Interesting 30m levels-setting advice from EV

[calvanesebob]

Facebook, Forums, YouTube, and the internet in general has a wealth of information, but there is also a wealth of misinformation, which makes if frustrating to get the right answer. That's why I wound up calling EV.

A sound engineer on YouTube uses the following saying, which I thought was funny, yet accurate...

"If you get 10 sound engineers in a room, and ask a question, you'll get 11 different answers".

[Chriscom]

The Evolve FB forums are extremely helpful, and necessary given the poorly documented user manuals. The signal to noise ratio is never going to be perfect there but I'd still be floundering around without them. I highly recommend them.

[calvanesebob]

Originally Posted by Chriscom

The Evolve FB forums are extremely helpful, and necessary given the poorly documented user manuals. The signal to noise ratio is never going to be perfect there but I'd still be floundering around without them. I highly recommend them.

I agree for the most part, but there are some people who claim to be sound engineers for xx number of years, and misinforming people.

A person asked about setting the gain level, and another person replied that the main level should always be set higher than the input levels, which is the opposite way to set the gain. Should always start at the source, and set each gain as high as possible without clipping to the next gain stage.

I even tried it his way, and my speakers were hissing, because I had to lower my preamp level so much, it was a mile away from clipping, which caused a very weak signal going into the main amp.

He told me I just had a dirty source signal... lol

I then told him I used the same source doing it both ways, but when I did it by setting the preamp level to just before clipping, then bringing the main level up to the desired volume, I didn't get any hiss.

He did not respond to that.

And it's not just the Facebook groups. It's forums, and YouTube as well. But for the most part, there is a lot of valuable & helpful information out there. But on the other hand, it only takes a few knuckle heads to confuse people.

[Nama Ensou]

Originally Posted by calvanesebob

...set each gain as high as possible without clipping to the next gain stage.

I thought that belonged to a certain grouping of knowledge, like the sun comes up in the morning, look both ways and never run from a bear. Too bad when people don't know something, but pretend they do. I've had other employees at work tell me that it was better to pretend than to tell a customer that they didn't know. Never crossed their mind to go check because in their rationale, making the customer wait for the right answer was worse than giving them the wrong answer.

[RogerPease]

Does the “Main” control vary the level at the “Mix Out” connection?
If it does then the “Speaker” control would be after the “Mix Out”.
The “Speaker” level would allow you change the level on stage while not
Impacting what is going to the desk via the “Mix Out”.
I assume the “Master” control knob is the same as the “Speaker” level.
If you’re not using the “Mix Out” then “Speaker” and “Main” are redundant.

If it doesn’t work this way then I have no idea.
I don’t own one of these so sorry if I’m off base.

Cheers, _RP

[jpino]

So what did we all decide? There’s more then one way to go about it (confusing)?

Am I right to set Speaker volume to 0, gain on the individual channels to around 75-80% before clipping, and then use the Main on the mixer page to adjust my volume for the venue?

[jjbigfly]

I have an EV 30M presently. I can say upfront that it does everything I need it to do and it sounds fine in every setting I have taken it to. I really do NOT need anything else.
Yes- this means that I will be looking around for a different system soon……..and I may not be the only one. Now to business…

Like many, I unboxed the EV 30M (forgot to make a video of how to open a box), plugged it in and fooled around until It made noise. It was later that I understood how to set the system correctly (I am a slow reader I guess). The secret to getting it set correctly is….wait for it…… proper gain staging. Like most ANY PA SYSTEM. I set the instrument input to clip a tiny bit, then turn it back slightly. Exactly the same for voice channel. THEN I reach for the volume…..works every time. You can get most any decent system to sound good by fooling around with the settings until you feel you get a good tone. This is the way I did it for years. But doing it “correctly” works the best and is very quick to do……

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by jpino

So what did we all decide? There’s more then one way to go about it (confusing)?

Am I right to set Speaker volume to 0, gain on the individual channels to around 75-80% before clipping, and then use the Main on the mixer page to adjust my volume for the venue?

Without going back and reading all four pages of this thread, what you're doing is fine. I think a big point of discussion and confusion was Speaker v. Main. I forget if it was mentioned here, but I now gather that the Speaker Volume does not affect the Mix Out or Aux Out XLRs on the back. It will, however and of course, increase the volume coming out of the PA. But keep doing what you're doing, I don't think you're missing any big Evolve secret.

What jj says as well makes sense. The esoteric-to-me discussion has been that these EVs don't have separate gain and volume levels per channel. Which would be nice. But yes, set what EV calls the channel Level until it clips (if it even does), then back off a touch.

The reason I've never bothered with the Volume on the Speaker page is that it's hard to fine tune even on my large smartphone, compared to the Level controls on Main and all the channels. And because I've never needed that last quantity of ommph from the Speaker. I'm mainly a solo acoustic guy at brewpubs and after a certain point don't do volume wars with my crowd.

[jpino]

Originally Posted by Chriscom

Without going back and reading all four pages of this thread, what you're doing is fine. I think a big point of discussion and confusion was Speaker v. Main. I forget if it was mentioned here, but I now gather that the Speaker Volume does not affect the Mix Out or Aux Out XLRs on the back. It will, however and of course, increase the volume coming out of the PA. But keep doing what you're doing, I don't think you're missing any big Evolve secret.

What jj says as well makes sense. The esoteric-to-me discussion has been that these EVs don't have separate gain and volume levels per channel. Which would be nice. But yes, set what EV calls the channel Level until it clips (if it even does), then back off a touch.

The reason I've never bothered with the Volume on the Speaker page is that it's hard to fine tune even on my large smartphone, compared to the Level controls on Main and all the channels. And because I've never needed that last quantity of ommph from the Speaker. I'm mainly a solo acoustic guy at brewpubs and after a certain point don't do volume wars with my crowd.

Thanks Chris, you’re the man!