Connecting an Active Subwoofer to your PA System (Detailed Guide)

in this video I'll be showing how you can connect an active subwoofer to a PA system and for this video I have a subwoofer here and a full range speaker or your top and I'll be demonstrating how you can connect from a mixing console to both the sub and the tops before we go into all of that first of all I want to establish what I mean by subwoofer and what I mean by active subwoofers in the context of Lifestyle reinforcement systems uh loudspeakers that have been designed to handle the low frequencies of the audible audio Spectrum this audible range of frequencies 20 Hertz to 20 kilohertz is usually divided into four sessions we have the lows from 20 Hertz to 100 Hertz the low mids from 100 Hertz to one kilohertz High mid for one kilohertz to 10 kilohertz and highs from 10 kilohertz to 20 kilohertz the frequency at which it transition from one section to the other is known as the crossover frequency and this crossover frequency varies depending on demand factor of your speaker or on the sound engineer the method of connecting your active subwoofer to your PA system that will be considering in this video involves connecting the left and right output of your mixing console to the active subwoofer and then most active subwoofer today have built-in Crossovers and so we are we'll be using the built-in crossover and the active subwoofer to explicit the full range signal from the mixing console into the lows and then into the mids and the highs so the lows will be handled by the subwoofer and then the mid and the highs will be sent to the full range speaker or the tops to be driven by them now all loudspeakers using sound reinforcement subwoofers included require power amplifier to drive them now the difference between an active subwoofer and a passive subwoofer is the location of the power amplifier Factory subwoofers the power amplifier is built into the cabinet of the subwoofer while for a passive subwoofers the power amplifier is a separate Standalone device now uh we are using an active subwoofer in this demonstration and alongside the power amplifier that is built into this subwoofer cabinet other processors including a crossover is usually built into the subwoofer cabinet as well which will take advantage of in today's video this is set up we have this is the back of the subwoofer this is a LD system sub and then this is a full range speaker from the same company we have left and a left and a right input um we will just we just have one sub and one top we will just be using one so the left and then they have most of these Subs they have two different outputs for the left and two for the right and since we are concentrating on the left is the same thing on the right we have the first output it's uh indirect output which is basically like a parallel output for you to Signal the full range signal that comes from your mixer into this uh input is the same signal that is present here in case you want to like send this signal to another subwoofer it's kind of like what the link does in a power amplifier for you to decision multiple amplifier why this output is the high pass output the output which you sent to the top for the mixer I'll be using an audio interface of connecting the output of the audio interface to simulate the output of a mixing console so this has a quarter range output I'll be connecting the left output of the audio interface into the left this connector ourselves both quarter range and XLR so quality quarter range so use an XLR to connect from the high pass output of your saw to the top so here I have from the saw and then the line in now this my four inch speaker is an active speaker as well as you already noticed if you already have a full range speaker that is passive you can connect from this outputs to the pump amplifier that drives the speaker is almost the same thing so if you have an active foreign speaker or an active top speaker then you can just connect straight from the sub to the line input of your full range speaker this particular subwoofer has a variable crossover frequency so it ranges from about 60 to 100 180 Hertz and this is the sub level the level of the signal that is being fed at the level or the volume or the gain of the subwoofer so let me turn that down for now now let's hear what this setup sounds like I'll quickly connect the loudspeakers to Mains and turn them on starting with the subwoofer I've set both the line gain and volume of the full range loudspeaker to the 12 o'clock position the crossover frequency is set to 100 Hertz and the subwoofer level is turned all the way down I'm going to play an audio recording of the drums and bass guitar so that we can hear how it sounds first with only the full range speakers and then with the subs added here we go I have placed a show sm-137 condenser microphone in front of the speakers about one meter away from their middle foreign [Music] now how do you balance the level of your subwoofers and your full range speakers if it were to be a more professional setup then use of softwares such as smart live or Spectrum analyzers to optimize the levels of the sub and full range because I will be employed but we are not going I'm not going into that right now the simplest method for you to use is to use your ears what I usually do sometimes is I turn the level of the sub body weight down and I play a song that I'm very familiar with and that matches the style of music I aim to mix and so set the level of the four inch speakers to your desired level and then turn on turn up the sub to match the desire to get the desired balance you want between the four inch speakers and a subwoofer if you'd like to learn how you can match a power prefer to a passive loudspeaker then click this video right here thank you for seeing this video and Kelvin I'll see you in the next one foreign [Music]

Channel: Kelvin Eriaganoma

Views: 4,470

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Id: JlB9ZOhZmtI

Length: 7min 9sec (429 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 24 2022