Proper way to hook GNX4 to church audio board?

Pullmanite

Guys, I am sure the answer has been said here many times, and I've read through several posts here to try to get an answer, to no avail.

Anyone care to help a brother out?

I'm playing a PRS with tone and volume at 10 into my guitar input. Output is XLR into a DA set to line level, then running into an audio board, supposedly with the gain set to line level in.

Well, the complaints I get from the audio guys is that my audio level is low and yet horribly overmodulated. Naturally, I'm getting the age-old \"sounds great in my headphones but lousy output to everything else\" syndrome.

I'm also going to a powered speaker for my monitor and both the XLR and 1/4\" TRS are set to halfway or 12 o'clock on the GNX4. I get the same thing on the powered speaker... low levels but overmodulated.

I guess my next plan of attack is to try to go directly into a small audio board so I set my output levels from the GNX4, or record and bring into Audition to get a visual on what I'm hearing.

Any input from anyone here doing my kind of setup would be greatly appreciated.

I've read through guitar3456's posts but am wondering what to do for a guy who uses the GNX4 almost entirely live into an audio board, then to our amps and main speakers. :oops:

partch

That's exactly how I do it and I have plenty of level & my comments are that it sounds awsome. Now I feed directly out the XLR into the Ballanced Line in I do not go thru a DA?? My monitor is out the 1/4 into a Valve JR that drives an Emminence Mod 12 Monitor. This sounds great as well!! Sometimes a tad bright BUT I can easily EQ that. I have also set my patches for Live up by decreacing Levels & gains. But it sounds like to me you are not getting enough level?? Why not go directly out XLR to the Balanced input of the board? Hope you get it figured out bro!! Rock on for Jesus He is the Rock 8)

P.S. Make sure Speaker comp is on pushed in. I always leave mine on seems to work better for me that way?

Pullmanite

Thanks for the quick reply. I might go ahead and bypass the DI box (sorry, I said DA earlier) and see if that helps.

I've had speaker comp OFF... I'll try that as well.

Where do you have your output level set to (the XLR out)?

Maybe as a side issue, do you ever use the acoustic effect #51? It sounds absolutely terrible on my GNX4... I've tried two different guitars and I get a ton of line noise hiss that the gate cuts off when I don't play, but is really loud and annoying when I do. I sent my GNX4 in to have some stuff fixed by the Digitech tech support and they said after replacing a bad IC chip, everything checked out fine. Does anyone get a clean sound from their GNX4 when using that effect?

Right there with you on Jesus is the Rock!

agelessrocker

The acoustic preset sounds good if you engage the speaker compensation switches on the back of the unit. Without them pressed it is a bit noisy

Pullmanite

Well, I'll play around with the board tonight and see how it all goes.

scotthef

I run straight into the board from the XLR out. I had a GNX2 before and went into a DI box, but once I got my GNX4 I skipped the DI and it works great. In fact I run the volume on the back of the GNX4 at about 50% and the sound guy still had to turn things down a bit, so there's no shortage of signal. In fact be sure that you aren't overdriving the board with too much from your GNX or you'll end up with clipping and that will sound terrible. I would also recommend having speaker comp on or you'll end up with a tinny weak tone that is unpleasant.

Scott

Pullmanite

Sorry, I just realized I placed this in the wrong forum. Mods, please move if necessary, but I may have already found my answer here: bypass the DI or check its input.

WOGS858

I go direct via the xlr with no DI box....NO PROBLEMS

Rock on like it says in
Psalm 33

Pullmanite

Thanks, everyone. Well, engaging speaker comp did wonders... I've tried that earlier but it never occurred to me that it could be why the cleaner tones sounded so bad. I did some practicing on my powered speakers, turned down some amp gain on my grittier presets, and that improved things a bit as well.

Now to see how things go this Sunday with bypassing the DI.

As an aside, for you worship players, what presets do you like to use, either default or ones you've downloaded?

WOGS858

I like to use eric johnson preset , solo preset and clean chorus. I believe they are all factory but could be wrong I've changed things soo many times.

scotthef

Lately I have been using a version of the \"VOXTOP\" preset that I have tweaked a bit. It sounds good when the delay is changed to produce a U2 Edge style delay. Sometimes I'll add some chorus or a Sparkle Drive for additional coloring. I can get a nice clean sound, and then a good bit of overdrive when I need some punch.

I think the GNX series are great for worship guitarists because you can get so many tones out of them for all types of songs and situations. I really like mine, and I have passed the word to our band, so now the other guitarists also play a GNX4 and an RP200.

Now if DigiTech would just get those Vista drivers out... ;-)

Scott

Pullmanite

Things went much better this Sunday, although I still need to work a bit with our sound crew. Bypassing the DI made the overmodulation even worse, so I need to work with them to see if they're padding the input properly. Ran through the DI and but with the speaker comp on and that seems to work very well.

Sure wish I had a personal ear monitor, though. My powered speaker sounded great when worship was quiet on stage but I couldn't hear myself at all on the louder stuff. I think I might have also gone a little overboard with reducing my amp gain and level for my crunch tones.

Anyway... thanks, everyone. You were all a big help!

WOGS858

Ck and see if they have the trim levels too high for you. It makes a hugh difference. The sound guy had the trim level too high for me so I sounded nasty :shock: and since I sounded nasty he turned me down. My son said I sounded \"really staticy\" so I listened from out there and it WAS nasty. He turned down the trim and AAAAAAAAAA like angels from heaven---- it sounded MOIST!!
CK it out


paul