Live audio amp levels

[Bouke Vahl]

well, i often do broadcasts of live events, and most of the time i get a feed from the PA.

I always bring my own mixer just to amplify that signal, as it is always way too low, even when i get a feed from a seperate bus dedicated for me.

No idea why, but indeed it seems SOP to set the amps up high and use the main out of the mixer for volume control. I don’t get it at all, since that involves the risk of someone making a mistake and get the entire audience deaf, let alone i believe equipment performs best when levels are at a reasonable high level, way before the equipments overloads / clips.

Bouke

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[Kingsley Foreman]

We always ran amps at 100%, and made sure the sound wasn’t peaking at ether the crossover (Active System) or put a compressor in front of everything if we didn’t trust the mixer.

And just checked the amps for peaking while the gig was going