My last essay contained pet peeves about small-event PA systems. This follow-up features my first experience of actually setting up and running a PA system. It was my tennis club’s Christmas party, with about 70 or so people attending. The venue was my village clubhouse, a 30m x 30m x 5m room with a mix of concrete, glass, wood, and fabric surfaces.
My aging knees and back necessitated packing up and loading all the gear into my car the day before to avoid fatigue, soreness, and injury. The party was scheduled for 6pm. I arrived to set up at 1:30pm together with the caterer and decorations group. The tennis club ballboys were already there, and helped me carry the gear from the car to the room. First task was to put down equipment where they would sit. Speakers in front of the small stage and dance floor, and control equipment in the back. This was followed by laying down cables and wires between equipment. While I had more than enough signal cables, I didn’t have enough AC extension cords to plug in everything. One 40m #12 royal cord reel, one 10m #14 reel, and a couple of 5m #16 extensions was not enough. I needed to borrow one more 10m #16 extension from the venue electrician. Next time I’ll have to get a couple for 10m extensions to avoid having to borrow anything.
The entire system was composed of three parts. First was control center. It pivots around my 20-year old Behringer Eurorack MX 802A mixer. Not the quietest, but it gets the job done. My small rack has four units bolted in. It starts with a pair of Sennheiser EW300 G4 wireless receivers I got during the pandemic for online teaching. Under that is a DBX 266xs compressor, also acquired for online teaching because the audio snob in me felt the Zoom compressor wasn’t good enough. Next is a Behringer DEQ2496 digital signal processor. This has among other things, a real time analyzer, graphic and parametric eq’s, and a host of other processing goodies. I got this recently at a closeout sale for its Auto-EQ system, which sends pink noise to the speakers, measures it, then automatically adjusts the graphic equalizer to achieve flat frequency response. While this is a standard practice for large sound reinforcement systems, I have yet to encounter this in a small party setup. A Behringer CX-2310 active crossover sits unused in the bottom of the rack because I got it for an earlier incarnation of my setup. For effects, I used my Alesis Microverb II which date back with me to the 1980s. The music source was my old MacBook Pro. Finally, a 5G wireless internet modem was there to provide online access to Spotify playlists and YouTube music.
The second part was on stage. This begins with a pair of Shure Beta57a mics with Sennheiser SKP100 plug-on transmitters. I chose these out of my mic collection because it has a nice clear top end, and controlled proximity effect. I also put together a karaoke podium made up of an online iPad connected to a YouTube karaoke channel and an OnStage DB-2150 usb direct injection box. This was for karaoke singers, and dancers to wanted to follow YouTube choreography.
The third part were speakers. I chose a pair of Mackie Thump210 active speakers for two reasons. 1) The larger and more powerful 12” version from this same model line sounded a bit muddy. 2) It was just below the weight limit that I could carry, given my aging knees and back. With everything plugged into AC, the system powered up without problems. I then ran the RTA-AutoEQ on the DSP to even out the frequency response, and did a minor touch up with parametric EQ to taste.
One of the main issues I’ve had with other PA systems is that they are often too loud. To ascertain what my system was really putting out, I used a sound level meter at the controller position in the back of the room to constantly measure loudness. And to make sure it stayed within sane levels, I set the program compressor to stay below a 90dBc ceiling. At certain points of the program, the partygoers got quite loud while cheering, jeering, and laughing. It was tempting to increase the loudness just to remain above the crowd noise. But I resisted because I thought it might just result in endless escalation. So I stayed within my preset loudness ceiling, anyway these were merely momentary outbursts which returned to normal crowd levels quickly, and both MC and music levels remained audible and were not drowned out for long.
I ran into only two problems. First involved the MC. She complained she could not hear herself, and began shouting into the mic. This was understandable because the “stage” area was behind the speakers, and I didn’t have stage monitors. I set it up this way to avoid feedback. But it turns out the system was rather forgiving for two main reasons. First, my mics were supercardioids, which have a relatively narrow polar pattern and reject anything that’s not right smack in front of it. Second, the speakers were set about 2 meters high, which it higher than anyone in the party. So I identified a zone where she could roam in between and slightly ahead, but not directly in front of the speakers. Problem solved. The second problem was with the reverb unit that was to be used for one number only. I had it on a pre-fader send and an efx return in the mixer. It was very tricky finding the point where one could hear the effect but below feedback. And when I inadvertently left it on after that number, a persistent hum lingered. It took about half a minute (which is an eternity when something like this happens) for me to spot the problem. I don’t know if the problem was in the way the reverb was hooked up, or set up, or whether the unit itself is malfunctioning. Whatever, I’ll have to experiment with this at home to find a permanent solution.
The formal program ended at 11pm, and although some people stayed to chill and drink, I started packing up shortly after. A number of members kept coming to me asking them if they could help, but packing up involves its own set of skills and procedures. So I just thanked them and said I’d call when everything was ready for carrying to my car. One member though is a photo/video supplier, and he more or less knew the process. His help cut disassembly time in half. With everything packed into their bags and cases, the ballboys helped carry stuff back to the car. I was tired and sleepy when I got home, and put off unloading everything for the next day.
Going forward, I have absolutely no plans of making this a career or business. My knees and back can't take it, and I have no desire to deal with fussy clients. This will strictly be for family and close friends, and only if they will provide roadies. I wanted to prove to myself that clean, clear PA system sound is attainable with the right equipment, approach, and technique. One gig does not make me an expert. But at the very least, as they say in Filipino, may kaunting karapatan na akong magpuna at magpintas.
