No sound from mixing desk

[musicmike5]

I have an ok knowledge about mixing etc but only if everything is set up for me! My knowledge of setting the equipment up is very limited! My band recently bought a mixing desk and speakers etc for use during practice and live. I read the whole instruction manual (a first for me!) but when I sing into a mic the sound is very weak and quite distorted (with all volumes set to maximum it is just audible)

 

I'm sure its something really obvious but I need some help!!!!!!

 

thanks in advance

[Andrew C]

A few quick thoughts:-

 

Have you plugged the mic into a jack socket or the (proper) XLR? Some mixers assume that a jack is at line level, whatever buttons are pressed.

 

Is the Pad or LINE button pressed?

 

What sort of mic, does it need phantom?

 

Does a CD or other line source work OK?

[Mr.Si]

What mixer do you have?

What have you plugged in and where?

[Ben Langfeld]

Also, are you running the outputs from the desk direct to unpowered speakers? I've never done this before (for obvious reasons) so I've no idea if it would even move the cones enough to be audible, but there's a possibility.

[musicmike5]

thanks

 

the mic is in the XLR and I have tried both with and without phantom!

 

I've also tried a guitar in the line input and that's a little better! but not good!

[Andrew C]

How about the headphone outputs?

 

And the question of an amp, whilst seeming daft...

[James]

you don't say what mixer you are using so apologies if this is vauge.

 

1 Turn down the main outputs and all the inputs.

2 Plug in your microphone into ch1's XLR

3 Press the PFL or SOLO button for ch1

4 Fade up the fader for ch1 to 0 (not the top)

5 Watching the main metering on the desk get someone to sing into the microphone at a normal level while you turn up the gain knob for ch1 - normaly at the top of the channel strip before you get to the XLR

6 When you see lights on the metering or the needle moving stop turning when the needle or lights get to 0dBu

7 Press the PFL or SOLO button for ch1 again to deselect it.

8 fade up your main outputs - you should now hear everything. If not, and you have levels on your metering there is a problem with the amplifier, speakers or their connections.

 

Hope this works - if it doesn't let us know what happens at each stage and we stand a better chance of diagnosing your problem.

 

James

[Lamplighter]

If all of the above suggestions don't solve the problem look for a button marked 2tk and check if it is pressed. On some mixers this button bypasses all the normal inputs and connects the 2 track input to the output instead.

Brian

[Simon Lyall]

assuming that your amplifies, speakers and cabling are correct then it could possibly be that somewhere you haven't routed your signal properly or you have muted your channel. Make sure the mute button isn't pressed in (sometimes they have an LED next to them which will light up when the channel is muted) also make sure that you have pressed the 'main' button in on that channel strip if your mixer has routing options. Also make sure that the gain (the knob usually at the top of the channel strip) as been turned clockwise.

 

hope this helps

 

Simon

[musicmike5]

Thanks so much for all ur suggestions!

 

Turns out the amp is dodgy which would explain the lack of sound! :P so I've ordered a new one and hopefully everything will work out fine! thanks again - I'll use some of ur tips if anythin should go wrong in the future!

 

I'm just glad I'm not going mad and its the amps fault!!!!!!