Topic: Brickwalling

[nihilistic0]

I have always used the 69hz roll off > line in with my sp-cmc-8's. Never had any problem with brickwalling, maybe I'm just lucky?

/ R.

Most shows dont have enough bass to cause brickwalling.  Ive taped sp-cmc-4 > SP-SPSB-1 (no rolloff) And have experienced distortion only one time.  Taped tool, but there was a ridiculous amount of bass, causing said distortion.

[George]

I'm not sure how effective bass roll off is in combating distortion.  I think its just the mics can't handle the high spl's and your better off getting them modded from phantom power.  It's a well known problem with the sp-cmc-4's at least.

[easy jim]

I'm not sure how effective bass roll off is in combating distortion.  I think its just the mics can't handle the high spl's and your better off getting them modded from phantom power.  It's a well known problem with the sp-cmc-4's at least.

I would have to agree with the above Val.  If the spl's are too high for the mics, there is not much you can do about that, whether the bass was too dominant in the mix or not. 

I've found the Sound Prof's mics to already be really bright sounding, so I have never used the bass roll off options on my batt. box.  In fact, some of the nicest sounding tapes I've made with my Sound Prof's rig were incredibly loud shows with tons of bass (like a tape I made of Rush, not exactly a quiet band by any means, from the 2nd row in the 100s section at Shorline directly in front of one of the stacks).

But, on the other side of that, any engineer pushing out enough spl's from a system like that indoors to go over anything like 105 db should find a new career.  Too many engineers are either going deaf or suffering quite a bit of hearing loss, and that is often compounded by heavy duty earplugs which make them want to pump the gain even more to hear enough detail through their earplugs to mix properly. 

You should have been OK running line in with cmc8s through a batt box under any normal circumstance since the mics should be able to take spl's of 125 db when plugged through the batt box.  If the engineer had the system putting out more than 125 db, he should probably be sued for negligence (just like the Who was sued back in the 80s) for creating an environment that could cause excessive hearing damage.  From your description of how the sound made you feel, It is possible he was pushing it that high but not likely. More likely is that he had things around the 110 db threshold for the mics without the batt. box and that your battery is low or failing and thus not giving the mics enough power to handle the higher spl's.

How long has it been since you changed the battery in your battery box?

[Josephine]

Hi James ~ Thanks for chiming in.  I appreciate all the info here. 

You know, it had been such a long time since I'd last used that battery box that I put a fresh one in for this show, so that wasn't the problem.  From what you've said, I'm wondering if my problems weren't just the result of running with my levels too high. 

I just transferred the show this afternoon.  Am looking at it now in Sound Forge.  Though it does seem to get better later in the show, the first part looks like one gigantic clip.   

I've played around with a couple of the suggestions above . . . looks like the "smooth" plug-in might be my best option. 
BUT . . . I'm still open for suggestions (desparate is more like it). 

[easy jim]

Well, maybe you are right then, and your levels were just too high.  We've all done that.  Good luck with the digital editing; I'm definitely more of a newbie with using the computer and cannot offer much help there.

If it were one of mine, I would probably try using a graphic EQ to start out and eliminate the low end frequencies one at a time to see if you can isolate which frequencies might be adjusted to create an EQ curve that will make a better sounding tape.