Author Topic: My opinions of the DL's built in effects  (Read 8150 times)

Sir Krang

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My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« on: February 23, 2015, 04:35:37 AM »
I have a 5000watt QSC PA.
2xKsubs coupled together, 1xKW181, and 2xK12

(Monitor system is 5 x K10, and a cuppla cheap and cheerful Behringer eurolive B215's for drum monitor or whatever)

I've never been overly impressed by the reverb in my DL1608, but today I sat down in my shed for a cuppla hours and played with various stuff.
I don't do many gigs, so between gigs my PA becomes my man cave "stereo" which allows me to plug a mic in and try stuff whenever I feel like it.

Today I've dialled up some pretty decent vocal reverbs. No they ain't "Pro" quality, but they sound pretty good for small venue vocal verbs.
I've always just used the modern PEQ to EQ the FX. Never bothered with the vintage EQ until today, and have consequently discovered some pretty nice sounds.
It's almost like the "vintage" EQ has added a bit of warmth to the otherwise sterile sounding onboard effects.

I've never had a problem with the delay effects. I simply always use the "tape echo" and just EQ it slightly different for any given venue. But once again it's not a "Pro" quality effect, but perfectly usable for the kinds of gigs, and venues I do.

I really only wanted to throw my 2 cents into the mix. One of the most commonly disliked features of the DL series seems to be the onboard effects.
But after a few hours of experimentation I'm pretty happy with them, all things considered.

Cheers :)

RoadRanger

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2015, 04:43:54 AM »
Screen shots? :)

Sir Krang

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2015, 05:04:23 AM »
Screen shots? :)

Really?

Ok I'll take a couple and upload em later.

Sir Krang

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2015, 05:13:49 AM »



RoadRanger

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2015, 05:34:09 AM »
Which reverb "preset" did you start from? It'd be real helpful if you could read the number settings of the 4 sliders too. I actually documented all the presets early on, dunno if they are still the same?
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/dl1608/database

Sir Krang

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2015, 06:02:23 AM »
Which reverb "preset" did you start from? It'd be real helpful if you could read the number settings of the 4 sliders too. I actually documented all the presets early on, dunno if they are still the same?
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/dl1608/database
I don't know the preset, coz I simply played around with stuff for a cuppla hours.

Pre delay 15 ms
Damping 17.78 kHz
Decay 5.04 sec
Roll off 14.15 kHz

These are simply the settings I have in my man cave which is a medium sized shed with corrugated iron walls, carpeted concrete floor, 4.8m x 2.4m carpeted wooden stage, black drapes, some soft furniture, and no punters (SAU's)
I used a Shure SM58.

The PA was tuned the way I normally tune a PA and that is vocal channel flat, FOH tuned to what sounds crisp, clean, and clear with my voice through the SM58.
And the main volume and vocal channel set to unity volume.

The next gig I do will be in an entirely different sounding room so I'll need to tweak the reverb a little to suit..but at least I've got a nice sounding starting point

edit: the link you posted gives me this massage "Oops!
You need to be a member to perform this action"
« Last Edit: February 23, 2015, 06:05:57 AM by Sir Krang »

RoadRanger

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2015, 01:35:44 PM »
Yah, you'd have to join the DL1608 YahooGroup to see the databases. I'll have to import them here - here's the reverb presets:
NameTypePre DelayDampingDecayRolloff / Release
DrumGateGated Reverb0 ms3.03 kHz2.00 sec50 ms
Med PlatePlate6 ms12.69 kHz2.30 sec14.34 kHz
RockGateGated Reverb9 ms3.53 kHz3.00 sec134 ms
Spring2ItSpring15 ms20.00 kHz3.29 sec10.81 kHz
LrgRoom2Large Room9 ms16.34 kHz4.52 sec8.80 kHz
DefaultMedium Room0 ms20.00 kHz2.00 sec20.00 kHz
ShortPlatePlate18 ms20.00 kHz1.80 sec17.85 kHz
OpenHallHall0 ms20.00 kHz4.00 sec20.00 kHz
ClapGateGated Reverb9 ms20.00 kHz5.00 sec209 ms
ClosetAmbience6 ms3.14 kHz0.22 sec6.54 kHz
Sml RoomSmall Room12 ms20.00 kHz1.10 sec20.00 kHz
TheHallHall15 ms17.78 kHz5.04 sec14.15 kHz
Med RoomMedium Room12 ms12.48 kHz1.62 sec9.00 kHz
BiggestCathedral111 ms14.04 kHz7.24 sec13.23 kHz
Lrg RoomLarge Room6 ms16.34 kHz2.60 sec16.29 kHz
Sml StageAmbience12 ms3.14 kHz0.77 sec13.96 kHz
TightPlatePlate6 ms12.69 kHz1.28 sec9.09 kHz

Sir Krang

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2015, 01:51:13 PM »
Looks like the setting I've used before playing around with the EQ was "the hall"
It EQ'd up really well.

I'll use for this weekends gig :)

RoadRanger

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2015, 06:35:16 PM »
I think I'm using "TheHall" too, I'll have to give your EQ a try :) . Unfortunately with only one 'verb it gets shared between the vocals, horns, snare, and sometimes keys so dunno if that EQ will work well for all?

Wynnd

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #9 on: February 23, 2015, 09:28:45 PM »
You still have variance in the reverb sends from each channel.  I would think that might be good enough and you can also mix in some delay.

Sir Krang

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #10 on: February 24, 2015, 10:56:13 AM »
I think I'm using "TheHall" too, I'll have to give your EQ a try :) . Unfortunately with only one 'verb it gets shared between the vocals, horns, snare, and sometimes keys so dunno if that EQ will work well for all?
Most gigs I do have an electronic drum kit so no reverb needed except for vocals, and an occasional acoustic guitar.

I've never had more than 2 effects units in my rack for 25+ years, so I'm happy to live with the 2 in my DL.
More would be nice though.

And being "stuck" with only one reverb means I just EQ it to serve as general duty. Not ideal, but then none of my gigs/bands/venues are ideal either.
I don't use any FX at all in the big old echoey town halls I work in.

pytchley

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #11 on: February 24, 2015, 11:11:08 AM »
I think I'm using "TheHall" too, I'll have to give your EQ a try :) . Unfortunately with only one 'verb it gets shared between the vocals, horns, snare, and sometimes keys so dunno if that EQ will work well for all?
Most gigs I do have an electronic drum kit so no reverb needed except for vocals, and an occasional acoustic guitar.

I've never had more than 2 effects units in my rack for 25+ years, so I'm happy to live with the 2 in my DL.
More would be nice though.

And being "stuck" with only one reverb means I just EQ it to serve as general duty. Not ideal, but then none of my gigs/bands/venues are ideal either.
I don't use any FX at all in the big old echoey town halls I work in.

Check out page 11 in this thread. http://cacophony.aspinock.com/index.php?topic=771.msg10529#msg10529 Now you can have a second reverb 1 million times better than Mackie's lamentable offering.

Sir Krang

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #12 on: March 01, 2015, 05:54:40 AM »
I used the reverb setting I mentioned above at last nights gig.
Quite nice sounding. Nothing spectacular but very usable.

I'm going to spend a few more sessions in my man cave and see if I can dial up a few more custom presets.

I've always liked subtle plate reverb on vocals but haven't so far been happy with the DL's offerings.

Right at this point though I'm reasonably convinced that to get at least half reasonable reverbs from the DL a good starting point is to use the "vintage" PEQ as really does sound like it "sweetens" otherwise sterile sounding reverb presets.

It's working for me, but your mileage may vary  8)

ijpengelly

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Re: My opinions of the DL's built in effects
« Reply #13 on: April 27, 2015, 08:41:46 PM »
Don't suppose anyone got any further with these?