AHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY BOARD HAS A MIND OF ITS OWN!!!!

[ccfan213]

so were getting new equipment soon and the guys who are wiring up the new stuff pretty much unplugged everything i had in place... my predecessors did not see fit to label everything, only some things which makes my job that much harder, but i got all that working again. anyway i went in today to try and set up a basic setup for an assembly tommorow.... 5 mics a podium and some tables. anyway originally my monitors were not working, and it took me at least a half hour to get that done, then i discovered that several of my channels would not turn off. they are set post fade, and the channels were down. the the eq controls have no effect on them and i can only control their volume with the sensitivity knobs. i cant figure out what was going wrong and i need to run this assembly 2nd period tommorow. i may be missing something extremely obvious, i was under pressure cause the assistant director was yellling at me for making noise, even tho the actors were not even supposed to be rehearsing on stage. the board is an ev dynacord and is really old. im hoping this will be the last show i do on it. if anyone knows what my problem is or how to fix it please help me im desperate

[avkid]

take sick tommorow morning, let someone else figure it out

[ccfan213]

there is no one else. im the only person in my entire school of over 2000 students who knows sound. there isnt even a staff member who knows. plus we have kareoke tommorow night which will be fun, so i dont wanna miss that. all i have to do for kareoke is lights tho, the people running that realized that our system sux and hired an outside guy.

[avkid]

ooh! that is bad ,well then iwould suggest prosoundmixer.com

[mbenonis]

Unfortunately, I can't do much to help without knowing more about your system. The best advice I can give you is to think about the signal path in your head. For example, to put a wired mic out to the house, I would think the following:

---

The mic goes into port 11, which goes into channel 11 in the board. The gain is set to around -40 dB, which should be plenty for the mic. The EQ is bypassed. The signal is being routed to the mix, so the MIX button is depressed. The fader is up at 0. Just to check, PFL'ing the mic checks out.

Looking at the signal processors, I see that when someone is talking into the mic the EQ flashes Signal, so the signal is good there. The Compressor flashes signal as well, so that isn't a problem. The Crossover also is showing signal, so that works too. Finally, the Amp's indicate a signal as well. And since the sound is working, in this case, the speakers are amplifying the voice.

---

If you think about your system the same way, you'll probably find the problem fairly quickly.

[The_Terg]

Originally Posted by ccfan213

if anyone knows what my problem is or how to fix it please help me im desperate

Well, if you are having difficulty following the circut path like mbenenois suggested, its a good idea to reset your board settings to figure things out from scratch.

Make sure.....................................

Submasters are down.
Aux sends are down (temporarily).
Disconnect any inserts or alternate cables that may be plugged into each channel.
If it's a mackie board, (or one with this functionality) make sure any tape sends are turned down, or that the "Tape Return to Main Mix" button is OFF.

Then test these:
Try lowering and raising your main mix fader. Make a difference?
Try bring any active AUxes up, one by one. Anything?
Try changing channels to an unused one.
Try unplugging and replugging speaker sends and aux sends (when the amplifiers are off )


Personally, when I start to have wacky things happen to my monitor, side fill, or main mix sends, I usually just need to spend an hour or two, and reset all of the levels.

[ccfan213]

well i would try your suggestion, but everything was just replaced and im not that concerned with how wel the old sound board works now that its sitting in a storage room!

[mbenonis]

Originally Posted by ccfan213

well i would try your suggestion, but everything was just replaced and im not that concerned with how wel the old sound board works now that its sitting in a storage room!

Congratulations! Would you mind posting some info about the new equipment (and pictures too if you can). Now, what you can do with the old board is take it, box it up, and ship to to Mike Benonis, Stone Bridge High School... ;-)

[ccfan213]

lol i will post info as soon as i find out, some contract has not been signed and work isnt officially done in the install, so while i know it is a crest board i have not yet had a chance to use it and dont know the details other than that it is 24 channels and really big for a board with only 24ch. i also have not had a chance to look in the rack because it is turned in a direction in which i cant see the front of it so they can finish the wiring and if i touch anything they will chop my head off or something cause they arent officially done yet. i will definately post deatails and pics when i can though. and mike, you dont want my old board, its more of a headache than anything else.

[producer]

well, I like headaches!!!! You can send it to me!!!!