Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jeffrey l jones]

If I decided to bridge my FOH amps (1) for tops (1) for subs, I'll only need to use one (1) main slider. Say the LEFT slider. Do I then pan all Mic channels,DI boxes ect to the LEFT?
Also, what about the RCA stereo channels at the end of my board I use for playback music between sets? I have (2) set of RCA channels like that. Can I put Red RCA in red left then pan left, Then put White RCA in next channel red left , then pan left? Would that get my stereo playback at least back to where I can hear the FULL song? You know 1/2 of it missing?

[Jeff Bankston]

pan left or right and use the corresponding main out slider. plug a Y cable into your music playback device and plug it into the jack of the side you are using. thats what i do. I have 1 main out and i use 1 main out fader.

[Tim Halligan]

Alternatively, you could mix in stereo, then Y-cord your main outputs so the amps see a single input, but you have the option of making stereo board tapes from your alternate output when required.

HTH

Cheers,
Tim

[Luke Geis]

I say it depends on the mixer and it's channel stereo bussing type. Some mixers ( most actually, but not all ) use a gain blending pan pot. As you pan it more to one side or the other it will increase gain to " make up " for the lack of apparent gain as to when the two channels are summed to mono. You don't notice the increase in gain as much when amplified through a stereo system, but in a mono one you can hear the channel get louder as you pan it to the side that is being amplified. Not a big deal, but you may find that eat up more headroom sooner panning everything to one side, simply because of that make up gain.

Now as to summing a stereo music feed into mono, the best way I have found is to use multiple channels. If you have two stereo music sources, you will need 4 channels. All of them can be panned up the middle if you use the L / Mono input on the stereo inputs.

As to the amps, yes you are correct except one thing. If you set the amps up in bridge mono mode, one half of the amp will be out of phase, so you must connect the speakers correctly to accommodate that. That is, you must connect the output of the amp to both the red terminals with channel one typically being the positive side of the bridge connection. The speakers will be connected in parallel being sure that the total load does not go below 4 ohms. If you are going to connect two speakers to the same amp not using a special connector, then you will have to reverse the connection to the second channel of the amp by flipping pin 1 and 2. If you don;e understand what I mean let me clarify:

1. A bridge mono amp setting inverts the polarity of its second channel to make its red terminal negative in relation to the first channel.

2. When you connect a speaker to a bridge mono amp, you connect the positive terminal to channel one and the negative terminal to channel two.

3. Some, not all amps, will convert the terminals for you, so you do not need a special connector to make a bridge connection. If your amp does not do this you either have to connect the wires directly, or use a connector that has the speaker wires connected to the proper terminals ( easiest done with a Banana to speak-on connector wired appropriately ). Most ( again not all ) amps have all 4 pin connections off the channel ones NL4 output, in which case you would then wire pin 1 to 1 and pin 3 to pin 2 at the speaker end. Refer to your amps manual.

4. If you run an amp in bridge mono and intend to connect two speakers ( one on each channel of the amp ), then you need to invert the polarity of the speaker connected to the amps second channel to have be in phase again. Remember channel 2 of the amp is inverted when in bridge mono mode.

If you run the amp in bridge mono, you will not need a Y cable, as the input seen on channel one will feed both channels. You could simply chain the channel one through output to the next amp. I would leave the channels center panned to make recording and live audio work more seamlessly.

[Kevin Graf]

Is your wye two outputs into one input or one output into two inputs?

[Ivan Beaver]

Alternatively, you could mix in stereo, then Y-cord your main outputs so the amps see a single input, but you have the option of making stereo board tapes from your alternate output when required.

HTH

Cheers,
Tim

No no no

Do not do this

Due to the loading from the other channel you will get distortion and possibly damage the output of the console

You y to split with no problems but never ever y to combine signals

[Jamin Lynch]

What's the reason for bridging your amps?

What do you hope to accomplish?

[Steve Loewenthal]

Radial makes a direct box that will sum the left + right output from your music device into a single channel. The output from the direct box then goes to your mixer and only uses 1 channel.

[Andrew Henderson]

Also, what about the RCA stereo channels at the end of my board I use for playback music between sets? I have (2) set of RCA channels like that. Can I put Red RCA in red left then pan left, Then put White RCA in next channel red left , then pan left? Would that get my stereo playback at least back to where I can hear the FULL song? You know 1/2 of it missing?

FYI: the white RCA jack is left, red is right.

+1 for Ivan, for NOT summing left and right signals with a regular Y(wye)-cable. Not from your MP3 player and not from your mixer.

Just use 2 channels for the iPod, and one output from the mixer.

[Tim McCulloch]

What's the reason for bridging your amps?

What do you hope to accomplish?

Small amp syndrome?  He's afraid he's not as big as he needs to be? /satire

[ProSoundWeb Community]