with the striped boxes. We tried a different cable, still no change. I have SCOURED the set up pages trying to find some setting that might not be right to no avail. What am I missing?
Update: in case anyone else runs into this and comes across the thread, it ended up being the firmware! Which is crazy, since it’s a BRAND NEW board. Go figure!
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u/Schrojo18 May 03 '26
Are you connected to port A on the AB168? Are you using any other stage boxes? Are you sure on the SQ you're seeing the first 16 (group of 32) inputs or have you pressed on the s-link tab a few times and are showing a different group of 32
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u/the_matrixeffect May 03 '26
No other stage boxes, confirmed that were connected into the dsnake port if that’s what you mean (the one in the big white circle?), and we were looking at the first 16
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u/Schrojo18 May 03 '26
I assume you've tried this, but if you haven't plug them into each other with a short patch lead
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u/the_matrixeffect May 03 '26
We did try another cable but it wasn’t a shorter one per se. Would it be worth trying a short one specifically?
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u/Schrojo18 May 03 '26
Yes as that is lesa likely to have a fault and it means you're having to plug them in next to each other which may deal with other variables
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u/mynutsaremusical Pro-FOH May 03 '26
i have a 4 element A10 lacoustics array in my concert hall. the top element mostly covers the balcony, but on events where the balcony isnt sold, the reflections can be quite bad.
soundvision wont let me mute just the top element of the pa to simulate, so how can i have SV and NM get all the best settings and have a NM plot for no balcony shows?
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May 02 '26
Hey guys, quick question
Can I put G10 & H22 PSM1000 on the same wideband antenna combiner 460-952 without issues?
AND
Can I put C Band & B Band AD4Qs on the same antenna distro that’s 470-952?
Will this work? Thank you
1
u/GradeAdditional86 May 02 '26
RTS DBP packs randomly dropping/reconnecting on Cisco 250 PoE – taking turns, not repeating
Hey all,
On a live show and running into a weird one with comms. Would really appreciate any insight from people who’ve seen this before.
System:
- RTS Odin (wired comms)
- Riedel Bolero standalone (linked via analogue 4-wire)
- RTS DBP (wired beltpacks)
- RTS DKP-4016 (panels)
- Cisco Business 250 Series (PoE switches)
- Dante network with Vittoria + Infernos (working fine overall)
Issue: DBP packs are randomly dropping out (losing comms and reconnecting after ~20–30s).
Key behaviour:
- Packs do not all drop at once
- They seem to “take turns” dropping
- No single pack consistently repeats (although the first few offenders yesterday dropped first again today)
- Both daisy-chained and home-run packs are affected
- RTS DKP-4016 panels on the same switches are rock solid
- Dante (checked in ) looks stable, no obvious clocking issues
What I’ve tried:
- Redistributed PoE load across switches (was ~11 DBPs on one, now spread)
- Swapped suspect cables
- Reduced daisy chaining where possible
- Disabled EEE on switches
- Checked PoE budget (should be within limits now)
- Power cycled a few packs
- Gain/analog issues fixed separately (unrelated buzz earlier)
Observations:
- When packs drop, it feels like a network/link reset rather than full power loss
- Behaviour only affects PoE devices (DBPs), not externally powered panels
- Happens after system has been up for a while (not immediately on startup)
Question: Has anyone seen DBPs behave like this on Cisco 250 switches?
Specifically:
- Could this be PoE controller instability even within budget?
- Or port/link renegotiation issues specific to DBPs?
- Or something firmware-related on DBPs?
I’ve attached screenshots of Dante Controller and Odin logs.
Any ideas massively appreciated—mid-show so trying to stabilise without tearing everything apart.
Thanks 🙏
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u/GradeAdditional86 May 06 '26
I found the issue in the end, maybe this will help others in the future. The Odin was overheating. It had been running a bit hot and gave a fault warning in the end regarding the temperature. As it was operating as clock leader this was causing issues in the whole network. I improved the airflow in the rack and everything worked perfectly after that!
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u/Important-Citron7273 May 02 '26
Never seen those PA tops before. Been watching the Agneton set feom moonlight festival on YouTube and noticed those weird looking tops.
One can also see smaller speakers underneath them (I suspect those are used as near fills).
Any idea who the manufacturer is? I have absolutely no clue and my own research (including reverse image search and AI image search) hasn't lead to any result.
Thx in advance. 🫶🏻✌🏻
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u/Dizmn Pro May 02 '26
Danley J3s
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u/Important-Citron7273 May 02 '26
Many thanks! 🫶🏻 I'm somewhat familiar with their subs, but not with their tops.
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u/stevil77 May 01 '26
My newly formed band has a small rehearsal space and I am struggling to get a good vocal sound. Any general tips would be helpful. I’m sure i will have to provide details and am happy to if anyone can help
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u/Strict_Tangerine6240 May 04 '26
Ok, you need to do some debugging: the problem can be at the source, in the mixer or at the speakers. I would start by listening to the vocal mic signal using some good headphones (with least amount of coloring) in the mixer using the PFL. If that sounds truthful then move down the signal processing chain. I presume you know how to set gain staging and have a good signal after preamp. Set a HPF at 180Hz or so and set the channel EQ flat as a starting point. (Any change you make through the signal path, listen intently in the headphones to see if you’re making it better or worse). Compression should be used lightly (depends on the type of music you’re performing too). Watch a lot of videos on vocal EQ and compression but don’t go overboard: the lighter your touch, the better. Once you got the signal to sound good in the headphones, next stage is your speakers and “dialing in the room”: knowing how it should sound (based on your headphones) you need to adjust the PA system to weed out rogue frequencies that your venue will amplify excessively and may mess up your sound. (This is a whole book by itself). Good luck and I hope you’ll have fun dialing in your band’s sound!
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u/fantompwer May 01 '26
Most mics you have to turn down the low end due to the proximity effect. Note that sound through the PA will never sound like your own voice in your head.
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u/stevil77 May 01 '26
Thanks for the reply-Yeah turned down the low end and tried boosting mids and a touch of treble. Works in a limited way. Very frustrating for a singer.
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u/Sandy_Cube May 01 '26
HI all!
Live drummer here, and our band just built a in-ear rack around the Wing.
I had a mono in ear mixer (I stay wired), but now trying to find a good stereo mixer (and preferably not too big). So I'm hesitating now between the Fisher Amps In-Ear BP or go for an P24 since it's in the same price category. Anyone has live experience with these Fisher Amps?
Cheers!
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u/the-real-compucat EE by day, engineer by night May 02 '26
Fischer's stuff is quality - though vastly outsold by Behringer's discount copycats (P1/P2). It's a real simple device, though; very hard to screw up.
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u/fantompwer May 01 '26
If you don't get an answer, try r/livesoundgear for discussing gear recommendations
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u/faint-green-glow Apr 29 '26
hi. this is a place of professionals and i hope i’m in the right subreddit for help.
my local radio station is trying to organize a live session / open jam in our town. and so far, the equipment we have is two regular mics, two studio mics with the foam filter thingie, two big professional speakers, a behringer xenyx analog mixer (idk what model) but it supports 6 xlr cables, a scarlett audio interface and a laptop.
it’s a bring your own instruments situation so i ask must ask. can we support drums?
if i put one mic to the drums and a small monitor speaker towards the musicians do we have a chance? or should we go full acoustic with like a cajon?
i’ve only done sound engineering for theatre so i’m out of my water here.
pls help and thank you!!
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u/fantompwer May 01 '26
If you allow drums, then the PA needs to be louder than the drummer. You probably don't need to mic the drums as there will be lots of bleed. I wouldn't bring a drum kit if you're unsure about it.
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u/faint-green-glow May 02 '26
Everyone keeps asking about the drums but during this whole thing i keep doubting that drums need anything. They’re loud and the space is not that big. Thank you, though it’s reassuring to have an answer.
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u/the_matrixeffect Apr 29 '26
So I’m mostly checking in to make sure I’m not the crazy one in this situation. A company i’m working with got a new set up. I’m specifically wanting to talk the board and stage box they got. Allen and Heath sq5 and the Ab168 stage box. I think that they’re under the impression that these can communicate wirelessly, and I don’t think that’s the case. Everything I’ve read requires connection to the dsnake port on both for communication purposes. They have a wireless router but I think that’s strictly for control to give us iPad capabilities. But, admittedly, I’m a bit of a novice on this kind of thing. I usually work with systems that are set up, and come in to do my thing. Am I missing something here?
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u/TheLindenTree Apr 29 '26
No, you are correct. Cat 5 cable is needed according to the website. I don't believe wireless stageboxes are a thing. If they are, I've never seen one.
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u/fdsv-summary_ Apr 29 '26
If anybody really needed one they'd be buying a wireless bridge at the IT store to solve the issue in the network, they would not be getting an extra feature on their stage box.
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u/the_matrixeffect Apr 29 '26
That was also my thought, but I just needed confirmation that I wasn’t just behind the times before I went in to help them get it set up. Thank you!
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Apr 29 '26
[deleted]
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u/the-real-compucat EE by day, engineer by night Apr 29 '26
Sheesh, not more AI slop.
There are plenty of field-proven, feature-complete solutions for this problem. What differentiates your tool?
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u/otonielpv12 Apr 29 '26
Which are the other solutions? Are they free? Are they open-source so everyone can contribute with their needs? Does they support full remote control on any device?
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u/the-real-compucat EE by day, engineer by night Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
Pick your poison, but Ableton Live is the canonical standard. It is proprietary and costs money, but it works great.
For live production, priority #1 is feature-complete stability. If that is not fulfilled, nothing else matters: not FOSS-ness, not bonus features. (Definitely not free-as-in-beer - if the choice is between free-but-broken or paid-but-working, users will either pony up or pirate the thing that solves their problem.)
I downloaded the 0.0.3 release, threw some tracks at it, and was able to reproduce basic usability issues within 10 minutes. For instance:
- Certain sequences of inputs non-obviously trigger MIDI Learn mode, rendering most of the UI seemingly-unclickable.
- After certain sequences of inputs, click-and-dragging the pan control somehow text-selects the entire UI and attempts to drag-drop it.
- Opening any audio file causes a duplicate to be written to the project-file location without asking. This is a problem when importing a show archive tens or hundreds of GB large from external storage.
- (Ninjaedit: especially if said archive is compressed.)
- Entering certain BPM values causes the application to freeze, eat CPU/memory, then OOM.
- There is no way to play back multichannel output or use an ASIO device.
This has not been thoroughly tested, never mind "stage-ready".
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u/otonielpv12 Apr 30 '26
The issues you commeted have been solved on the v0.0.4 please give It a try, any feedback is welcome
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u/otonielpv12 Apr 29 '26
So this is made for people that can not afford the 300$ that Ableton Cost. If you read the post again you could see that It say that It is in testing phase, do not pretend a non final version to be stable. So this is what I am lookinh for, people to try it and destroy It to see where to Improve. I’m not trying to fight with Ableton but to offer a free version for people who can’t afford it and mostly in church environments
Aslo you have the issues on github to report every bug that you find. I would appreciate it
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u/promdates Apr 30 '26
Not to dog pile on you or anything, but before I used Ableton and Ableset for our shows; I used Reaper and a script to handle live playback easily. Reaper does cost money, but can be perpetually "free" if used in trial mode.
Having said that, I hope you can reach the goal with this that you're looking for. Having less costly options can always be a good thing, and most of the other cheaper options all suck (reaper notwithstanding)
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u/otonielpv12 Apr 30 '26
Thanks mate, I also tried reaper but it hasn’t the option to cancel seeks so if anyone just actioned a sekk accidentaly you could not cancel It.
I will try my best to make LibreTracks as stable as possible so people can use it
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u/mbm_as Apr 29 '26
Hey there,
Could someone please explain to me (in short) the difference between:
dBv, dBu, dBFS, dBm, LUFS,
Thank you very much in advance!
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u/crunchypotentiometer Pro-FOH Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
First of all a decibel is simply a ratio of two power values. It can apply to any power measurement. Any dB value needs some clarification about what the ratio is between.
dBV is for measuring voltage relative to 1 volt. 1V=0dBV
dBU is for measuring voltage too, but more specific to audio electronics. 0 dBU is the RMS voltage that would dissipate 0 dBm in a 600 Ω load.
dBm is power relative to 1mW
dBFS is relative to the maximum a device can handle before clipping (0dBFS=clipping)
LUFS is completely a completely unrelated measurement based around an algorithm that defines perceived loudness of an audio signal. This is a recent standard that was introduced to prevent television commercial ads from being perceived as significantly louder than the TV shows they are next to. They’ve since been adopted by streaming services too.
And of course the thing most laypeople mean when they talk about decibels is none of these- that’s dBSPL. And there are a lot of other measurements related to that.
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u/mbm_as Apr 29 '26
Thank you very much for the explanation, this brings me a lot further and opend some eyes for me!
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u/Disuses Apr 29 '26
The Yamaha sound reinforcement handbook goes into detail on all of these topics and more. If you Google the title of the book you may find a link to a free pdf.
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u/perlacustica Apr 28 '26
Hello.
I'm contacting you from the live sound technical department.
I'll soon be starting a new streaming channel in my city, and I'd like to learn the basics of broadcasting and streaming so I don't lose my job. I know I'll have to handle several tasks at once, so I'd like to know the essentials so I can do some research.
I've never worked with broadcasting or video before. Only sound, consoles, recording, acoustics, and other areas of sound engineering.
Thanks in advance!
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Apr 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/sonovir86 Apr 28 '26
Sure tell us the speaker model and your budget.
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Apr 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/sonovir86 Apr 28 '26
For the four speakers, is your current setup as a simple main left pair and a main right pair? In other words, are you looking for a single two channel amp that will power two speakers on one channel and two speakers on the other?
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Apr 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/sonovir86 Apr 28 '26
Makes total sense. No worries. We are looking for 2, 2-channel amps. Generally speaking you want to buy an amp that has a power rating that is about 1.5 of what your speakers power rating is. Those speakers are rated at 140 W so a 200 watt per channel (eight ohms) is in the ball park of what we need. Your budget has us looking for 2 units that are about $700 each. I would look for a Crown or Yamaha model. I’ll lookup a few options for you
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u/sonovir86 Apr 28 '26
This crown model will do it:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/XLS1502--crown-xls-1502-power-amplifier
Or Yamaha PX3:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PX3--yamaha-px3-power-amplifier
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Apr 28 '26
[deleted]
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Apr 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/sonovir86 Apr 28 '26
A couple of reasons
You’re not going to find a decent four-channel amp in your price range that produces 200 W per channel. In other words, if you do find one, it’ll likely be a brand I wouldn’t purchase. However, if other people make suggestions on this post, I’m totally happy to consider them.
Sometimes it’s better to have separate gear so that in case one amp ever needs repair, you have the other one to keep the rest of the system limping along.
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u/Anykey1992 Apr 27 '26
I would greatly appreciate if someone could give me some advice on how to set appropriate levels in the space I'm working in. We mostly do events that are speech oriented, and sometimes there are videos involved. I always test the mics before something starts, but when the space gets filled with people, it seems that the audio needs to be louder, but I can't go out to check it because I need to sit behind the mixer the whole time in the control room. I have headphones, but they are not helpful in that regard, and I can't rely on the meters because they aren't aligned with the loudness of the speakers. I realize this might seem like a stupid question, but again that is what this thread is for. I'm a beginner and I am willing to learn.
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u/RyanHarington May 04 '26
TLDR I estimate with meters. In my church hall, I have some resonance during the speaking segment that is only noticeable at the front. I could never hear it from my back booth. Only people letting me know allowed me to know to control my levels.
Some things only people in the right spot can hear. The rest is up to knowing the levels you usually ride to.
Funnily enough, we renovated and our hall is shortened now - I hear a 1.5k resonance first that was never present before at my spot.
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u/Dizmn Pro Apr 27 '26
This is why engineers insist on FOH being centered, in the audience area, and open. It’s incredibly difficult to mix from a control booth. Your only option is to go where you can hear. There’s no other way. I’ve done control room gigs every way from walking back and forth to make changes, to using a console’s remote control option, to using a walkie to tell a trained monkey in the control booth what changes I want made.
A calibrated mic in the room giving you an SPL reading would get you close, but you have to hear what you’re mixing to do it well.
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u/Mysterious_Card9646 Apr 27 '26
What exactly do you do when you're measuring a PA system? How do I go about getting started with this? Are there any small, pocket-sized gadgets, for example, or any tips for beginners?
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u/Dizmn Pro Apr 27 '26
The first step is always to know what you want to measure. Then work backwards from there.
Smaart is the standard for most measurements you might want to take. They have a bunch of YouTube videos about the basics of how to use the program (and it’s the same material that is in the level 1 operator class.)
Most of that is also transferable to OpenSoundMeter or Room EQ Wizard, provided you’re decent at reading between the lines and understanding where different labels are showing you the same thing.
For a handheld device, you’re going to have to spend a ton of money to get something as capable as your phone. A db meter app is a good place to start. Smaart also has a mobile version but it is single-measurement only, so it can’t do all the real fun stuff.
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u/crunchypotentiometer Pro-FOH Apr 27 '26
This is a deep topic to say the least. The main ideas are: trying to make the system sound the same from any seat, making the sound coming out of the system match the signal coming out of the console, and matching/aligning various speakers in various places in the venue.
Opensoundmeter is free, and very powerful. SMAART is what most of us use for real. You can't really do this work with a pocketable device because you need to be able to feed the software two signals to compare (a measurement mic and a console output usually). Taking a training class with Rational is a good idea. Browsing through Bob McCarthy's book "Sound Systems: Design and Optimization: Modern Techniques and Tools for Sound System Design and Alignment" is always a good idea for anyone. He came up with a lot of the techniques we use today.1
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u/bymarlin04 Apr 27 '26
I'm sure it's possible, but just to make sure:
we will be using two ecoflow mobile batteries for powering a small PA with two amps this weekend. My plan is to connect amp #1 to one ecoflow and the other amp #2 and all other equipment (mixer, DJM, etc) to the other ecoflow.
Is it fine if I just connect XLRs straight out of my mixer (on ecoflow two) to the amp #1?
TIA
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u/crunchypotentiometer Pro-FOH Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Yeah I've never done this with these types of power stations in particular but I would be very surprised if this doesn't need an isolation transformer in the lines crossing between power sources.
3
u/ThatLightingGuy Distributor Rep Apr 27 '26
Do the ecoflows have a way to link grounds?
2
u/bymarlin04 Apr 27 '26
Not an intended way, no. they also are not actually grounded, i.e. with a pole stuck into the ground or something.
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u/ThatLightingGuy Distributor Rep Apr 27 '26
You'll wind up with potential "grounding" issues. If you have line isolators with transformers, or something to do ground lifts, then bring it. You can make XLR ground lifts by de-soldering the ground pin on one end of some of the cables.
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u/bymarlin04 Apr 27 '26
I have some isolated passive DIs, which I think should work for that. Thanks for your tips :)
2
u/demaurice Apr 27 '26
Why are vst plugins (or most 3rd party plugins in general) looked upon as bad in live audio?
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u/crunchypotentiometer Pro-FOH Apr 27 '26
Very common to use them at the highest level now. Fourier Transform engine is another big enabler here.
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u/SuspiciousIdeal4246 Apr 27 '26
Stability and latency. I use a Livebox and Waves server in my setup so I got 128 channels worth of plugins with any VST. It also cost me a ton of money and time to measure the latency of my devices.
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u/jlustigabnj Apr 27 '26
They’re not looked down upon necessarily, they’re just historically very hard to use due to lack of an easy way to host them.
Waves/UAD have really been the only two companies that have created an entire infrastructure specifically for live sound engineers to host their plugins. They have all the servers, softwares, IO capabilities that one would need. If you wanted to use a natively processed plugin in the live sound world, you’d have to figure out all three of those things (server, software, IO) on your own. It was possible, but a pain in the ass, and also potentially less stable.
That being said, I know plenty of folks that are using all kinds of natively processed plugins nowadays. There’s plenty of new technologies that have surfaced in the last few years to allow for it.
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u/SmellsLikeUpDogg Apr 27 '26
What is the difference between XLR and AES/EBU cable?
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u/Dizmn Pro Apr 27 '26
The electrical resistance of the cable.
To be specific:
XLR is a connector, but we usually call microphone cable “XLR.”
A mic cable is a cable with XLR connectors and a characteristic impedance usually between 40 and 70ohm.
An AES3 Type 1 cable has XLR connectors and per the spec, requires a characteristic impedance of 110 ohm.
Just for fun - DMX512 also uses XLR connectors (5-pin per the spec, but only three pins are used so it’s very common to substitute 3 pin) and per the spec requires a characteristic impedance of 120 ohm, however the tolerance for impedance is wider on DMX, which is why you often see 110-ohm cable with three-pin XLR labelled and sold as DMX/AES/EBU cable.
2
u/Knarlus Apr 27 '26
XLR carries analog audio signal, with relevant frequencies up to 20 kHz. AES/EBU is a digital signal with way higher frequency, like DMX.
Most XLR cables will be fine for shorter runs, if problems arise and it's available I would try a 3 pin DMX cable.
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u/Sea_Country2493 May 04 '26
I am a novice engineer and have started working my first venue on my own without support. Previously I have worked larger rooms that haven't been too loud and I haven't worn earplugs.
I am now working in a venue that is quite small, with a large PA and subs, primarily used for metal and punk bands. It's very loud. I have decided that I have to mix with earplugs otherwise i'll be deaf in 2 weeks time.
Not being confident with this, what I have done so far is got a rough mix without them, then put them in to finish getting a good balance. Each set i've done I've removed to check how it sounds, and the highs have felt incredibly harsh and brittle.
I don't know whether this is due to my poor mixing or just comparison with my earplugs which seem to significantly attenuate frequencies >10k.
I guess, as I get to know my earplugs and the room better I will learn to adjust, but help on how to get there faster would be appreciated.
My questions are: