[buckaroobanzai]

OK, David, thread-hijacking aside, I thought I'd sum up as the relevant information is spread over several posts.

You don't want to run everything in mono because your 3 speakers will blow the amp up in mono.

You need to split your monitor out signal with a Y cable ( a MONO Y Cable) to get the single signal from your mixer into both channels of the amp.

Connect 1 monitor to one channel of the amp and 2 monitors to the other channel.

300 watts is plenty to drive 3 monitors in a club setting, especially if you're mostly monitoring vocals. I'll be surprised if you need to go much above half-way on the volume controls of the Alesis.

Remember, you also need to fool around with your mixer's monitor mix controls to feed the correct amount of the various mixer channels into the mixer's Monitor Out jack. There should be a knob on each channel strip called MONITOR or something similar - that knob controls how much of that channel ends up in the monitor mix. Most mixers also have a monitor MASTER control that controls the final level of signal coming out of the MONITOR OUT jack.

For example, when we play small clubs, I run a 6-channel Yamaha powered mixer which drives 2 speakers-on-sticks at 200 watts each. This mixer also has a single MONITOR OUT jack which I feed thru a Y cable into a Yamaha stereo power amp which outputs 75 watts per channel. 2 monitors come off one side of the power amp and are placed at the front of the stage for the vocalists. The other side of the power amp runs a single monitor for the drummer.

On the mic channels of the mixer ( usually we run 3 mics for vocals, a mic on the kick drum and sometimes we run an acoustic guitar thru another channel), I set the MONITOR controls on the mic channels at around 4 or 5 and the monitor master control at 7. This feeds enough vocals into the monitors that everyone can hear themselves. The monitor controls on the kick drum channel and the acoustic guitar channel are set to 0 so none of those signals get into the monitors.
Both volume controls on the Yamaha power amp are generally set between 5 and 7 and left alone. If EVERYONE says they can't hear themselves, I adjust the volume of the monitors with the MONITOR OUT control on the Yamaha mixer. If ONE person says they can't hear themselves, I turn up just the MONITOR control on THEIR mic channel.

Should work pretty similar with your setup.

If I wasn't already booked, I'd drop by your show at the Congress this weekend and confuse you further, but alas I have prior commitments.

Rock On!

 

[david henman]

Hi David,
You don't want to bridge the amp mono. You will be running a 3.3Ohm load if you do, and the amp won't take it. You should have 2 monitors on one side of the amp and one on the other and the switch should be set to stereo mode.
It will run your monitors, but you won't have allot of volume or headroom, so try not to be clipping the amp all of the time as it is bad for the speakers and the amp.

...i have been wondering if this amp will have enough clean headroom. i have it on a 30-day trial.

-dh

 

[david henman]

If I wasn't already booked, I'd drop by your show at the Congress this weekend and confuse you further, but alas I have prior commitments. Rock On!

...thanks, bro'.

i haven't heard back from alesis, but the consensus here and among a couple of tech friends seems to indicate that i should run it in stereo.

have to dig into my collection of patch cables for a "Y" adaptor...

-dh

 

[Hamm Guitars]

...i have been wondering if this amp will have enough clean headroom. i have it on a 30-day trial.

-dh

Hi David,

300 Watts is not really that much power to be honest with you. If you are looking at used gear that is going rather cheap, I would say you shoud grab an AudioPro AP3000 or something along those lines. They are cheap power and allthough allot of pro audio guys may shudder at the mear mention of the name, are quite reliable. It is always better to have more power than you need as you will have the headroom and clarity that you are after.

In my experience, more speakers are damaged from being under powered and driving the snot out of the amp (we are talking transistor amps here) to get the volume you are after than are blown from simply having too much power (unless of course you like the sound of over-excurting speakers).

Headroom is where it's at with solid state audio amps, you don't want distortion and you want dynamic range. Underpowered monitors, have the tendancy to loose their dynamic range and kind of have an on/off effect - you'll get the "I can hear them sometimes" comments.

When I do sound, I always let the band play at what ever level they are comfortable with (within reason of course - this is not the norm though, as most of my peers like a real quiet stage), as long as the monitors can keep up and the stage volumes are proportionate (ie not one really loud guitar player and everyone else is quite). This usually translates into a better 'vibe' and the band allways seems to have more fun, which translates well to the audience. Low powered monitors means lower stage volumes, if you are comfortable with that then you may not have a problem with a 300 watt monitoring system.

But, 300 watts of monitoring could easily be drowned out with a 15 watt tube amp, or a heavy hitting drummer. Don't forget that your vocal mics will be picking up the stage sound as well, and the monitors are amplifiying this as along with your vocals.

 

[david henman]

Hi David,
300 Watts is not really that much power to be honest with you.

...as i suspected. i'll return the alesis before the 30-day trial period is up.

i am looking at picking up a Mackie Tapco J800 for about $335.

-dh