Subwoofer setup/connection advice

dilithium85

Looking to buy a subwoofer for the kick drum to lift it in the mix. I thought of getting an active one so I can plug the kick drum mic straight to the speaker, bypassing the mixer. Is this the best way? If I did go through the mixer which output would I use as the mains are going to the two top speakers?
You guys have help me a lot lately and need your advice/assistance one more time! 

maltingsaudio

No do not put the mic straight into the speaker quickest way to blow it up! If you have space  on the mixer route the bass drum mic to the sub via an aux. If not and the tops of your system are active you can daisy chain the sub from one side of the mixer ie from the out of the mixer into the sub then out of the sub into the top. Bas tends to be mo o so won’t make any difference to what’s coming out the tops. If tops are passive you should find a through output on your amp

dilithium85

Tops are active. My desk is a mackie dfx6 if that helps with how to route it. Is there any reason it would blow it up? I know you can put a vocal mic straight in to a top

Roland

The first thing I’d be thinking about is getting the thump of the kick out of the tops. Even if it doesn’t blow them it will be taking power away from your vocals. @maltingsaudio will know best, but I’ve done this three ways. 

The first is to buy a sub with a crossover. So left and right go into the sub, and come out to the tops with the lower frequencies removed. The disadvantage of this is that the crossover frequency is often fixed. You might want to move it depending on how bright your kick is, and whether you’re putting bass through the PA.

The second is to do it in your mixer. High pass the tops, and low pass the Aux which goes to the sub. Unfortunately your Mackie can’t do this.

The third is to use a dedicated crossover. We’ve found this to be the most effective solution. It gives you control of the crossover point and the slope.

dilithium85

Roland said:

The first thing I’d be thinking about is getting the thump of the kick out of the tops. Even if it doesn’t blow them it will be taking power away from your vocals. @maltingsaudio will know best, but I’ve done this three ways. 

The first is to buy a sub with a crossover. So left and right go into the sub, and come out to the tops with the lower frequencies removed. The disadvantage of this is that the crossover frequency is often fixed. You might want to move it depending on how bright your kick is, and whether you’re putting bass through the PA.

The second is to do it in your mixer. High pass the tops, and low pass the Aux which goes to the sub. Unfortunately your Mackie can’t do this.

The third is to use a dedicated crossover. We’ve found this to be the most effective solution. It gives you control of the crossover point and the slope.

What kind of dedicated crossover would I need to do this? 

dilithium85

Also if the sub only has 1 input and thru, would I need the 2 outputs from desk to merge to one connector and then one connector going from the thru and split in to the tops? 

maltingsaudio

Right looking at the manual for the DLX I would suggest you feed the sub from the aux send which should be set to pre fader so the signal from the bass drum doesn't go into the main tops. That is the easiest way of running this . It does however mean that because the desk has only 2 auxes one of which is used for the on board effects that running a monitor would be tricky, however at a push the tape out of the desk could be used for monitor duties. This way the need for a crossover is removed.

With regards to @Roland points which are valid,  using the aux for the sub and it being sent pre fade the need to hi pass the tops is unneccesary as no bass drum signal would be going to them, I would run them full range and adjust the EQs and sub volume as necessary in the room.

If you wanted to add a crossover to the system you can get a cheap behringer one The CX2310 £89 at Andertons which will do the job, just make sure the one you buy has a mono sum for the sub. The signal chain is left and right from your desk into the crossover left and right high which will be in stereo go to the tops low in mono to your sub. The advantage of adding this is it leaves you an aux send free for your monitors

dilithium85

I can always buy a splitter box so the one aux send can be split in to two

dilithium85

Could I use a Di box for the kick drum mic to go in to before foing in to a sub? And bypass the mixer entirely 

Legionreturns

dilithium85 said:

Could I use a Di box for the kick drum mic to go in to before foing in to a sub? And bypass the mixer entirely 

In theory that could work, but the sound tech or whoever is running the desk would have absolutely no control over it, and the minute you've got a problem you're stuck fiddling in the dark with a little box on the floor. 

I'd definitely opt for either sub crossover or an aux channel just for ease of use. 

dilithium85

I'll put it through the aux and get a splitter so I  essentially have 3 aux channels.
I'm the tech as the mixer will be on top of my bass amp. We're not professional/good enough to hire someone! 

maltingsaudio

dilithium85 said:

I'll put it through the aux and get a splitter so I  essentially have 3 aux channels.
I'm the tech as the mixer will be on top of my bass amp. We're not professional/good enough to hire someone! 

Splitting the aux send with a splitter will only split what is on that aux send, so if you do use it purely for the bass drum then that will be split in the splitter box. If you add other channels to this aux send then they will appear in the sub, you can’t make a separate aux channel by splitting it once it’s left the desk.

dilithium85

One would be dedicated to the sub, the other aux (which would be split) would be for the floor monitors

Legionreturns

dilithium85 said:

One would be dedicated to the sub, the other aux (which would be split) would be for the floor monitors

If you're just using the same mix for both monitors, you don't need a splitter. Just use the through on your wedge 

dilithium85

Legionreturns said:

dilithium85 said:

One would be dedicated to the sub, the other aux (which would be split) would be for the floor monitors

If you're just using the same mix for both monitors, you don't need a splitter. Just use the through on your wedge 

Thanks for letting me know 

maltingsaudio

dilithium85 said:

Legionreturns said:

dilithium85 said:

One would be dedicated to the sub, the other aux (which would be split) would be for the floor monitors

If you're just using the same mix for both monitors, you don't need a splitter. Just use the through on your wedge 

Thanks for letting me know 

You do realise doing this with your desk means you’ll lose your effects? And both auxes will have to be set prefade 

dilithium85

Yeah I understand but If its between having extra monitors and a subwoofer or a bit of reverb, I'll choose the former. Most punters won't notice or care about some fx. Thanks for the heads up