Monitor Eq

[Bobbsy]

Seriously for a moment, one of the main functions of having graphic EQ on monitors is to allow you to notch out problem frequencies when you ring out the system to increase your gain before feedback. Then, during the show, if you hear the onset of feedback, you can grab the appropriate frequency and pull it down a bit. However, if you start with everything at the bottom of the range already, you lose the ability to do either of these things, nullifying a lot of the purpose of the EQ.

 

Beyond that, knocking down the gain (in notches) by 12-15dB, then (presumably) applying make-up gain immediately after this is NOT a good way to organise your gain staging and can't be good for your signal to noise ration. With gear the quality of BSS, this isn't likely as big an issue as it could be with cheaper EQs, but it's still a bass-ackwards way of doing things.

 

I'm afraid I stick with my first theory that this is just an op who doesn't know his job rather than some clever new trick.

 

Bob

[bruce]

Maybe he was getting really bad feedback and had to cut....ummm....everything.

 

Or maybe some fat bloke had been leaning against the rack. Notice how the shape of the faders on the bottom rack is approximately bum-shaped.

 

more seriously, was this photo taken during the gig, or just after the gear was unloaded?

[niall]

after! we were just starting to tidy up when I took it.

[Rowan]

This might sound a bit silly, but was this the mix used for the show, or did the engineer do this after the gig. I've seen a lot of engineers do strange things to the graphics after the gig, I can only assume it's so people don't about their skills.

[paulears]

We don't know why they were like this, we don't know if they were reset after the show, we don't know if they were actually in use. Er....... why are we even getting involved with this crystal ball type speculation?

[savman]

Maybe the Engineer had beer goggles on and thought they were faders!

Or maybe it was a practical joke...

 

I've never seen a Graphic set up like that. :blink:

[Bobbsy]

Indeed. If it was AFTER the show, it could be anything. Unless they were actually seen IN USE like this, we really don't know...perhaps the engineer just started to knock everything down for packing.

 

Shall we agree the following:

 

If this set up was actually used during the show, there was not good reason and shows bad practice.

 

If they weren't used like this, then the whole thread is meaningless...

 

...and now move on!

 

Bob

[andy_s]

I'm not going to speculate about the lovely pictures, but I have seen equally desperate curves on graphics at a venue I worked at - visiting sound engineer, two comics wearing what my non-soundy pal used to call "madonna mics", wandering all over the auditorium -said engineer desperate to avoid any possibility of feedback in a quite tricky venue pulled almost everything out of the house graphic. result? no one laughed at the jokes, as they were effectively watching a mime show.

[chris4monitors]

As a monitor engineer for the last 26 years I can definitly say that if these curves were used for the gig the guy is a serious A1 MUPPETT.

There would have been so many issues caused by such muppetry( gain stucture / phase coheation etc ) I dread to think how the band must have sounded.

[Trunker]

Having done a sound tech degree this looks like a job that was done by experienced know-it-alls. No sound would ever come out of these! I think that some one has told them about 'ringing out' the monitors to help with feedback and this is what they thought they had to do?!

[Bobbsy]

Time to close this one, methinks.

 

We can all agree that, if it was actually used this way, then is was muppet audio. However, since the photo was taken just prior to the load out, it's possible that these weren't the settings used for the show.

 

Enough speculation!

 

Bob