I have two active mackie srm450's connected to two active mackie
swa1501 underneath. We run the bass guitar and kick drum through this
setup. I have the volume on the back of the bass bins at 3o'clock and
the tops at 12o'clock. We still can't get adequate bass output from the
subs. More seems to comes from the tops. What are we doing wrong? Is
the active crossover adjustable? All cabling is new and we use the
cfx12 mixer. Bassist's amp/cab is miked with sm57, as is the kick drum.
Any advice most welcome.
Thanks,
Jeff
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Yes, I have one..it is a nice box, especially for the $
I did a little test the other night by just plugging the BDI21
straight into my EP1500 power amp to see if it would provide a strong
enough signal to drive the amp to a usable volume and it did. I'm
considering getting a second one to keep in the van with the gear so I
can leave the other in the studio at home.
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I would suggest that the problem is nothing to do with your speaker setup,
but to do with your choice of microphone. The SM57 is not really suited to
kick and bass cab mic'ing due to it being a small diaphragm dynamic. Go out
and get yourself a decent kick and bass microphone, such as a Sure Beta 52,
AKG D112, Audix D6, Sennheiser E602 (I use the Audix D6 which is fantastic
for kick)
Have you checked your speaker system on its own away from the band setup?
Hook up a CD player to the desk and play some music you are familiar with
and which has a good bass line. You should be able to get an idea as to
what is lacking (or isn't!) in your system and fine-tune any adjustments.
Let us know how you get on.
Dan
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Thanks for your great replies.
I'm going to try the DI approach. The bassists amp and cab are awful,
so will use it as a stage monitior only. I've spotted the Behringer
V-Tone Bass BDI21 DI box at a very cheap price, appears to be a copy of
the more expensive Tech21 Sansamp model. Anyone had success with the
Behringer in a live application for bass guitar?
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DI box on the bass and not mic the cabinet. The other issue is that it
could simply be you don't have enough subs for the amount of low end
you desire. The 1501 is an ok box, but it does not get that loud or go
very low. You may need to double your inventory to get more punch. One
thing to try that can net you a little more output and even coverage
for your current setup would be to put the subs together at center
stage so they couple. This can reduce interference and give more even
coverage then having them split on each side of the stage, giving more
apparent output. You will need stands for the 450's if you were using
poles in the subs before. This may be all you need to help the
situation after you get correct mics and a DI.
Rupert
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Make sure you haven't got one of the subs out of phase with the other.
Place both subs together and disconnect one of them. If they are out of
phase, reconnecting the other will result in less overall bass than the one
on its own.
Gareth.
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Hi,
I fully agree with Dan but have one remark, just to be sure:
Check if the srm450 is connected to the SWA1501's
"High Pass output" and not via the "full-range output".
-Reijer-
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