HK Elements problems and advise

H

Hans Scheepers

Freshman
Jan 11, 2014
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Good day All

Thanks for letting me be part of this Forum.

We recently bought a HK Elements system comprising of 2 x E435 Cabs (only one per side) and 2x E110 Sub woofers and everything is linked up with HK's E-Connect poles. The venue we use them in is not very big (35m x 35m ) So when we use it for acoustic sets the sound is pretty awesome and there is no distortion or "compression". But as soon as we play backtracks with a vocalist singing, the sound seems to "compress" itself. This is very annoying as we have a few singers really "belting those notes". I understand this is a built in HK protection feature, but we need a work around for this. We use the Behringer x32 with the FOH HK system.

Any advise will really be appreciated
 
Re: HK Elements problems and advise

That is a very large space for that set-up, so it is not surprising that you run out of steam when trying to push it even a little bit. The area is ten times bigger than what you can reasonably expect to cover with that system.
While adding two more tops must be an obvious solution at some point (I assume that your current system consist of two active subs so that is an option), the system will never be capable of going loud so turning it down and working on the mix will serve you both now and in the future.


Having the playback at a level where there is still some headroom, and working with the compressor on the vocal channels to control the vocal dynamics will enable you to open it up a bit.
Try setting the dynamics on each channel to Treshold -18, Ratio 20, Knee 5 as a start, just leaving the rest of the settings in the default states.
In addition, you could route the vocals to a subgroup and have some dynamics on that subgroup as well, then I would suggest opening up a bit on the individual channels by reducing the ratio to 5 and using the above settings for the subgroup. Sending to effects pre-dynamics will make it sound big even when the compression is squashing the level, allowing some sense of dynamics even when the system can't provide it.
 
Re: HK Elements problems and advise

Sorry to say that Hans, but for a room that big, your setup is way to small.
I've done some gigs with the HK Elements, and used for example in a slightly bigger room 6 x 835 Tops and two 210 Subs for a mellow jazz combo,
that played at a christmas party for a bank.

DSC_0024.JPG

Christian

For a room with 35x35m I would rather use four of these-->
RCF - NX L24-A in combination with subwoofers.
And even with this setup you will be in trouble when dealing with a "normal" rockband.
Acoustic performers and singers with playback might work, if you can fly the tops.
 
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