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[Josh Stevens]

Has anyone used PSM 1000s extensively? 
A few friends used them recently and complained about massive amounts of compression (all comp/limiting settings off) in the system. 
I once had an issue with a click track freaking out a 900 system until it was low passed.  Could this have been the issue?

Love the idea of diversity, but most of the people I work with are very picky about compression artifacts. 

Would love to hear opinions of those who have used them.

[TonyWilliams]

I did not have this issue, but a good friend of mine had this same issue. He said they could not figure out what was causing it. I passed it off as operator error, so it's interesting to hear another story of it.


- Tony Williams

[Adam Robinson]

I have had issues with my show file for one of my artists and the PSM1000.  My file was built and toured on Sennheiser G3 and 2000 systems and after a couple long runs, was something everyone on stage was extremely happy with, including me.  We had used 1000s for a couple one-offs and the mixes were weird, but we never were given the time to explore it, so we just got through it.  On a more recent one-off I was given the option of 1000s and accepted them since the provider could only otherwise provide Sennheiser G2 systems, and not enough of them.  We had a little more time on that one-off to explore the issues we encountered.  In sound check, we immediately noticed the compression issue, so we played around with the gain structure in the system and got it better, but never great.  The other strange thing we noticed was an issue with inputs that were what I call "Super Stereo."  The show utilizes a good deal of playback along with a large live band, so there are some verrry produced tracks in there that are in super duper stereo.  One particular track made us stop everything, as an acoustic guitar part (in super stereo) was either swishing around in our ears or cutting in and out.  It was at that point with all the weirdness we just decided to pause and make a change.  I ended up patching the G2s that the provider brought out for the openers, passing out packs to my artist and core band (and leaving some mixes on the 1000s), started back up, and it was like darkness had turned to light.  Smiles on all of their faces!  The mixes were perfect again. 

Now that's not to say all of my 1000 experiences have been bad.  To begin with, the RF stability has always been absolutely rock solid amazing.  The noise floor is equally as impressive.  I've had tours with other artists on the 1000s and 900s and had no issues at all - great mixes all around.  There was just something about the one where the Shure did not like what we were doing, but the three Sennheiser systems (G2, G3, 2000) had no issue.  I'd be very curious to recreate the issue in an environment where I can sit and work on variables for an extended period of time.  I plan on having both systems on hand for the next run of tour rehearsals so I can shake both out and find the issue.

[Karl Winkler]

Has anyone used PSM 1000s extensively? 
A few friends used them recently and complained about massive amounts of compression (all comp/limiting settings off) in the system. 
I once had an issue with a click track freaking out a 900 system until it was low passed.  Could this have been the issue?

Love the idea of diversity, but most of the people I work with are very picky about compression artifacts. 

Would love to hear opinions of those who have used them.

One thing to look at is the limiter. You may have already looked at this screen and made adjustments... but my experience with the 1000s is that they ship with a very aggressive limiter engaged, probably for hearing damage safety reasons. Raising the threshold makes a HUGE difference, and then they get quite loud, so be careful.

[Steve Bunting]

I have had these issues, with both PSM1000 and PSM900. After extensive research and e-mails with Shure, it's best practice to run the input to the units at -16 and run your console hotter to make up the level if necessary.

For some reason, if you increase the sensitivity by 8dB (or whatever) and reduce the output level of the console by the corresponding amount, it drives the compander harder, potentially causing tracking errors, causing your compression problems.

I tend to avoid Shure IEMs now if at all possible.

Has anyone used PSM 1000s extensively? 
A few friends used them recently and complained about massive amounts of compression (all comp/limiting settings off) in the system. 
I once had an issue with a click track freaking out a 900 system until it was low passed.  Could this have been the issue?

Love the idea of diversity, but most of the people I work with are very picky about compression artifacts. 

Would love to hear opinions of those who have used them.

[Chris Johnson [UK]]

This is a known issue with Shure IEMs.

You need to reduce the input sensitivity on the Tx units and drive the console harder.

Its very silly, and prevents me from speccing Shure IEMs for a lot of work

[Andrew Broughton]

One thing to look at is the limiter. You may have already looked at this screen and made adjustments... but my experience with the 1000s is that they ship with a very aggressive limiter engaged, probably for hearing damage safety reasons. Raising the threshold makes a HUGE difference, and then they get quite loud, so be careful.

I've used the PSM1000 a few times, and I've never seen any limiter settings on it, and neither did any of the techs that were setting up the system, who had used it much more than I.
There is a "Volume Limiter" for the receiver packs, but that just sets the max that you can set the volume knob. I thought there simply wasn't any limiters on that system, and there's nothing mentioned in the manual either.
Did we miss something? Have you seen an adjustment, Karl?

[Jens Palm Bacher]

Has anyone used PSM 1000s extensively? 
A few friends used them recently and complained about massive amounts of compression (all comp/limiting settings off) in the system. 
I once had an issue with a click track freaking out a 900 system until it was low passed.  Could this have been the issue?

Love the idea of diversity, but most of the people I work with are very picky about compression artifacts. 

Would love to hear opinions of those who have used them.

It's a "known" issue here, the stereo decoding and compander system does not respond well to clicktrack and other percussive sounds with hf content. There is a hardware mod for the beltpack that is supposed to fix some of the issues.
I have not heard that changing the input sensitivity in the transmitter should help, the danish Shure rep said that a band-aid fix was to turn on high-boost on the receivers and doing a opposite HF cut on the mixer, which would lower the amount of HF energy in the radio-chain.

[Jens Palm Bacher]

I've used the PSM1000 a few times, and I've never seen any limiter settings on it, and neither did any of the techs that were setting up the system, who had used it much more than I.

Remember that all FM systems need to have a limiter to prevent (illegal) overmodulation. The Shure transmitter compander looks something like this:

[Milt Hathaway]

The other strange thing we noticed was an issue with inputs that were what I call "Super Stereo."  The show utilizes a good deal of playback along with a large live band, so there are some verrry produced tracks in there that are in super duper stereo.  One particular track made us stop everything, as an acoustic guitar part (in super stereo) was either swishing around in our ears or cutting in and out.

I wonder if this is related to the need to notch 19khz out of the signal to avoid interference with the stereo multiplexing pilot tone? http://www.audibleworship.com/shureinearpilottone.pdf

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