DCM1000 & Pod X3 Pro, amp clips at medium volumes - Bass Guitar

[kered45]

Good Afternoon TalkBass Comunnity,
I just recently purchaced a Pod X3 Pro and a Carvin DCM1000 Poweramp (1000watts bridged). I play Bass guitar for a heavy rock band (fromthisfire.com)
Im not sure I have the setting right.

Yamaha TRB5f Bass >
Pod X3 Pro (Duel Tone) (xlr out's or 1/4 (-6db) out) >
Carvin Poweramp Channel 1 > Carvin NEO 2x10 Cab
Carvin Poweramp Channel 2 > Carvin NEO 4x10 Cab

Im trying to Bi-amp, one channel clean and the other channel dirty. 500watts per channel, right?

I dont think im getting enough volume out of this rig. Its loud enought for practice but the poweramp is about to clip like crazy if I turn it up anymore. If it clips to much the poweramp turns of for a second to protect the speakers. This isnt enough power for a live gig, where is all the 500watts going?

Once I find a decent tone for the clean channel and I start to give it some real volume the power amp starts to get into the cliping range and its not enough volume for a 500watt channel. Is my power amp not as powerful as I though or do I have something not hooked up right and setting wrong?
I do have the settings set to poweramp "Stck PwrAmp"

I used to play through the Carvin BX500 and it was enough power for live show and still had enough headroom to produce more volume.
Thinking that this setup has potentionaly 1000watts bridged - 500watts per channel it should have a lot more headroom and punch.

Any advice would be greatly apreciated.
Thank you
Derek
Derek@fromthisfire.com

[WingKL]

Look up your DCM1000 manual. The DCM1000 only puts out 350 watts per channel into 4 ohms and 225 watts into 8 ohms. If your rig is not loud enough, add speakers. If your 410 is an 8 ohm cab you can probably stack another identical 8 ohm 410 on top of it and bridge your DCM into them for your clean sound. Then highpass your signal into a tube guitar amp for your dirty sound. If that still doesn't work, your band is way too loud.

[kered45]

Thanks WingKL,

I totally understand what your saying, yeah the band would be way to loud at that point. Haha

I checked the manual and it has a diagram that had the title "2ohms per channel" and it has a picture of the amp with 2 4ohms cabs plugged into each of the channel outputs.
That's why I had the idea of 500watts per channel.
Im not really knowledgeable with this ohms thing I was just going by the diagram.

I was just hoping for more headroom with this amp.

Here's a link to the manual:
http://www.carvinguitars.com/manuals...s-revA-web.pdf

Thanks WingKL

[BassmanPaul]

If whatever you use to get your effects inverts the signal then your cabinets will subtract from each other instead of reinforcing. To see if this is the case you can try depressing the bridge switch and seeing if that helps. This switch will invert one channel of the power amp. Leave your speakers connect as normal. Let us know the results of this test.

[fokof]

Originally Posted by kered45

500watts per channel, right?

No

I don't know that amp but from what I can read on the Interwebz:

It's 1000 watts when bridged mono @ 4 ohms

With your setup , you run in stereo to have two channels (one clean , one dirty) so the amp in stereo is:
200 watts in 8ohms
325 watts in 4 ohms

Carvin.com :: DCM1000L

So 200 watts is not a lot for a very loud band .....


EDIT : The DCM3000 looks like what you should have.

[kered45]

Thanks guys,
BassmanPaul: I will try this tonight at practice. So what you are saying is while im running effects (bi-amped, Channels 1&2)
Just depressing the bridge switch while its in this state will tell me if the signals are inverted?

fokof:
I think im getting the idea here, after studying the manual for a while, I think its saying:

• 1000watts - Bridged with 2 or more 4ohms cabs(daisy chained)
• 325watts per channel if you have one 4ohm cab per channel
• 500watts if you have 2 4ohm cabs daisy chained together (This is where the 500watts comes in, 2 4ohms cabs Im quessing = 2ohms for this amp, =ing the 500watts)
• 2 4ohm cabs daisy chained together for 500watts and one 8ohms cab at 200watts.

I think im getting the idea. If im wrong let me know. The manual shows 2 4ohms cabs together =ing 2ohms so im going to try it tonight at practice and I will report back. If this is true.
Thanks guys
Thank you so much!

[BassmanPaul]

Is the amp a DCM1000 or a DCM1000L?? Makes no difference except in available power.

The L version is:

1KW into a single 4Ω load in bridge. More than that will damage the amp.

325W into a 4Ω cabinet per channel. So you can connect two 4Ω cabs one to each channel for a combined 650W.

520W into a pair of 4Ω cabinets per channel. So you can connect two 4Ω cabs to each channel for a combined 1040W. That's four 4Ω cabinets total.

[BassmanPaul]

If your effects are inverted, every time you switch them out your cabinets will again be out of phase with each other. This is not a problem with the units ahead of the amps input but does matter when doing what you are trying to do.

[fokof]

If I understand your setup correctly , you want to use one channel as a dry signal and one channel as a distortion channel , right ?

If so you HAVE to run the amp in stereo , not Bridged (mono)

You have two cabs , one for clean , one for dirt , right ?

So you're gonna plug one cab on each side of the amp , in stereo , check the rating of your respective cabs.