Hi fellow BBers
Has anyone noticed the BB having a lowish output compared to say mic’s or acoustic guitars into a PA?
We are running as Yamaha Stageplas 500 PA, with 2 x vocal mic’s, 2 x acoustic guitars & 1 x BB. On the Yamaha, the first 2 channels have a line/mic switch for the particular input, but the other channels don’t have this. We’ve been using the BB on channel 5/6 - which is for keyboards - but I’m wondering if its output is too low for this channel.
I’m not sure if its our particular set up or if its something within the BB itself, but with the BB on full pedal volume, we’re having to run its channel volume maxed out to get a decent volume, yet having to cut the overall master volume back to only 3 to keep the BB balanced with the other inputs.
This set up doesn’t leave us much margin to raise overall volume as the BB & its channel are already maxed out. Should we move the BB to channel 1 so we can use the line/mic switch, or should we get some form of a boost pedal to sit in the line between the BB & the PA?
Anyone have some experience/thoughts with this issue?
Cheers
John
So I took the BB to rehearsal tonight and put it through the desk in stereo, the desk has two stereo channels that use 1/14 jacks.
These can be used in either stereo or mono. So running in stereo with the BB volume on full and the channel volume maxed out it was still far to quiet and wasn’t able to keep up with guitars and vocals.
Fortunately I had a stereo phono to headphones cable and with the headphone volume at 80% and the BB volume at 100% I could get it loud enough. But this wouldn’t work at a live gig because that cable is just too short, plus I should be able to use the left and right outputs into the desk !
These stereo input jacks don’t have any gain or eq, they just have panning and aux routing and a
channel level, they expect a line level signal.
The desk is a soundcraft notepad 12FX and I was using inputs 5/6 incase anyone is used to this desk.
I have the same issue.
I recently purchased a Behringer X2222 mixer, which has four channels with line input 1/4" connections and no gain controls on those channels. I find that over the course of a gig, I end up almost having to max out the fader on the channel being used for the BeatBuddy.
I also recently purchased an Evolve 30M column speaker, and am trying to utilize the built-in 6-channel mixer for my duo gigs (and not have to use an external mixer). Channel 5-6 on the 30M are for “stereo line inputs”, which I’m running the BeatBuddy into the left, and the output of my Boss RC500 looper (for some backing tracks) into the right. Again, I’m having to max out the fader on that channel to get enough volume out of the BeatBuddy.
One other thought I’ve had is to run my master volume on the EV 30M at a hotter level, at which point I could get the BB volume significantly louder and use the BB as a “baseline” volume. I control BB volume (via midi), so I could then back it down to sit in the mix with the guitars/vocals. This would then also force me to back down the faders on the guitars/vocals, so it starts to create this game of determining how hot to run the master volume just to get the BB to a solid level, and then tweaking everything else to better align to that volume. Depending on the size of the room we’re playing, the number of people, etc., this just gets hard to predict (never mind having to play/sing and mix all at the same time).
Ultimately, the Behringer mixer has enough channels for me to actually plug the BB into a channel with a gain control, so I may just have to use that mixer to get the gain I need.
I think I’ve sorted it at leat at rehearsal volume, I found that the trim pots if turned to about 80% bring up the level to something close. Hope this helps
I’m running a Boss GT1000 Core into the stereo inputs on the BB, it means when I’m at home I can plug headphones into the BB and get all the same tones for practice.
Once we start to gig again I’ll probably stop that and put them into the mixer separately
