Peavey RQ2318 - patching at the desk

[S&L]

So,

I have a new toy and have been playing with it to see what it can do before I take it out for a spin. with one upcoming gig I have a couple of problems that I usually solve with a patch bay but today curiosity got the better of me again and I wondered if there was a way I could do it with the desk alone....here are the issues:

1. vocal mic - I sometimes patch lead vocal mic to two channels, by hitting both mute buttons simultaniously one channel switches off and the other switches on. this lets me set up differing levels of reverb, foh volume, monitor volume etc, usually for a speaking voice between songs. the singing channel lately has had an insert to a vocal eq unit. today itried plugging the mic into the XLR conn of the singing channel and because I was playing around I patched from the jack IN on that channel to the jack IN of the second speaking channel. result seems to give me what I want and seems to use the jack IN as a jack out...there must be a reason why I can't do this but sat here with small reference speakers it seems to work absolutely fine!... so I am asking those with much more knowledge than me...why is this not a good idea?

 

2. for one band I am running 3 monitor lines out of the desk - 2 to front of stage monitors and a third to the drum and keyboard position. the band want 2 front of stage monitors with the same mix so in the past I have taken one line from one aux send and split it in patch bay before going to 2 amp channels and on to 2 monitors. the second aux send goes straight to the keyboard/drum active monitor where they mix in a click track at the monitor. again playing around on the above desk I find that I can get a duplicate of the aux send signal (MON1 on this desk) by plugging one monitor channel into the send XLR and the other into the send jack... never, ever done this before but again signal level coming off the desk seems fine...why can't I do this?

 

the two above 'dodges' mean I wouldn't need a patch bay or other method of splitting but more importantly it simplifies the cabling and makes set up faster

[TimmyP1955]

If it's working for you (everything is noise and distortion free) I don't see any problems with what you are doing.

 

Check your amp: Many have a switch that connects the two inputs together so that a wye or two input cables are not needed (but don't confuse this with the Bridged Mono switch - although you can use that IF you reverse the polarity of the speaker connection on channel 2).

[S&L]

If it's working for you (everything is noise and distortion free) I don't see any problems with what you are doing.

 

Check your amp: Many have a switch that connects the two inputs together so that a wye or two input cables are not needed (but don't confuse this with the Bridged Mono switch - although you can use that IF you reverse the polarity of the speaker connection on channel 2).

 

yeah it does seem to be working for me. with the vocal patch in fairness I have put the patch out to a channel with seperate line and mic gain, patched into the line and had to lift the gain quite a bit to get a tgood signal strength but it seem to work fine. re the double mono mode on the amp my FOH EPQ amp has that facility but the monitor amp is pretty basic and doesn't have mono switching or bridge mode. I have a couple of weeks before I try it in anger but I at least have the comfort of patching the old way if it doesn't work out

 

I

[jamesperrett]

With the vocal mic issue, whether it works or not depends very much on the design of the desk. If I was doing this, I would make a short insert 'sniffer' lead which connects the send and return together and also takes the output from the insert to the line in of the second channel. Of course, this works best if the insert is pre-eq.

 

As far as the monitor is concerned - you are just doing the same thing in the desk as you were doing with the patchbay by creating a passive split. Provided your amps don't have a ludicrously low input impedance it will work fine.

 

James.

[MarkPAman]

From the looks of the schematic, the jack out is unbalanced, which may mean you pick up more noise on that line & it may also be a different level. :unsure:

[S&L]

From the looks of the schematic, the jack out is unbalanced, which may mean you pick up more noise on that line & it may also be a different level. :unsure:

Thanks for the input guys re output, the output is lower but seems to have no noise issues, though I have only tested it in a small room and with headphones - we will see if a large PA picks up noise! re James comment of using the insert - I'm using the insert for a vocal unit as per my original post - are we saying that we can take a feed off the send of the insert without losing signal on that send?

[jamesperrett]

are we saying that we can take a feed off the send of the insert without losing signal on that send?

 

Yes - but it sounds like you will need to make up a very unusual cable if you want to take a feed to another channel AND use the effects processor at the same time. Mind you, if you are using the effect processor on only one channel, just plug the mic into the other channel and link from that channel to the channel with the processor.

 

James.

[S&L]

are we saying that we can take a feed off the send of the insert without losing signal on that send?

 

Yes - but it sounds like you will need to make up a very unusual cable if you want to take a feed to another channel AND use the effects processor at the same time. Mind you, if you are using the effect processor on only one channel, just plug the mic into the other channel and link from that channel to the channel with the processor.

 

James.

 

 

ooh now there's a thought