What's in your rack?

[digitaltec]

Just curious what high schools around the county have in their sound racks and consoles. Thanks.

[cruiser]

My rack consists of: 1x pioneer cd player, 2x behringer virtualizer pro, 1x doa system analyzer, 2x behringer 32chanx2 eq's, 2x behringer patch bays, 2x shure reciever units, 1x behringer 4channel di and bose power unit. my mic rack has 8x sennheiser 300series units.

our school has 3x pioneer cd players, 4x sennheiser handheld recievers and 4x bodypacks, foh eq & crossover.

our school has a crap sound rig... its also very old... needs an update which i believe they are doing next year!

[soundman]

3 2 channel DBX 32 octive eqs 2 patchbays 10 shure wireless recivers (2 handhelds or body packs 8 body packs)1 assisted listening transmiter 2 shure power supplies delay (forget name) 3 crown dual channel amps moniter patchbay and pagieng mic system or cd player is a homestereo grade 5 disc cd changer, works great for dance shows but sucks for cuing becasue after being paused for so long it stops spinng so then it has to spin back up which throws off the cue. a Lexion processer that is 3 years old and I still havent gotten a chance to use "maybe this show" the TD says.

[cruiser]

i like the dbx eq's... very nice! the only reason i whent with behringer is cuz of them fancy little LED's they have on the faders. Good knowing where they are specially during a real dark show... thats just me though!

[soundman]

I have alwise heard behringers are just a step up above american djs in qualty, how does it work for you? The eqs are set to the room so its not a problem and the 2 channels for mics will poblem have a little lit knock off on it.

[ehjay]

Oh man. Are these setups common amongst the high school level? Because this is my first year running sound at my school and we've got.. next to nothing.

[cruiser]

yeah, ive never had a problem with behringers although they do have a slightly different concept to some eq's they do the job very well.

Our school has a fair amount of gear, we have a music faculity, av faculty and drama department that all have their own lighting rigs and pa systems. but the bulk of equipment is kept for trhe hall and when we do big shows its all moved in there, as well has hire gear.

[DMXtools]

If you check my profile, it's been a long time since I've been in school. When we did "Brigadoon" we raped my stereo for sound reinforcement... But I've always been a tech dweeb - in 1966 I had probably the most powerful stereo in town. No wireless - I hid SM57s in the scenery and prayed. So, ehjay, I sympathize.

Now I do live sound-for-hire for local band shows. My 10-space rack includes a Peavey XG5 5-channel gate (for drums), Behringer 4-channel compressor (one channel for each of the four main vocal mics), Samson 4-channel compressor, one channel for each sub-mix (drums, guitar&bass, vocals, everything else), Peavey Deltafex twin (two FX processors in one rack space) for reverb and delay, DOD dual 31-band EQ for the mains, dBx 1066 compressor for the mains, and both a Behringer feedback destroyer and a DOD dual 15-band EQ for two monitor mixes - I EQ the monitors manually on the DOD, with the feedback destroyer bypassed, before the show, then add in the feedback destroyer "just in case."

[cruiser]

Im not a big fan of the feedback destroyers.

They cause you to loose alot of frequencies out of your mix because the unit this there is the potential for feedback there.

I have only used a feedback destroyer once and did not like the output i got from them at all. I prefer to just ring out all my mics or, use a system analyzer with a spectrum mic. Get yourband to play and the unit will show you which channels are peaking, so you can then notch them down in your eq thus avoiding feedback.

Unfortunatly the only company in austrlaia that made these units, recently stopped making them =(

[DMXtools]

As I said, the feedback destroyer is on the monitor mixes, not the mains, and is only activated after I ring out the monitor mixes with the regular EQ. Most of my shows feature about an hour and a half to load in and set up before the first of five bands goes on - we barely have time for a quick line check per band - just before each band starts their set. It's a different five bands in a different venue each show.

Because I do ring things out pretty well manually, the feedback destroyer rarely comes into play, but the few times it has have made it worth the relatively low price.