Hmm, first recommendation for an EQ. What are some good ones I should check into? Thanks..
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Help Me build my Rack!!
- Thread starter jackall237
- Start date
Hmm, first recommendation for an EQ. What are some good ones I should check into? Thanks..
so what I'm picking up from the posts so far is that I can get the essentials, and add the Par. EQ later?
Silly human. IEM is "In Ear Monitor". Keep it near the monitor desk. You're going to be getting your mix from there.
As far as your rig, rack effects are cool & a racked parametric EQ is excellent for surgical tone shaping, but if you're not familiar or aren't using them already (or your style doesn't call for them), keep it simple....less to lift!
EQs for you:
Ashley
Furman (old but great)
Klark Teknik
Rane (is ok)
ARX (Australian)
Some folks make digital parametrics, but you'll want to keep it analog.
Do you know how to use a Parametric EQ?
Ashley
Furman (old but great)
Klark Teknik
Rane (is ok)
ARX (Australian)
Some folks make digital parametrics, but you'll want to keep it analog.
Do you know how to use a Parametric EQ?
If it's in the budget, instead of the Furman power conditioner, I would recommend a voltage regulator from Furman such as the AR-15. This is one piece of equipment that really can do wonder for your tone by insuring that it has a the correct voltage available to it at all times. I have one in almost every rack i've got. And while it's much more noticable in my rack with tube gear, even my SS racks have more punch and better clarity with them. Just my 2cents. Hey, where did the "cents" symbol go?
I must have a bad attitude. I read this and thought about the best sounding rack system I ever played through. It consisted of:
Alembic F1-X preamp
Crown Power Amp (macro-tech 1200, I think)
Don't keep adding stuff. Just bring what makes a good sound and stop.
Alembic F1-X preamp
Crown Power Amp (macro-tech 1200, I think)
Don't keep adding stuff. Just bring what makes a good sound and stop.
yeah, I know the rule about the IEM but I'm jumping between church services and we have full Aviom (amazing) and don't really need my wireless at the FOH. I'm officially ditching the EQ, just something more complicated and more for me to screw up. Maybe when I'm a pro I'll use stuff that's a little more intense, right now, I'll keep it simple. I know I'm slightly ignorant, that's why I'm making myself look stupid and asking all these questions.. I just wanna learn fellas!!
Someone tell a stupid man how important the signal cable is from the pre-amp to the poweramp... Is this something I should drop some extra dough on, or let fall through the cracks? The door is now open for multiple smart ellic remarks now..
ok, stupid man, the signal cable or any pre-amplified cable is important. But if it's in a rack and never going to get jostled around like an instrument cable, an inexpensive one will probably last forever. I've had good luck with Ernie Ball cables, they're reasonable. Think of your cables as being an insurance policy on your gear. If you blow a speaker from a sudden short in a $20 cable u would not be very happy. I would recommend cleaning the jacks a couple times a year though.
contact cleaner on a Q-tip is one way. or roll up some fine emery cloth and gently clean it with that, every jack, if your stuff's new u can probably wait a couple years. But anything older than that u would be wise to clean a couple times a year.
Cables: big brand name stuff is like anything else branded; you pay for the name. Try Link Removed in the US for quality hand made cables that use good cable and connectors well made. All the rest is cable hype. For the speaker cable, a bit of extra gauge and length never go astray
Contact cleaner. One choice Caig. Buy the little tin and keep it at home. Should last for ages. Do proactive maintenance, ie on a dull wet day a couple of times a year, unplug everything clean it and put it back together and test.
I'm NOT in agreement with the emery paper suggestion above. I would replace corroded or worn connectors.
Make sure the permanently mounted cables in a rack are long enough, but not excessive. Get some cable ties, plastic one-use or velcro and sort out and loom your cables so they're out of the way and don't flap around when you move the rack; some IEC power cables can be prone to falling out. Do NOT loom signal and power cables together. The little stick on plastic blocks that can be stuck to surfaces can be glued (remove the original adhesive and superglue them) to the inside of the rack in a few stragic places as somewhere to anchor the loom if neccessary.
Buy a couple of spares for the rack cables and keep them in your gig gear bag. Roll up your instrument and speaker cables carefully into an 8-10" diameter loop (with no twists) and flick one of the velcro ties around each to hold it this shape between gigs. Treat your cables well and they will last a long, long time. There are few things more embarassing or unprofessional looking that having your rig go down because of poorly treated and maintained gear.
I used to do a lot of live TV and radio, so I'm a bit fussy as off air meant heavy boot in butt. When I do the occaisional gig with my PA doing FOH, I've had comments from others about how careful I am with it all, but that's why it works consistently.
Sorry if that sounded like a rant.
Contact cleaner. One choice Caig. Buy the little tin and keep it at home. Should last for ages. Do proactive maintenance, ie on a dull wet day a couple of times a year, unplug everything clean it and put it back together and test.
I'm NOT in agreement with the emery paper suggestion above. I would replace corroded or worn connectors.
Make sure the permanently mounted cables in a rack are long enough, but not excessive. Get some cable ties, plastic one-use or velcro and sort out and loom your cables so they're out of the way and don't flap around when you move the rack; some IEC power cables can be prone to falling out. Do NOT loom signal and power cables together. The little stick on plastic blocks that can be stuck to surfaces can be glued (remove the original adhesive and superglue them) to the inside of the rack in a few stragic places as somewhere to anchor the loom if neccessary.
Buy a couple of spares for the rack cables and keep them in your gig gear bag. Roll up your instrument and speaker cables carefully into an 8-10" diameter loop (with no twists) and flick one of the velcro ties around each to hold it this shape between gigs. Treat your cables well and they will last a long, long time. There are few things more embarassing or unprofessional looking that having your rig go down because of poorly treated and maintained gear.
I used to do a lot of live TV and radio, so I'm a bit fussy as off air meant heavy boot in butt. When I do the occaisional gig with my PA doing FOH, I've had comments from others about how careful I am with it all, but that's why it works consistently.
Sorry if that sounded like a rant.
Wow, that's gonna be a very heavy rack!
I wouldn't add a thing! (except maybe as a luxury expense a rack DI / preamp: TL Audio, Avalon...)
For preamp signal cables, PLEASE don't buy 10-foot cables just for signal routing in the back of your rack. It's wasteful clumsy takes up space and offers more chances for signal interference.
I routed two lines inside my rack by buying one 20-ft Planet Waves cable and buying two 90-degree right angle jacks. I chopped the cable for two short lengths of exactly the length I need plus 3 inches, and everything is peachy keen. Haven't had one single problem since. Totally awesome.
However... no matter how much you dump into your cables, they're useless if you run into a problem on stage and have a rat's nest of spaghetti back there that confuses you. So, allow me to impart some techniques my brother used in his racks.
First of all... COLOR CODING. Dead simple. Go buy a multipak of colored electrical tape. Use one color for each cable route. For example, from your wireless reciever to your preamp, wrap that cable's plugs with, say, yellow. Then cut two squares of yellow tape, and put those squares on the reciever's output jack and on your preamp's input jack. From your preamp to your tuner, same thing with, say, blue. From your preamp to your compressor, red. From compressor to power amp, white.
BUT ALWAYS USE GREEN FOR SPEAKER CABLES. Green has been a universal color for identifying speaker-load cables. When I still used 1/4" speaker cables, I wrapped them with green tape. Now, Speakon is self-evident, so I don't need to wrap it.
If you run a stereo rig, make sure you know which is left and right. Always wrap your right signal/speaker cables with red. Red=Right.
Now, for keeping your rig clean. Go to Home Depot, and get some plastic strip ties, some colored Velcro cable ties, and those sticky-pad strip tie anchors:
Invalid Link Removed
You get a package of these, and use them anywhere your cables would bounce around or hang in the way.
The best technique, is to run your cables sideways from your jacks, to the sides of the rack, down to the next component, then over to the next jack. Create C-shaped runs. If you want, you can do it all with velcro ties instead of plastic strip ties so you can undo it without needing wire cutters to cut the plastic ties. It kinda depends on your rack, and how permanently you wanna fix your wiring.
Remember, don't fix down your cables so snug that you can't pull the jack in case of an emergency. And don't put any side-load on your jacks and plugs because you tightened the cables up.
Also, a dark rack sucks when stage lights are off. Power Conditioners with rack lights only work when the power is plugged in. And flashlights take a hand to hold. So get some tap lights. Sylvania sells Dot-It tap lights. Sticky tape lets you stick it to the roof of your rack, and will light everything up. Batteries, so it'll work even in the trunk of your car.
Planet Waves cables and extra plugs, velcro cable wraps, plastic strip ties and sticky anchors, tap lights, and wise planning of your cable routing.
He can get his hands inside his whole rack and nothing hangs loosely or tangled up:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
EDIT: Oh, and excessively long power cables SUCK. The only long one you should have is for plugging everything into the wall at the gig. I even replaced mine in my power conditioner with a cable twice as long as what came with it. But all the other power cables running to the conditioner can be done with 1-foot power cables. So go buy some replacement power outlet plugs like the big orange one in this photo. They're compact, and they fit right next to each other on a power conditioner or regular power strip. Don't worry, you can chop your power cables and shorten them just fine, it won't affect performance. Almost all gear these days use standard computer-style removable power cables, and those are abundant like cardboard boxes. If you sell your gear, just get another one, they're all the same. And for those devices that have permanently affixed power cables, just corkscrew them tightly and hit it with strip ties.
I routed two lines inside my rack by buying one 20-ft Planet Waves cable and buying two 90-degree right angle jacks. I chopped the cable for two short lengths of exactly the length I need plus 3 inches, and everything is peachy keen. Haven't had one single problem since. Totally awesome.
However... no matter how much you dump into your cables, they're useless if you run into a problem on stage and have a rat's nest of spaghetti back there that confuses you. So, allow me to impart some techniques my brother used in his racks.
First of all... COLOR CODING. Dead simple. Go buy a multipak of colored electrical tape. Use one color for each cable route. For example, from your wireless reciever to your preamp, wrap that cable's plugs with, say, yellow. Then cut two squares of yellow tape, and put those squares on the reciever's output jack and on your preamp's input jack. From your preamp to your tuner, same thing with, say, blue. From your preamp to your compressor, red. From compressor to power amp, white.
BUT ALWAYS USE GREEN FOR SPEAKER CABLES. Green has been a universal color for identifying speaker-load cables. When I still used 1/4" speaker cables, I wrapped them with green tape. Now, Speakon is self-evident, so I don't need to wrap it.
If you run a stereo rig, make sure you know which is left and right. Always wrap your right signal/speaker cables with red. Red=Right.
Now, for keeping your rig clean. Go to Home Depot, and get some plastic strip ties, some colored Velcro cable ties, and those sticky-pad strip tie anchors:
Invalid Link Removed
You get a package of these, and use them anywhere your cables would bounce around or hang in the way.
The best technique, is to run your cables sideways from your jacks, to the sides of the rack, down to the next component, then over to the next jack. Create C-shaped runs. If you want, you can do it all with velcro ties instead of plastic strip ties so you can undo it without needing wire cutters to cut the plastic ties. It kinda depends on your rack, and how permanently you wanna fix your wiring.
Remember, don't fix down your cables so snug that you can't pull the jack in case of an emergency. And don't put any side-load on your jacks and plugs because you tightened the cables up.
Also, a dark rack sucks when stage lights are off. Power Conditioners with rack lights only work when the power is plugged in. And flashlights take a hand to hold. So get some tap lights. Sylvania sells Dot-It tap lights. Sticky tape lets you stick it to the roof of your rack, and will light everything up. Batteries, so it'll work even in the trunk of your car.
Planet Waves cables and extra plugs, velcro cable wraps, plastic strip ties and sticky anchors, tap lights, and wise planning of your cable routing.
He can get his hands inside his whole rack and nothing hangs loosely or tangled up:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
EDIT: Oh, and excessively long power cables SUCK. The only long one you should have is for plugging everything into the wall at the gig. I even replaced mine in my power conditioner with a cable twice as long as what came with it. But all the other power cables running to the conditioner can be done with 1-foot power cables. So go buy some replacement power outlet plugs like the big orange one in this photo. They're compact, and they fit right next to each other on a power conditioner or regular power strip. Don't worry, you can chop your power cables and shorten them just fine, it won't affect performance. Almost all gear these days use standard computer-style removable power cables, and those are abundant like cardboard boxes. If you sell your gear, just get another one, they're all the same. And for those devices that have permanently affixed power cables, just corkscrew them tightly and hit it with strip ties.
Dude, that's a wealth of information. Thanks so much. Also, if anyone else has some pics of their racks and how they organized them I'm open to seeing them and stealing your ideas like I am Bryan316's
Another thing, I'm trying to find a decent deal on the DTR-2000. Anybody got any ideas on where i can get one? I'm all over the bay and I think these things just sell like hot cakes. Am I right?
