Greetings / new user from Indiana with XLR question

Josh_P

Josh_P

New Member
Greetings!

I'm a P&W guitarist and upgraded from a POD HD500x to an AX8 and I truly adore the unit! I will have my first rehearsal this wednesday and while I'm creating presets like a champ, I've never ran XLR out to FOH before. I want to thank everyone in advance for any help with these noob questions and look forward to exploring the boards!

Q's:

1) Do I need to adjust anything in the I/O menu before running XLR out or just simply plug in and go?

2) When playing at home, I'm running my AX8 1/4 jacks out stereo into a pair of KRK V6 monitors and I've found I have to keep the Out 1 (Main) almost completely down to 0 or else it just pushes too much signal. Could also be I have the monitors gain up too much as well, just found this odd. Anyone else have this issue?
 
1) Plug in and go

2) Is it these monitors? https://www.thomann.de/dk/krk_v6s4_white.htm - You may want to check, if your "System Setting B" is in the 1/Up position - It should be up. What do you mean by "It just pushes too much signal". Can you hear noticeable distortion, or is it 'just' too loud? If it's too loud, then it is OK. At the venue, you will have a mixer between the AX8 and the speakers. When you feed the speakers directly, a 'full' signal means you get full volume from the speakers. When you get to rehearsal and plug in, you should be prepared for a little work setting up the mixer and the AX8. Ask the mixing engineer to start with minimum channel gain and a flat EQ, then turn up Out 1 until he gets the desired input level. Then you are ready to go.
 
thank you so much for the quick reply! The monitors / playback sound glorious with no distortion or clipping at all, they are just crazy loud lol

Monitors are the Series 1 KRK V6 so different model / larger
 
I also read that I need to set for Unity gain which means the Out 1 Main should be maxed out?
 
Be careful with the term unity gain - it causes lots of confusion. Out 1 all the way up is a good solid +4dBu line level - If your monitors are turned all the way up, it is likely to be crazy loud. But it is a very good signal strength to send to a mixing desk.
 
Josh_P said:
1) Do I need to adjust anything in the I/O menu before running XLR out or just simply plug in and go?
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I set the "OUT 1 (MAIN) NOMINAL LEVEL" in the Setup > I/O menu to -10 dBv. It's helped reduce the chance of sending an extremely hot signal to the board and may help your situation at home as well.
 
I also do P&W with my AX8....I run Output 1 around 3 o clock.... there are a lot of discussions on this topic.... I like to give myself a little bit of room where I can increase volume if need be. Tell your sound guy to lower the gain from the board. I get more noise at church maybe due to laptops or the lights or both. My philosophy with my old pedalboard was if a pedal made noise in the chain it was gone. You should do the same with any patch you download. If it is noisy either adjust out the noise or move on to the next patch. The room I play in church is a little boomy so I have moved away from most ambient patches, or just use ambient for a small part of a song. Check out the Matchless Chieftain especially in the Austinbuddy 700 Naked Amps....just get it saves you aton of time.
 
thegrizman said:
I also do P&W with my AX8....I run Output 1 around 3 o clock.... there are a lot of discussions on this topic.... I like to give myself a little bit of room where I can increase volume if need be. Tell your sound guy to lower the gain from the board. I get more noise at church maybe due to laptops or the lights or both. My philosophy with my old pedalboard was if a pedal made noise in the chain it was gone. You should do the same with any patch you download. If it is noisy either adjust out the noise or move on to the next patch. The room I play in church is a little boomy so I have moved away from most ambient patches, or just use ambient for a small part of a song. Check out the Matchless Chieftain especially in the Austinbuddy 700 Naked Amps....just get it saves you aton of time.
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thank you so much man! Now for the really stupid question, what is Austinbuddy 700 Naked Amps?
 
For those who are going direct XLR to sound system, how do you guys monitor yourselves?

Do you go in ear?

Do you use stage wedges?

Thanks!
 
blandified said:
For those who are going direct XLR to sound system, how do you guys monitor yourselves?

Do you go in ear?

Do you use stage wedges?

Thanks!
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Either works.
Josh_P said:
I also read that I need to set for Unity gain which means the Out 1 Main should be maxed out?
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As mentioned above, that’s a lot of signal. Don’t be afraid to use the range between 9 o clock and 3 o clock for the Out 1 knob. Work with your sound engineer to find a compromise, and make sure he/she doesn’t have too many preconceived notions on how your channel “should” be setup. You can run a mixer channel with its gain/trim all the way down.
 
Josh_P said:
I also read that I need to set for Unity gain which means the Out 1 Main should be maxed out?
Click to expand...
There is nothing in the manual that alludes to this. Anything said by anyone other than Fractal admins should be taken as suggestion or opinion, not rule.
 
Sonofiam said:
I set the "OUT 1 (MAIN) NOMINAL LEVEL" in the Setup > I/O menu to -10 dBv. It's helped reduce the chance of sending an extremely hot signal to the board and may help your situation at home as well.
Click to expand...

Sonofiam said:
There is nothing in the manual that alludes to this. Anything said by anyone other than Fractal admins should be taken as suggestion or opinion, not rule.
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This is pretty close to being stated as a rule (The manual page 19)
manual2.png

Consumer-grade equipment generally means your home stereo system, never an FOH mixer, never an FRFR speaker, and very rarely an external audio interface.
 
Smittefar said:
This is pretty close to being stated as a rule (The manual page 19)
View attachment 48125

Consumer-grade equipment generally means your home stereo system, never an FOH mixer, never an FRFR speaker, and very rarely an external audio interface.
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1. You know perfectly well the "rule" I am referring to is the "unity gain" or "OUT 1 at 100%. It would be nice if other's comments would remain in the context they're intended, not quoted and misrepresented to suit your argument.

2. I have had less issues with sound engineers since I've changed the Main Out Nominal Level from +4 dBu to -10 dBv. No difference in tone, no extraneous noise. I'm not suggesting this is the proper or correct way to set it. Just my experience and I offered it as a possible solution to the OP's question.
 
Sonofiam said:
1. You know perfectly well the "rule" I am referring to is the "unity gain" or "OUT 1 at 100%. It would be nice if other's comments would remain in the context they're intended, not quoted and misrepresented to suit your argument.

2. I have had less issues with sound engineers since I've changed the Main Out Nominal Level from +4 dBu to -10 dBv. No difference in tone, no extraneous noise. I'm not suggesting this is the proper or correct way to set it. Just my experience and I offered it as a possible solution to the OP's question.
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this has been my experience too. if every sound guy in the world is doing it wrong, then it is what it is.

when i set it to +4 and turn my axe all the way up, sound guys think i'm crazy and force me to turn down.

when i set it to -10 and turn my axe down to 9 o clock through 3 o clock, sound guys say WOW that sounds great and is a perfect signal.

that's just my experience. it may be technically not ideal, but there is a huge margin and there is no additional noise or issue at all. i don't think i've ever gone into a live performance and had anything technically ideal.

so again, to the new guys asking these questions, it's good to know what 100% ideal is, but also good to know how things typically work at gigs too.
 
Sonofiam said:
1. You know perfectly well the "rule" I am referring to is the "unity gain" or "OUT 1 at 100%. It would be nice if other's comments would remain in the context they're intended, not quoted and misrepresented to suit your argument.
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You are the only one that insists on calling it a rule. The rest of us call it advice. Anyway, if you don't respect the advice from the manual either, I will just accept that this is the age of the internet, and no 'opinion' is more valuable than another. It does not matter if one opinion is based on references to manuals, age-old wisdom, engineering or measurements. It's still just an 'opinion'.

I agree to the point that "it is more important to get the gig going than to have optimal gain structure". But I see no need to not tell users what the optimal gain structure is. (Optimal gain structure = the one that achieves the least distortion, which again means no input clipping or saturation and then the highest possible signal to noise ratio.)
 
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Smittefar said:
You are the only one that insists on calling it a rule. The rest of us call it advice. Anyway, if you don't respect the advice from the manual either, I will just accept that this is the age of the internet, and no 'opinion' is more valuable than another. It does not matter if one opinion is based on references to manuals, age-old wisdom, engineering or measurements. It's still just an 'opinion'.

I agree to the point that "it is more important to get the gig going than to have optimal gain structure". But I see no need to not tell users what the optimal gain structure is. (Optimal gain structure = the one that achieves the least distortion, which again means no input clipping or saturation and then the highest possible signal to noise ratio.)
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Whatever man, peace.
 
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