Trying to setup...

[wogster]

We have a rather ancient sound system, I inherited from different people playing with it, with nobody looking after it. As is typical, different people have twiddled buttons on it, until nothing works right anymore.

The sanctuary seats about 250 people, it's basically a slightly rectangular box, with a peaked ceiling and a balcony that no longer is used for safety reasons.

One thing we have is a Rolls RP252 Compressor/Limiter/Gate. Anyone have any idea of where I should set it, to start with, right now it's deactivated.

The controls on this thing are:
Threshold (040db - +10db);
Ratio (2:1 - infinity:1)
Attack (10ms - 1ms)
Release (5sec - .5sec)
Level ( -30db - +2-db)
Gate Threshold (-30db - +4db and off)
Gate Release (slow-fast)

This is duplicated for channel one and two.

The instruction book is a whole 4 pages, and one of those is a schematic..
We are using this for live use only, but would like to add recording later on....

Any idea of where to start, and should both channels be set the same for stereo???

If it helps I'll go back to the church, open up the cabinet and write down the current settings.

[Frank DeWitt]

I would start with the Compressor/Limiter/Gate off or bypassed until you have the other parts of the system figured out and working right. It is a tweek. It can make things better and it can be useful but it is not the place to start. and you should be able to get good sound without it.

Frank

[wogster]

Originally Posted by Frank DeWitt

I would start with the Compressor/Limiter/Gate off or bypassed until you have the other parts of the system figured out and working right. It is a tweek. It can make things better and it can be useful but it is not the place to start. and you should be able to get good sound without it.

Frank

I forgot a couple of things initially, we don't have a worship band, we have a digital piano, that has it's own speaker setup and 2-3 singers out of a pool of about 5 singers, that range from to and one that I don't even turn the microphone on, they don't need it. The most important issue is spoken word, and keeping the singers over the congregation.

Other then the EQ and C/L/G everything is working okay. I think the EQ I will set with a gentle curve below at both ends and boosted a little from 1K to 4K so that voices come out on top. I want to lower the main amp level, because that would allow me to run the board a little hotter, but that's about it. The monitors are not working at the moment, but I need to have a look at the wiring, before I play with those. Not sure if there is an amp somewhere for those, they did some construction over the summer, and the monitor speakers were working before and they are not now....

Basically I am looking for some basic settings for the C/L/G to start with, then I can fine tune later.

[paac]

Although you can't really give settings for the compressor/limiter/gate, I guess the first thing one would need to know is what you are really trying to acomplish with that piece of equipment. Are you just trying to control the volume of the signal, are wanting to prevent lower level signals from passing through the unit, are you trying to eliminate strong peaks or a combination of the above?

[wogster]

Originally Posted by paac

Although you can't really give settings for the compressor/limiter/gate, I guess the first thing one would need to know is what you are really trying to acomplish with that piece of equipment. Are you just trying to control the volume of the signal, are wanting to prevent lower level signals from passing through the unit, are you trying to eliminate strong peaks or a combination of the above?

Mostly wanting to eliminate strong peaks, by compressing them into what the rest of the equipment can handle and dropping out the noise floor when nobody is speaking or singing.

[Brad Weber]

Originally Posted by wogster

Mostly wanting to eliminate strong peaks, by compressing them into what the rest of the equipment can handle and dropping out the noise floor when nobody is speaking or singing.

There really need to be some basics addressed first, from where the unit is in the signal chain to factors such as gain structure. I agree with Frank that I would tend to get the rest of the system optimized before worrying about the comp/limiter. And unless it is being used as a system limiter to protect the amplifier and speakers then I might also consider applying it to specific inputs or maybe Groups rather than to the overall output.

[wogster]

Originally Posted by Brad Weber

There really need to be some basics addressed first, from where the unit is in the signal chain to factors such as gain structure. I agree with Frank that I would tend to get the rest of the system optimized before worrying about the comp/limiter. And unless it is being used as a system limiter to protect the amplifier and speakers then I might also consider applying it to specific inputs or maybe Groups rather than to the overall output.

AFAIK, it's a pain to get at the cabling to check anything, but it looks like it goes from the board into an equalizer and then into the compressor, but knowing the way other things get done in the area, they probably did that the other way around.

You guys are probably right, set up as a limiter might be an idea, the speakers are rather elderly so I might set the threshold to max, the ratio to infinity, then go with a fast attack and slow release. Turning down the threshold until it starts sounding weird, then bump it back up.