Low output from mixing desk?

[I-Love-Ratm]

Hey everyone


My band recently played a gig where we brought our own un-powered desk (Mackie CFX16) and plugged into a house system of amps and speakers. When I went to check the levels I had to crank the gain much more than usual and put the faders up much higher to get a good signal out front. Any idea why this might be? When I connected my iPod to the Tape In it was plenty loud.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Zooberwerx]

Hey everyone


My band recently played a gig where we brought our own un-powered desk (Mackie CFX16) and plugged into a house system of amps and speakers. When I went to check the levels I had to crank the gain much more than usual and put the faders up much higher to get a good signal out front. Any idea why this might be? When I connected my iPod to the Tape In it was plenty loud.

Cheers
Mike

Please elaborate ^. The desk's mic channel input trims should be a "fixed quantity" irrespective of what power amps / speaker enclosures are downstream. IOW, each mic preamp should be saturated but not boosted to the point where they are in danger of clipping. If you had it right in the first place, there's no need to mess. Now, the amps...

Here's the unknown. What's the brand & model, configuration (stereo, bridged mono), and how were the attenuators set?

Riis

 

[JohnMCA72]

Google search term (phrase): "gain structure"

 

[audioglenn]

Which outputs from the Mackie were you using to feed the amplifier inputs? My guess is that the amps are looking for a balance +4db signal. Use the +4db balanced(XLR male) output from the Mackie to the amps.

 

[I-Love-Ratm]

I used the XLR outs. I know about gain structure also. Just wondering what was wrong because the other band that played and brought their own desk had to turn it up more than usual too. Strange.

 

[Zooberwerx]

I used the XLR outs. I know about gain structure also. Just wondering what was wrong because the other band that played and brought their own desk had to turn it up more than usual too. Strange.

Where were the power amp attenuators set and how were they configured? A lot of bass players using pre / power rigs use them to adjust volume...this practice should be avoided in PA / FOH applications. Since you mentioned this is consistent desk-to-desk, I'd look a little harder at the components downstream.

Riis

 

[modulusman]

It is impossible to answer since we don't know anything about the amps and speakers and processing being used.