nickinfrance

People just seem to be posting problems on here so I thought i would offer some balance by a report on a gig i just did.

I was nervous about running sound for this gig as it was really complex.  6 different bands, all with wildly different sound requirements, some of them quite big names in their day so didn't want to stuff up!

I sound checked as much as I could but invariably there were going to be people turning up and plugging in right at the last moment. I am very pleased to report that the gig went fantastically and sounded incredible.   I did have all acts saved as setups in the desk which helped but the thing that really made my life easier was the ability to quickly set up a whole channel in seconds just by dragging it onto the screen.   In one moment, a violin player and a percussionist with a Cahon appeared to play with a band and I had no idea that they were coming at the time of the sound check.   The workflow was simple:  Drag the instrument onto the screen, assign a channel, check level and they are good to go.  I honestly don't think I would have coped with the night on a 'conventional' sound desk.

...oh and the sound quality..(all line 6 speakers)- Comments from the band members and the audience,   They couldn't understand how I had managed to get it all so clear in such a short space of time.

So here is a big thank you and a well done to Line 6.  Brilliant products.

Would love to see the pics as well.  I think mine might be starting with the problem.

The recordings sound nice.  Can i ask how you mic'ed the piano and what you used?

Nick

Can I ask why you find that to be the case? My experience is that in many ways, it is better. The screen is larger, and virtually every adjustment that can be made on the M20D is also available on the iPad screen. The only real difference is the physical knobs, and generally, 'fader view' on the iPad is nicer than those anyway, I have had no problem with 'deep' tweaks and settings via iPad, and it has been 100% reliable. It is just a different way of working, but given how you gain by not having to drag large multicores around and save on all the setup/breakdown time, it is worth getting used to it.

I must admit that i find the ipad app a bit unreliable to be the only control I have for the sound.  I took the advice on here and I use an apple airport express but I still find that it loses connection from time to time.  It generally re-connects again but I would not have the confidence to run the sound for an evening on just that. (Also the 'Mute all/Mics' button is not available on the ipad!)  I also find that when I use line 6 wireless mics (operating at 2.4Ghz) at the same time this can often completely knock out the wirless between the M20d and the ipad.   I'll admit that i might have old ipad software etc but being at the desk gives me a bit more confidence.

I gave it a go as I read that standard aes/ebu signals were happy with distances up to 100m with the correct cable.  Would be great if i could figure out how to create a repeater!

Ok so for those of you who are interested....

It doesn't work :-(!!

At best the speaker keeps appearing and disappearing.

I'd be very interested to understand what the reason is that it works perfectly up to 15 meters but not 30....  What is lost in transmission for that extra 15 meters?????

I'm going to put together a 30m 110ohm cable using sommer digital cable  (very expensive but they claim no signal loss up to 100m) so i will report back and tell you how i get on!!

Hi all,

I find it quite frustrating that my multicore is 30 m which nicely gets to the back of the room in most of the venues that I'm doing sound for, but the maximum length for the l6 link, out from the m20d to the first speaker in 15 m (50ft). I love using the l6 link as it offers simplicity, ease of setup and control. I just wish I could extend the range! Other than buying an l2t to act as a repeater, which is clearly a ridiculous idea! can anyone offer any ideas? I am using good quality Aes/ebu 110 ohm cable- has anyone tried pushing this to 100ft? The ipad app is good for walking around and doing the odd tweak but its not up to replacing being at the desk.

Really useful replies, thanks guys. Do you know if trim levels are saved with a scene? I assume that they are with set ups? I'm thinking that if two bands have exactly the same setup but are just plugging in different acoustic guitars for example a scene change might be simpler in this case if the trim levels can be saved in the scene at sound check...

Thanks, much appreciated.  I will get planning.  There are several folk bands and they always present challenging instruments that sometimes i'm not even sure what they are let alone what best to do with them.  Thankfully the M20 even has a bagpipe channel preset!!

Thanks, that makes sense.  This might be a silly question but if i am working with different setups, am i going to need to remove all of the unused inputs from the desk so i dont clog up the stage view or can the unused ones happily be deleted from the screen?

Hi all,

I have a gig coming up that i am doing sound for.  It is going to be a night with several different acts and a variety of instruments.  I am wanting  bit of advice to keep the stress to a minimum!

In this situation would it be a good idea to save each band as a separate setup at the sound check?...or should i be thinking in terms of scenes?   I have read other posts about the difference between the two and i'm not convinced I fully understand it.

If i have everything plugged in at the start and just use scenes to set trim, levels, fx etc that might be easier than different setups?

Advice welcome!!

Thanks

Thanks Guys.  Much appreciated.

Hi All, 

Just a small piece of advice needed from all you experienced engineers!

I have always added fx such as reverb and delay on to vocal channels etc but not really fully understood how best to set the send and return levels.  It always sounds ok but it would be nice to hear how you guys all do it?!

Am I correct in assuming that the return levels are global and therefore one should dial in the amount of reverb required using the send level?

Or should I set the send levels to 0.0db and use the return to control the effects levels?  Thought I understood this but the more I think about it the more I realised I don't!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi All, 

Very interested in the Amplify and i've been interested to read all the posts.  I have a question about the playback quality for music..

I want to buy a good quality bluetooth speaker and if i can plug my guitar into it, even better!  Does anyone have a feel for how the 75 would compare in playback quality with something like a Sonos play 5, Cambridge Audio Minx or a similar high end bluetooth speaker for music.

( I think this could be my route to convincing the other half this is what we need lol!)

Thanks in advance

Thanks for the advice.  Much appreciated.

Hi all,

I have the M20d with 2 each of the l3's and l2's.   Up until now i have not used sub woofers for our gigs as i havn't needed them for the style of music.  I have a couple of EV subs which i would like to add in to the system and i'm not sure of the best configuration to use.  I've loved using the L6 link cable until this point but realise that i can't use it for the subs.  As i see it I have two options:

1. Use the standard main outs and the crossover in the subs to feed onto the line 6 speakers and thus no L6 link at all.

2. Use the L6 link for the Line 6 speakers as before and in addition, run the subs directly from the main outs [or even a monitor out?] with perhaps a low pass filter?- The idea being that i still get to use the 31band EQ in the mains...

What do you think?  Thanks in advance.

Some of the eny level pro tools bundles are very good. I'm not sure what they are currently offering but I got an audio interface and pro tools mp for about £150. The mp versions have everything you'll need and more unless you want upwards of 30 or so tracks.

Hi all,

I have happily been mixing recordings imported into protools up to now. Today I did my first mix from a recording after the 1.2 update and I'm really struggling with the levels being too low. Anyone else experienced this? I'm having to push the gain up to near max and then bouncing to disk and pushing the gain up again in the mastering stage to get any volume.

I may have just made some error when recording in the first place but I can't think what...

Any usb to ethernet adapter should work fine.  I use an airport express and bought  cheap one on ebay and it works fine.  There is no need to buy the apple one which is five times the price!

My first foray into iPad mixing was with the Samsung wireless dongle which worked fine but we also use line 6 xd v70 wireless mics which can over power a small wireless network if the transmitters get close to the iPad. After some advice from Line 6 I got myself an apple airport express. Because this transmits also in the 5ghz band there are no problems with mic transmission interference and it works really well.

I should add that the wireless never interfered with the microphones at all.

To sum up, the apple airport express is the most robust solution but if you are not using line 6 wireless mics then any of the wireless USB dongles in the line 6 approved list will work fine.

I agree that this would make the media player much more useful. It's only really of use to play some background tracks before and after the gig. After considerable research I stumbled across an iPhone app called 'onetrack' which is absolutely great for backing tracks and play lists.

Hi all,

I have a problem that i wonder if anyone knows the answer to??

I recorded a gig last night and in the panic of pack down before the stage area became a dance floor i think i forgot to press stop on the recording before turning the desk off  grrrr!!

i have put the SD card into my pc and all the files are there.  (292MB of them) all labelled correctly and .wav but they will not play.

Any ideas why this is and if there is anything i can do to fix?

Best

Nick

I always have the mute button engaged when powering down. I've not had this problem at all.

I must admit that single track playback option on the media player would have been a big plus. A simple 'play mode' button would seem to be all that is required in order that a user could toggle between continuous or single track playback. Great that you can use a footswitch to control the media player but without the single track mode it just can't be used effectively for backing tracks. In a conversation some time ago with someone in support it was indicated that this was a high priority for a firmware upgrade but obviously not this time around. There is of course a perfectly acceptable workaround and that is an ipod (check out a great iPhone app called OneTrack) but it seems like a really small feature to add. Having said that, software is never straightforward I appreciate!