Driving a Power Amp and DI Volume

[RawOrange]

Hey Everyone,

I'm performing at my first "big" gig with actual PA reinforcement next weekend and I have a question.

My current setup is my G&L L2000E to a Aguilar Tone Hammer to a Carvin DCM1500 Power amp. In order to drive the power amp I have to have the master volume on the Tone Hammer fairly high, however, will this be too high to go direct out from the Aguilar to the FOH?

How can I have my level high enough to drive the power amp while not peaking on the mixing board? Or am I way off base and the master volume of the pedal doesn't matter for the DI? I really do not know much about it since I've never used this feature before.

Thank you very much for your help!

 

[modulusman]

The soundman should be able to set the input trim so you are not peaking at the board. How do you hook the tone hammer up to your amp. You will want to use the xlr output to send to the mixer.

 

[RawOrange]

The soundman should be able to set the input trim so you are not peaking at the board. How do you hook the tone hammer up to your amp. You will want to use the xlr output to send to the mixer.

Correct, but I have the TH set so that it is boosting my signal significantly in order to drive the power amp. This wont be a concern when sending the XLR to the board though?

 

[modulusman]

It depends on the board. Most should be fine, some actually have a pad switch if the signal is too hot. If worse comes to worse the soundman should have a DI that he could plug your bass into and run a signal out to the tone hammer or else mic your cab.

 

[3506string]

Make yourself one of these. A male to female XLR adapter, a couple resistors, and some soldering. Every now and again I have to record something that has a signal a little too hot for my interface. So I made a couple of these. Overall cost was probably less than $10 for both IIRC.

 

[gearhead1972]

If you set your pre/post DI switch to pre, the board will see your unaffected signal from your bass. No eq or gain is inserted when on pre.
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[scowboy]

If the PA is even only half way decent the gain control on you mixer input should be able to pad your signal down just fine.

 

[walterw]

where do you have the level knob on the power amp? try just turning that up until you get good stage level with your preamp closer to the middle of its range. if it means turning the power amp knob all the way up so be it, that's no big deal for PA power amps.

(the knob level on the amp has little to do with how actually loud the amp gets, it just adjusts the input sensitivity, which can differ from amp to amp.)

 

[bongomania]

It does not adjust the input sensitivity. It adjusts the level of the signal after the input buffer and before the main gain stage, effectively changing the gain. The input sensitivity is set by the input buffer, which has no controls.

 

[walterw]

fair enough. i suppose actually changing the input buffer might change the frequency response of the amp, which would be a bad thing.

i just meant that there's no harm in diming those knobs on the power amp if that's what it takes to get usable signal into them without blasting the preamp's output level.

 

[bongomania]

True!

 

[ggunn]

...the knob level on the amp has little to do with how actually loud the amp gets, it just adjusts the input sensitivity, which can differ from amp to amp.

Not so. input sensitivity directly affects the volume from the power amp for a given input signal strength. That's what "sensitivity" means; it's effectively just another term for gain.