Karaoke Forums

I finally saved some money to upgrade my system and it's all finally here so I need to put it together. However, I was wondering if there are anything else I can add or get to make it sound even better. Here is the setup.

Allen & Heath Zed 12FX (Will use built in effects)
Furman Power Conditioner (Merit Series)
AKG Sr40 wireless mics
DBX 166XL compressor/limiter
DBX Driverack PA+
JBL Eon 15" Powered speakers (would love to upgrade to 515s as soon as I saved up some more)
Fender 1270P Powered Monitor

I use laptop and VGA monitor for the video.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

EDIT: Right now I am using Creative X-Fi for my sound card but thinking about Echo Indigo DJX. I used to have Indigo DJ card but was stolen with my last laptop and still looking for a good deal on it. Ironically, the card probably was worth more than the laptop.

_________________

Seize the day and SING!!!

I would say that is a pretty nice system.
Other than adding an external effects (nice to be able to run both a reverb & a delay separate), maybe a nice sub, you should be pretty set.
As far as the sound card goes, I know you were looking to get away from extra pieces, but I think you would yield a better sound with the Lexicon Alpha. For one it doesn't use the little 1/8" headphone jack, it uses 1/4" balanced outputs. Plus about $125 cheaper.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Thanks for the advice Lonnie. I am going to hold off on a sub since most of my gigs are in a pretty small room. As for external effects, I do have a Behringer V-verb Pro Rev2496 that I was going to sell but I guess I can put that in the rack and run it through one of the busses on the mixer.

So you think Lexicon will make that much a difference in sound versus the Creative? If then, I wouldn't mind have to haul around another device. Thanks again for the tips.

_________________

Seize the day and SING!!!

One more question Lonnie. The A&H mixer has a USB port, which I can connects directly to the laptop. I do need two channels out since I also DJ and use second channel for the headphone to queue the music. I was thinking of using the USB as the main channel from the laptop and use the built in or Creative for the headphone output. Since I am the only one listening, I don't care as much about the sound quality. What do you think about that setup? Better, worse or equal to the Lexicon solution?

_________________

Seize the day and SING!!!

Being i'm not a big Creative fan for pro use, take it as a grain of salt, but I believe for the price, the Alpha will shine in side by side comparison and at a fraction of the cost of the Creative.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Honestly I don't know how the USB sound card will interface with a USB board if you are connecting it directly to the mixer. The Alpha is a stand alone unit acting as it's own sound card which would plug into the mixer via 1/4" blanaced cables - which the A & H is supposed to do as well but without any outside cables, but the Creative looks like it need to connect to the mixer via 1/8" stereo Y cable (unbalanced) so in that respect the Alpha would do the same thing except externally instead of a plug in card.
But yes the internal sound card of the laptop should be more than adequate for cueing on dj headphones.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Lonnie, I will not be using the USB sound card at all in this scenario. I will connect directly from the laptop USB to the mixer's USB port for the output. I would think the D/A converter on the A&H is pretty decent. I am assuming that it would sound as good or better than any external USB sound cards.

_________________

Seize the day and SING!!!

I have an external Creative X-Fi soundcard that i have been using for a few years now, and it sounds great.

I remember when I was researching sound cards, I found out on CNet that the INTERNAL and PCMCIA versions of the X-Fi DO NOT Upconvert the MP3s, while the external one does. For that reason, some people have a negative view of the X-Fi series, but the external card DOES upconvert MP3s and acts just like an I/O interface, so I would not hesitate to recommend it!

_________________
C Mc
KJ, FL

So may I ask a quick question. You can use the Lexicon Alpha as an external sound card? Is the sound transferred via USB or would you have to use the headphone jack coming from the computer? Im sorry this is my first forray into computer based karaoke. My current sound card sounds fine for my current usage but I'm always looking at inexpensive ways to improve my system and this could possibly serve several purposes for me.

_________________
Gator

The computer to the Alpha via USB. You connect the Alpha to your mixer via the balanced 1/4" outputs on the Alpha to you mixer channel inputs (like you would with a cdg player). You do not use the laptop headphone jack at all.
This will do it.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Sweet thanks. No intention to hijack your thread Jian. Now time to troll the net looking for a "great" deal on one.

_________________
Sergeant J. Travis Miller
Harrison Taylor County 911

$79 is what you can get them for, don't pay anymore.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Yeah it seems that the price doesnt move much from that point a few bucks one way or the other. Music 123 is offering up to 15% off till tommorow if anyone is looking.

_________________
Sergeant J. Travis Miller
Harrison Taylor County 911

Thanks for all the tips. I finally had a chance to test out the system and it sound great. I connected the laptop directly to the USB port of A&H mixer and installed the driver. At first I didn't get any sound until I turned up the gain nob at the top (doh!). However, the slider at the bottom has no effect on the overall sound. I must be missing something.

Also, I noticed that the 1/4" mono output, which I connect to the powered monitor speaker, did not have any type of volume control other than the main control.

If anyone is very knowledgeable with A&H mixers, would you please PM me? I may have a few questions to ask. Thanks.

_________________

Seize the day and SING!!!

Do the individual channels have send to monitor controls?

That is most likely a main mix mono output that is controlled by the main mix, Mackie boards have this as well.

_________________
LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

The individual channel has a knob for AUX1 - AUX3 but not for the mono output. I guess I will have to adjust the volume at the monitor and control both the main and the monitor at the same time. It's not a big deal since if the overall volume is high for the song, for example, they should be equally loud on both speakers. Bringing down the volume for the laptop would solve it.

However, it still is a bit bothersome since I have to use the gain knob every time, instead of the slider.

_________________

Seize the day and SING!!!