Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Jump to content

Unsolicited Review Of Our First Show With The M20d


Recommended Posts

When it comes to sound, I'm a total amateur. I know enough to get our old man cover band to sound ok in the small bars we play here in Arizona. We recently did our first show with the M20D. I still have a lot of learning to do, but here's what someone, totally unsolicited, posted on our FB page afterward:

 

"Last night Jolie's had the great pleasure of hosting the supersonic "Rock Hawgs" . They were at full power, having fun and showing off a top notch level of musicianship. They sounded great! Jolie’s can be an acoustic challenge for the bands that appear there, and I’ve never heard any band there sound as good as the “Rock Hawgs†did last night. They had it down and dialed in. Thanks again for a rocking good time, Rock Hawgs!"

 

I apologize for the band plugs, but... unless you live in the east valley of Phoenix, you'll never ever see us anyway :)

 

I attribute this response to the M20D! The band was totally thrilled with the sound. We use powered monitors and a power amp to passive speakers for FOH so the only thing that has changed from previous shows is the mixer. Like I said, we're just amateurs when it comes to sound production and I got the M20D to help us out in that regard and simplify things for us. I think it did the job I expected it to do. There were many other compliments from people that night that had seen us many times before that said we sounded way better than ever. 

 

Kudos to Line 6 and the job they did with the M20D. Looking forward to actually knowing what I'm doing and sounding even better down the road!

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first show with the m20d is tonight. I am looking forward to it. We generally have good sound, and in general, the m20d is replacing my studiolive 16.4.2. But we are playing a small pub tonight where we usually use the drummers old Samson 8 channel board. And acoustically, the bar is good. What I am looking forward to is the simplicity. And the ability to use this board anywhere we play due to the small footprint! Which is why we never use the studiolive at this location. I loved my studiolive, but, only used it for live over the past 3 years, and it is just too big. I have big expectations of this board doing everything I really need from a live board. Will update how it went.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just wondering how you made out with your first show. I just got my board in yesterday and im excited to see how it was in a small bar enviorment. we are a 6 piece alt band (2 guitars ,bass,keys,drums,vocals)  also if you wouldnt mind telling me how much "deep tweaking" you did to get a good sound

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Guys, just thought I'd throw in my 2 pence on first shows with the M20d with a little review of my experience - I've had mine for 1 month this week and thought it might be of interest...

 

I received my mixer on the Friday morning and having watched many of the demos online I decided to take a gamble and just take the mixer out to gig that night. Obviously not a good idea without practicing with it in a controlled environment but I felt that I had seen the features operated so would be able to figure it out. It really was as simple as it looked online - nothing more required and there were no hiccups along the way; this was with my 6pc band using two guitar amps, bass, keys, kick, two male vox and two female vox all through the PA. I had several musicians that are well respected within the local scene compliment the sound as being crisp, clear, articulate and the best they'd heard from a covers band in ages - all this on the first day out with the desk!

 

To answer Bassforlife's question - I simply used the quick tweak to get a great sound and then adjusted minor things like effects and gating in deep tweak; although to be honest the quick tweak sound alone is more than good enough to work in a professional environment even if it's designed for the non-professional soundman! Very easy but very effective!

 

Since then people are repeatedly commenting on how good the sound is at gigs - I've used the live recording feature in conjunction with my handy cam to make some live videos and am happy with the outcome! Ideal for my uses - I play guitar, keys and sing at most gigs so the feedback suppression and gain tracking really help manage my sound without dragging me away from performing.

 

The limiting on the outputs really opens up my confidence to drive the speakers harder - I've rigged the m20d to two mackie SR1530s, I'm completely floored by it! The monitor sends and options are simple but effective - we use two laney active floor wedges and two sets of in ear monitors, handles them like a dream!

 

Aside from the function gigs I also teach a music Ba degree course - when giving live performance lessons, I set the mixer up with iPad control, mix their front of house sound from the back of the room whilst the students perform and record the audio from their performances simultaneously! This means, when offering feedback I can go play the audio back through the PA (via the iPad control) whilst lecturing without having to interrupt the flow of my teaching - makes a big difference to lectures and how effective I can be within lecture time!

 

I'm not affiliated with Line 6 or any shop but I will tell you that I bought mine from Andertons and was blown away by the customer service I received - being a £1450 purchase, I had some questions. The Andertons rep managed to answer most and got directly in touch with Line 6 to answer the remainder. As I say, I have no affiliation with either Line 6 or Andertons but have been completely blown away by this purchase!!! I can honestly say it has 100% met my needs so far and matched my expectations - great buy for the price IMHO.

 

I'd be more than happy to answer any questions people have about my application of the desk :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have had the M20d for about 2 1/2 months....and have had about 6 or 7 gigs using it....starting with the week i got it.  I have been told on numerous occasions at different small venues how it was the best sound they have heard in each one.  I deep tweak alot but i think that is a matter of preference more than anything. Mostly for eq and global effects...makes me think i am doing alot more than i really am... lol...anyway not only is the live sound fantastic but the recordings have been equally as good. And when i mix them in Cubase well its a really really satisfying experience. I do alot of "jam" nites where band members and instruments change frequently and the board makes that process go a whole lot easier and faster....and as the band members have been known to say that board is almost "mark proof."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thats awesome feedback guys. one thing i noticed is the spectrum analyzer doesnt show up on the ipad when you deep tweak the eq and also no mute mics button on the ipad app? is this a setting you can change or is it set in stone? also have has anyone had any sucess using the spectrom analyzer to eq the room? I wish they would enable a 31 band eq for non line 6 speakers..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thats awesome. i would love to see what your scene's look like. anychance of attaching a back of of your scene so i can poke around and see how other people have been building and tweaking?

I have had the M20d for about 2 1/2 months....and have had about 6 or 7 gigs using it....starting with the week i got it.  I have been told on numerous occasions at different small venues how it was the best sound they have heard in each one.  I deep tweak alot but i think that is a matter of preference more than anything. Mostly for eq and global effects...makes me think i am doing alot more than i really am... lol...anyway not only is the live sound fantastic but the recordings have been equally as good. And when i mix them in Cubase well its a really really satisfying experience. I do alot of "jam" nites where band members and instruments change frequently and the board makes that process go a whole lot easier and faster....and as the band members have been known to say that board is almost "mark proof."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first experience with the M20D was good, but a bit of a rough start. The drummer and I showed up early and played around with the settings. I play bass and do lots of vocals. We got a great kick sound and a good bass sound to compliment it. Not too hard, and not much time put on. Probably our best kick sound to date! I used the male vocal preset with reverb. I then tweaked around and played with effects. We got a decent sound. As I mentioned before, I moved from the Studiolive 16.4.2 to the M20D. Mostly for size. I was going to go with the 16.0.2 but decided to give the M20D a shot because I like the technology. So although we did get a better kick sound (due to the fact I think that we don't run gear, and have probably never used a compressor properly, or even got the frequencies quite right), but were able to quickly dial this in. The vocals sounded good too, but not really any better than with the studiolive. We have received many compliments, as a user stated above, on crisp, and clean vocal sounds with our 16.4.2. I then set up our lead vocalist with the "female with reverb" preset She wasnt there at the time, and as she usually shows up about 20min before we start, she also wasn't present for a decent sound check. But I quickly dialled in her acoustic guitar (very good sound and fast!) and her voice. Done. 10min break. First song starts. Not enough vocal once the stage volume all kicked in so i turn them up. And then it happens. Feedback and pretty bad. Couldn't get rid of it. We use a DBX unit with filters set, and M20D feedback filters running. The vocals had to be reduced to a level that was too quiet to hear properly before the feedback stopped. and we aren't that loud of a band. I took off all effects and reverb but it was still there. I then remembered I used the vocal presets with reverb, so I quickly changed presets to vocals without reverb. And it was gone and we were able to get the vocals well on top again. And then, I was able to add some reverb from the global effects and even a bit of delay. And the rest of the night was awesome. It was one of those "panic modes" so I can't even say what it was, or if it was only front end, or monitors too. But in the end it was good. We have played that room a few times before this. It is lots of wood and carpet and always a good sound. Old pub style place. I don't know why this happened, but definitely seemed reverb related. And I wouldn't say it was a lot of reverb as I don't much care for too much reverb. Or delay.

 

Anyway, considering it was out of the box, and on the stage, it went pretty good. We also did it at this venue because we have always done well there and have quite a following in that end of town. So really, I don't think it would be remembered if you asked someone there.

 

One thing to mention that did impress me. It is an old pub, so old power. We had everything in one outlet on a power bar. The main power bar switch was tripped FOUR times that night. We didn't let it bother us as we discussed with management many times and told them it may be a problem. Anyway, when that happens with a studiolive, you get a few good pops when the board powers up again. IF it powers up again. The M20D takes about 20 seconds to completely get back up, but it does it silently. However it is set up internally, it is done right! No problems audio wise.

 

I will be using it in a two night gig this weekend again. I expect better results and a great night of sound. I can definitely see this board needing less and less work with each gig. But you know what would make it really great.....an app for the iPhone or iPod to control individual monitor mixes. My band misses that. They don't want to all go buy iPads. But the drummer plans to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We had our second show with the M20D. A much better experience. Actually, a very good experience. All went well. Our best kick sound ever has been with this mixer. Acoustic guitar is great too. And electric. Actually, all is good, but I did have to use the deep tweak on the vocals. I am sure the sweet spot is there somewhere in the XY plot, but it was a little quicker to do manually for the tone. Maybe because of all the things I was happy with on our previous mixer, was the vocals. We always got compliments on the clarity or those. But kick and bass I always struggled with.

 

We do a second show tonight at the same venue. And set up will be a breeze. Actually, should be non existent. Just power up and go!

 

Every show will only be easier. Now that we have a great starting point. We use a driverack PA+ so once we tune our system to whatever room we are in (most of them are saved already) I expect quick and easy sound check.

 

Thank you Line 6!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I apologize for the typo. i was asking if anyone could send me a backup file of the m20d so i could review the custom configurations.  when you go to system setup you can back up your scenes. if you could send it to bassforlife2008@gmail.com that would be really exciting for me to get a feel on how other people are using the m20d

bassforlife 2013:

 

not sure what you are requesting but if you explain further i will try to oblige

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...