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Playing uncompressed music through a club rig
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| meriter |
| Wasn't sure where to post this but I figured you guys would know... wondering if you would expect to run into any problems playing uncompressed/unmastered tunes through a club system. You can always turn up the gain if it's too quiet but I'm wondering if the peaks are going to anything up in regards to the systems limiter and amps once you do turn it up that loud. I don't want to clip anything and I know these systems are built around tracks at commercial volume. Thoughts? |
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| Lunar Phase 7 |
| quote: | Originally posted by meriter
Wasn't sure where to post this but I figured you guys would know... wondering if you would expect to run into any problems playing uncompressed/unmastered tunes through a club system. You can always turn up the gain if it's too quiet but I'm wondering if the peaks are going to anything up in regards to the systems limiter and amps once you do turn it up that loud. I don't want to clip anything and I know these systems are built around tracks at commercial volume. Thoughts? |
Absolute worst case is you'll just squash your track and it will sound over-compressed. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
ideally this would be the worse case scenario but many systems that are not setup right will push the system into "who ever is sending me audio is an idiot so i'm just going to make everything quiet so that I don't ruin myself" mode. Basically, everything will sound ridiculously quiet and there is nothing you can do about it except turn the system off, let it cool and try again.
To be honest, uncompressed music actually sounds better on a PA but you need a sound tech operated PA to get the most out of it. Otherwise, it will be set up for idiots and ya, like i said , you push it and it will go into puss mode.
There is a reason bands sound big live and its because they are not compressed like a cd and overall a live band is just not comparable to a recording. Same goes for audio. |
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| cryophonik |
Only an idiotic house engineer would have a live PA without a compressor/limiter at the final output stage. When I was a house and independent engineer, I always had a limiter on the master out and compressed anything with large dynamic ranges and the potential to blow up a speaker or overload an amp (e.g., vocalists, particularly screamers, drums, sometimes keyboards). So, yeah, if/when a band would bring a DJ in, I would compress the hell out of his mix because most DJs are stupid and don't understand a thing about dynamics. Most of them just understand "loud", but a few of them ended up understanding "you're not getting paid this evening because you blew up a speaker, dumbass." ;)
So, my suggestion is to level out the mix, compress it as necessary, and let the house engineer know that you did this and that you're not an idiot. |
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| Julz |
| quote: | Originally posted by meriter
Wasn't sure where to post this but I figured you guys would know... wondering if you would expect to run into any problems playing uncompressed/unmastered tunes through a club system. You can always turn up the gain if it's too quiet but I'm wondering if the peaks are going to anything up in regards to the systems limiter and amps once you do turn it up that loud. I don't want to clip anything and I know these systems are built around tracks at commercial volume. Thoughts? |
Club are in mono so it doesn't matter. |
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| Raphie |
you can't go higher than 0dbFS so it doesn't matter
wether your track is all the time at 0dbFS, due to too many sausage fatners, or it peaks every once and while and there is room to breathe.
So don't worry, as long as volume stays the same you'll be the hero with the track that made impact. If you need to turn things up no worries either, everyhere, where they have PA and sell liquer, they'll have a permit and because of enviromental regulations a limiter installed. So the system will NEVER get enough SPL to go into quiet mode.... |
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| Looney4Clooney |
except we are no longer in the digital world raphie whua whua whua.
a limiter is great except most places have it set once, and 5 years go by, and ya, happens. For small systems ie 250 and smaller, assume there is no limiter. |
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| Raphie |
| The source is digital and will need a digital device to play, which can maximum output at 0dbFS into the analogue domain. as long as his track didn't clip he'll be fine |
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| meriter |
| quote: | Originally posted by Julz
Club are in mono so it doesn't matter. |
as long as it's in analog mono
| quote: | Originally posted by cryophonik
...idiotic house engineer..compressor/limiter at the final output stage...blow up a speaker....DJs are stupid..."you're not getting paid because you blew up a speaker"...
So, my suggestion is to level out the mix, compress it as necessary, and let the house engineer know that you did this and that you're not an idiot. |
Yeah good call. I certainly won't be pushing anything into the red.. now that I think about it I've seen live PA acts that are just running their hardware synths into like a mackie and then out to the house mixer and there's usually no problem with that. If anything Traktor has it's built-in limiter if goes crazy |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| quote: | Originally posted by Raphie
The source is digital and will need a digital device to play, which can maximum output at 0dbFS into the analogue domain. as long as his track didn't clip he'll be fine |
yes but it doesn't matter because you can crank that with the analog gain so you can still do some damage well at least sonically. Glad to see you've unblocked me. Sorry for anything i might of done. I still think you are aight. |
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| Raphie |
| quote: | Originally posted by Looney4Clooney
yes but it doesn't matter because you can crank that with the analog gain so you can still do some damage well at least sonically. Glad to see you've unblocked me. Sorry for anything i might of done. I still think you are aight. |
But then doesn't any device? so its doesn't matter. as the levels are set and determined by the gear used. OP is not going to play live and plug in something of his own with crazy gain, he'll be using the clubs decks with either a USB or CD |
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