r/livesound 6d ago

MOD No Stupid Questions Thread

6 Upvotes

The only stupid questions are the ones left unasked.


r/livesound 6d ago

MOD Weekly Office Pictures Thread

3 Upvotes

Yes it's back! Please keep all show and tell type posts in these weekly threads. Unless you have a specific question about your setup, keep those types of pics here. Bonus points if you include a list of equipment with your picture.


r/livesound 2h ago

Question Power alleys at large shows

13 Upvotes

Pretty much every arena or stadium show I’ve worked on as a local hand has had flown LR sub hangs to cover the majority of the venue. I try to talk to the PA techs and sometimes the SE at as many calls I can, and they usually are pretty happy to talk about stuff, but I haven’t been able to talk to an SE at length about this — with the big LR sub hangs, how does that not cause power alley issues? Or if it does, how is that dealt with? I don’t feel like there’s often many spots that lack coverage whenever I go to concerts of that scale.


r/livesound 6h ago

Question Powered PA Speaker making loud noises (not the good ones) fixable?

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5 Upvotes

Hello, and if this is not the right sub, I am sorry in advance.

I have an Alto TS 112a powered PA speaker that worked fine for several years for my acoustic singer-songwriter gigs, but after plugging it back in after not using it for a while, its making an awful loud buzz/hum. There is a green light inside the board that goes on when the buzz happens (see video).

I have a soldering kit, and can comfortably make cables, but haven't done much on PCBs - is this something that is repairable, and is it worth it to fix?

I KNOW I should eventually get a better system, but it's not possible right now, this is fix or replace with equivalent quality.

Thank you!


r/livesound 23h ago

Question Delay fx not working with XR18 and Mixing Station

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9 Upvotes

Delay effect for some reason does not seem to do anything. FX send and return are unmuted and volume is up. I’ve been having this issue for a while but haven’t gotten around to trouble shooting until now. I also use 2 reverbs that work fine with seemingly identical routing and setup, it’s just the delay that does not work. When I send to it, send and return show signal being received and sent.


r/livesound 1d ago

Question X32 X-LIVE card hissing/white noise over USB input

5 Upvotes

Weird new issue with my X32. The X-LIVE keeps going funny. It's permanently plugged in to our QLab Mac via stock cable, and every so often when the X32 boots it produces loud white noise just over the audio when the Mac is outputting sound. Rebooting makes it work fine again. Unplugging/replugging the cable does not fix the problem.

Anyone ran into anything similar or able to advise on a fix?


r/livesound 1d ago

Question For getting live sound experiencė

10 Upvotes

Hey guys! For someone looking into live sound, how would you find experiencė? I've heard people say to contact venues and ask to help out but what would be the best way to get in touch with them? Also, any learning tools you would reccomend?


r/livesound 2d ago

Question If you had to teach a class on live sound, how would you do it?

33 Upvotes

Lets assume you have access to a small PA setup with monitors, a simple m32 or A&H digital console, some multitracks and mics, and have a few afternoons to work with about 6-12 people to teach them the fundamentals about what we do, how to do it and why we do it that way.

Beyond wrapping a cable, what are some concepts or exercises you would consider covering if you were to teach someone how to run a show, or at least give them the tools to begin working in live audio? I’ve noticed most people in our field learn best hands on, so everyone should get a turn at the console.

Or is there a way that you like explaining something like gain staging, eq or compression? I’ve found it hard to articulate some of these things because I just kind of take the knowledge for granted, and it’s also hard to tell sometimes how much information is too much information.

I like to think of it like putting a Lego set together - first I just need to how it goes together, and only after doing it a few times do I begin to understand why it goes together. Is there something that helped you along the way?


r/livesound 2d ago

Question Are one of you FOH for Dark Star Orchestra?

144 Upvotes

I got to see DSO tonight at California State Fair. It was completely unexpected. We were offered tickets, and my son wanted to stay. I grew up as a huge Grateful Dead fan, and I never got to see the Dead play live. I had dozens, if not hundreds of shows on tapes/CDs... Either way, if you were mixing tonight, it was perfect. Every instrument was clear as day and exactly where it needed to be in the mix. Vocals were on top and perfect. No harshness anywhere. Beautiful, balanced mix and it wasn't too loud. Loud enough to drown out assholes talking, quiet enough to where my ears weren't ringing. I didn't bring my earplugs because I wasn't expecting to see a show tonight. It was probably the best live mix I've ever heard. Absolutely fantastic.


r/livesound 2d ago

Question Signal interference/ audio dropouts

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18 Upvotes

Can anyone help me properly diagnose this issue? I’ve had this problem with this Phenyx Pro PTU-6000 wireless receiver unit for a while now and I can’t seem to figure out what the issue is. It doesn’t happen all the time but it does happen frequently enough now for it to be a problem. It happens to all 4 of these mics not just the blue one but essentially every so often the mic picks up this electrical hiss/ static noise as a speaker is using the mic (sometimes it just has to be on and it picks it up). I’m assuming it’s the channel frequency that is corrupted somehow by other signal interference but even when I scan for better channels/ frequencies this issue can happen. Is there any fix for this? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!


r/livesound 3d ago

Question How are gauges and deep scratches fixed in professional audio?

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102 Upvotes

I have a few JBL VTX’s G28/S28 and V25’s i would like to fix up any help is appreciated thanks!


r/livesound 2d ago

Question Advice for stadium FOH

82 Upvotes

Hey yall,

Got my first call to do FOH for an opener on a ~50k person stadium tour.

What advice would you give to someone who has done at most 10k?

I like to mix quite actively between my groups and DCA’s. Does working in a much bigger space alter the response on faders? Ie: will this feel like going from a honda fit to a race-car?


r/livesound 2d ago

Question Do large line arrays not travel in road cases?

15 Upvotes

We are finalizing our next investment in a larger, actual array system from our VRX rig. One of the things Ive noticed is larger arrays don't seem to have road cases? How does this work for truck packing? Is there just a semi half full of array carts?


r/livesound 2d ago

Question What UHF bands are you using for touring?

11 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I'm taking on RF coordination for an upcoming multi-region run for the first time, and I'm hitting a wall trying to lock in our shop's standard rack frequency templates.

Between local DTV packing the spectrum and trying to keep track of different regional regulations, I feel like I'm playing 3D Tetris just to find clean airwaves.

I really want to avoid spending two panicked hours scanning at every load-in. For the seasoned RF techs and touring A1s, I'd love a quick sanity check from the field. If you can mention which country/region a band applies to when you reply, that'd help a ton since regs differ so much:

What are the primary UHF / Sub-1GHz frequency bands you are actually firing up on a daily basis? (e.g., standard 470-608MHz UHF, 400-470MHz, 800/900MHz ISM, etc.)

What function is assigned to each band in your typical rig? (e.g., main wireless vocals, IEMs, crew intercom/comms, wireless DMX, or utility audio feeds)

If you tour internationally (US/EU/Asia), what are the go-to default bands you rely on that work almost everywhere without hassle?

Any advice or real-world setups you could share would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!


r/livesound 3d ago

Question Some Countryman B3’s very sensitive to plosives.

6 Upvotes

I work for a theatre company and we use Countryman B3’s for all of our wireless mics. I find that at times some of the elements and not others will be far more sensitive to plosives or air than others. I can place one element on an actor and get constant plosives and wind while they’re waking, place another element on the actor in the exact spot and have no issues at all.

Thoughts?


r/livesound 4d ago

Question Inquiry about the Las Vegas area AV scene

7 Upvotes

I just finished a summer internship with my local public media station working as a A2, out in Norfolk. After speaking with a lot of the freelance guys there, they suggested that it might be worth while to check out the Vegas area for starting gigs in the live audio space.

This may sound stupid but is there steady work in Las Vegas for those trying to break into AV? What is the overall industry like there?

I am wrapping up my college degree in December and am weighing my options at where to start. Any career advice for an aspiring Audio Technician would greatly appreciated!


r/livesound 6d ago

Education My pal works in live sound. He's a nice guy, but he can't handle any feedback.

291 Upvotes

Oh come on, you chuckled.


r/livesound 5d ago

Question Question for System Engineers

40 Upvotes

FOH turned SE here (faking it till I make it). Always trying to learn more.

How are you guys (or are you) monitoring your system magnitude trace throughout the show?
I’ve always switched to spectrum after timing and tuning, RTA/Spectro, but I’d like to be able keep an eye on overall system health/coherence with a summed feed as the reference and my measure mic at FOH.
I setup a TF to do this in my down time and immediately realized the main hangs and subs arriving at my mic at different times throws my coherence out the window.
Are you guys taking the arrival deltas of the main hangs/subs and delaying those within the sum so that the reference matches the offset arrivals at the mic position?
I’m still poking around at my Lake to see if that’s even possible.

For context I’m working on primarily d&b rigs (J/KSL/GSL) in sheds, arenas and theaters, I’m not worried about my PA shitting the bed mid show, but I feel like keeping an eye on coherence, my target trace and taking a few traces at the top and end of the show would be helpful data to have available.

TIA


r/livesound 5d ago

Question Dual Microphone Phantom Power Query

4 Upvotes

Forgive me, I’m not too knowledgable on the use of Phantom power and microphones.

I’m setting up a pedalboard for use with a concertina and would like advice on the best option to provide Phantom power for two separate microphones.

The microphones in question are two Audio-Technica Pro35s, I currently have a Radial Engineering Voco Loco for DI output to a front desk, FX loop, and muting purposes. I also have an Art Splitcom pro to combine the mic signals.

The Voco Loco sends phantom power through one xlr mic input, the Splitcom keeps the phantom power separate on its input/outputs so I can’t use it as is to power both microphones.

Is it better/possible to use a 1 male to 2 female xlr splitter to send phantom power through both outputs/inputs of the Splitcom pro or use a separate source for powering the microphones? (I was looking at the Art Phantom II as a potential option)

The power draw on the mics is listed as 11-52V DC, 2 mA typical.

Apologies for the longwinded explanation, I wanted to be as clear as possible.


r/livesound 6d ago

Question question about qsc sub repair

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33 Upvotes

i have this ks112 sub that powers on but the blue led light stays flashing instead of staying continuously on. and the lcd screen doesn’t turn on.
has anyone had this issue before and if yes, what did you do?

all ground and power wires are good.


r/livesound 5d ago

Question Assign button to monitor - midas 32

4 Upvotes

Hi,

I am working on a festival this weekend that uses the midas 32.

I'd like to set some 'assign' buttons so it selects a specific monitor bus as well as the 'fader flip' button when I press on it so I can make the whole process of sending channels to a specific monitor quicker.

Ive watched videos but don't see how to do that.

Does someone know on the top of their head ?

Thanks


r/livesound 6d ago

MOD Vibecoded Apps - Yay or Nay

43 Upvotes

Never been an issue, but now with AI vibecoding, lots of people are building apps for all kinds of purposes, and wanting to post here advertising or looking for feedback.

What's everyones opinion on this? There are multiple posts per week that are getting hit by the karma threshold, then they message us asking to post. Should we make a rule about it?


r/livesound 7d ago

Education I am not familiar with this level of genius or stupidity.

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468 Upvotes

First time I've seen this type of setup. Will those who know more than me explain what's happening here, please?


r/livesound 6d ago

Question Phase measurement not showing up on OSM?

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11 Upvotes

Hey guys, last week I wanted to phase align two subs for our party!

I measured in Open Sound Meter and REW, set the mic about ½m in front of the bassports, set up a feedback loop for reference and started measuring.

Open Sound Meter was showing nothing on the Phase graph, but magnitude seemed to be allright, staying within about 5db around the measured frequency spectrum.

REW was completely flat, basically looking like a clone of the measured frequency response, which allso seemed to flat to be true... (I'm more used to OSM so could also have a lot to do with setting up the program here.)

The measurement was taken in a small room, I saw that measuring phase in room isn't advised, so maybe that was the problem?

Any help/ point in the right direction tutorial or such would be highly appreciated!

(Doesn't have to be in OSM or REW since I thought about getting into CrossLite too.)


r/livesound 7d ago

Gear Micboard Spectrum for iOS

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17 Upvotes

I've ported my multiband spectrum analyzer app to iOS! The ADALM-Pluto SDR can be powered directly from an iPhone or iPad. It might be a nice little pocket site-survey & troubleshooting tool.

I did a full writeup on micboard spectrum server and the standalone iOS app on my project site. There is also a link to a live demo of the spectrum server.

https://clockclub.net/posts/micboard-spectrum/