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PA clipping vocals

butchblack

butchblack

Life is short. Do good. Find and do what you love.
Jan 25, 2007
1,164
3
Waltham Massachusetts
#1
My band just got a new used PA head. It's a Peavey powered mixer. What's happening is the vocals are breaking up when the vocalist starts to belt and is right up against the mike. It's fine when singing at moderate volume a couple inches away from the mike. My guess is we have something set wrong as when it first started happening we took the head back and exchanged it for a different unit. Any thoughts on what to look at. The BL runs the PA so I'm not sure how he has it set up. My thoughts is he has the channel gain too high and the main volume too low. :help:
 
#3
Yes - gain structure. When doing the sound check, have the singer belt it out long enough to set their level such that it won't clip like you would for any other instrument. Also, when singer gets to their peak physical volume, it might help to get them to start backing off the mic a bit. Ultimately, a compressor for the vocal channel could help the situation.
 
#7
We tend to soundcheck (if we soundcheck at all :atoz: ) to a relatively quiet song. I find there is really no point in setting the vocal gain until about the third song unless the vocals are way out of whack. By the third song the vocals will be up around "normal".

So really the soundcheck is just to see if the volume is somewhere near the right level.
 
#9
A 2x500 watt Powered mixer ( Say an EMX512sc or a Mackie 808) can do a decent job if you are simply running vocals through it. When we used to use a powered head we ran a line out to a power amp for a sub and used the 2 channels on the head for mains and monitors. Vocals were always loud enough and I never pushed it into clipping.
 
#10
Ric5 said:
powered mixers usually lack power to push your mains at a gig.
Click to expand...
That's a sweeping generalization. It depends on the mixer in question (I've seen them with 500+ Watts/channel), the size of the venue, and the genre of music. The fact that it's the vocals that are clipping and not the low end tells me that the trim (if it has them) is probably set too hot on the vocal channel rather than the PA lacking the horsepower to run the mains.
 
#11
ggunn said:
That's a sweeping generalization. It depends on the mixer in question (I've seen them with 500+ Watts/channel), the size of the venue, and the genre of music. The fact that it's the vocals that are clipping and not the low end tells me that the trim (if it has them) is probably set too hot on the vocal channel rather than the PA lacking the horsepower to run the mains.
Click to expand...

Agreed completely. The drums are obviously not mic'ed. Therefore the band is setting volume to the drummer. Unless you guys have been cursed with Lars Ulrich, most powered mixers should be able to push vocals. How many watts of guitar is happening in the mix? A little more for vocals should be just fine.
 
#12
dalahorse said:
Agreed completely. The drums are obviously not mic'ed. Therefore the band is setting volume to the drummer. Unless you guys have been cursed with Lars Ulrich, most powered mixers should be able to push vocals. How many watts of guitar is happening in the mix? A little more for vocals should be just fine.
Click to expand...

Actually we run the vocals (3 mics) a mic on the harp player's amp, keys and accordion (both played by the bl not at the same time).

Of course the real trick is getting the guitarist to turn down and stay turned down. But I'm sure none of you have ever had that problem. (honestly I've dealt with worse)
 
#13
I gave some misinformation originally. It was a Behringer powered mixer, not a Peavey. After the second one did the same thing the BL exchanged it for a Yamaha. We used it last night at a gig with no problems and it sounded better then the Behringer. Hopefully that was the problem. They'll probably find out Thursday with an outdoor concert. I'll be in the hospital so I won't be able to give you any first hand experience.
 
#14
What kind of mics are being used? Also, singer needs to learn proper mic technique. We had the same issue with one of our singers! She sang with her lips on the mics. Loud passages actually assaulted the audience and it used to make folks leave! We had to tell her she had to learn the correct mic technique. Cheap mics will also add to the problem!

By the way, our band uses a Behringer PMP6000 and we've had zero issues in the almost 2 years I've been in the band.
 
#16
DWBass said:
What kind of mics are being used? Also, singer needs to learn proper mic technique. We had the same issue with one of our singers! She sang with her lips on the mics. Loud passages actually assaulted the audience and it used to make folks leave! We had to tell her she had to learn the correct mic technique. Cheap mics will also add to the problem!

By the way, our band uses a Behringer PMP6000 and we've had zero issues in the almost 2 years I've been in the band.
Click to expand...

Sm58's, a behringer mic, nothing really expensive but the 58's are considered a standard. It was clipping more as the band got louder (typical jam session gig) but improper technique or not most of us have at some time had to eat the mic to be heard and this was the first time doing that caused clipping.

I had a 60W behringer bass amp I got used when I bought my bass off of Craigslist, so I'm not a total Behringer basher. It was fine as a practice amp, but after 2 heads with the same problem and the problem was solved when he exchanged it for a Yamaha head, my guess is it wasn't up to the task at hand.
 
#19
An SM58 and Behringer powered Mixer have punched the vox through my last band at many a gig: against 2 screaming guitars, my bass rig, live kit with a LOUD drummer, and a keyboard player that really loved to hear himself play. Never had an issue, so I'm not going to blame the Beej this time, and instead parrot everyone else with Gain Structure and mic technique.

Peace,
Greg
 

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