Need Help with Crate Stuff

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All:

I just picked up a bunch of stuff from a friend's storage locker and really have no idea what I have nor how to hook it up. What I have is a bunch of Crate stuff:

1 x Crate BXE-18
2 x Crate BXE-210H
2 x ES-40 (I suppose these are monitors built by Eminence???)

Anyway, I have no idea how to hook this stuff up and was hoping that somebody on the forum could help me. Each piece uses 1/4" phono jacks but there are lots of them. I can provide additional details if somebody can guide me along the path. I know a lot about consumer audio but not Pro Audio.

-Stu
 
Well, use one jack at a time, and hook each speaker up to an amp playing music, to see what you have got. Don't unplug 1/4 phone plugs with the music playing, it shorts the amp for a second. Unless you have a tube output amp with output transformers like my ST70, those are impervious to shorts.
Pro speakers often have an input jack and an output jack so you can put speakers in parallel. Don't use it that way unless you know more about your amp capabilities.
Some pro speakers also have a separate input jack for just the woofer, and another input jack for just the tweeter. Using broad frequency music as a source, you should be able to tell which jack is which. The main input uses both high and low speakers at once. Then label them with a sharpie or something.
You will find speakers with just a big woofer are useful for bass signals only. Bar bands use about twice as many of these as speakers with tweeters or combos, because massive bass is not as damaging to the ear as massive treble signals. They usually have a separate bass only amp.
Typically the bass guitar will go to just a big amp to the woofer only speakers. Then the rest of the band will be routed to a mixer and sent to the main full frequency speakers. Wedge monitors will be on a separate full frequency amp channel pointed at the player's feet, in the old time setup. (70's-80's-90's). Modern bands use in ear monitors with a radio feed. Pro mixers have a separate feed with separate adjustments for the monitor amps.
Cheapo bar bands sometimes parallel the main speakers and the monitor speakers on one amp, but you have to know that the parallel combination is above the rating of the amp in impedance. This requires downloading the datasheet for the speakers, and also the datasheet for the amp. As a newbie, you are safer with one speaker per amp channel.
Note, in a modern setup, the speakers are to the sides of the stage, and the big stacks behind the players are just there for show. Onstage stacks feedback too much into the vocalist microphones to use them that way with any volume.
 
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Well, use one jack at a time, and hook each speaker up to an amp playing music, to see what you have got. Don't unplug 1/4 phone plugs with the music playing, it shorts the amp for a second. Unless you have a tube output amp with output transformers like my ST70, those are impervious to shorts.
Pro speakers often have an input jack and an output jack so you can put speakers in parallel. Don't use it that way unless you know more about your amp capabilities.
Some pro speakers also have a separate input jack for just the woofer, and another input jack for just the tweeter. Using broad frequency music as a source, you should be able to tell which jack is which. The main input uses both high and low speakers at once. Then label them with a sharpie or something.
You will find speakers with just a big woofer are useful for bass signals only. Bar bands use about twice as many of these as speakers with tweeters or combos, because massive bass is not as damaging to the ear as massive treble signals. They usually have a separate bass only amp.
Typically the bass guitar will go to just a big amp to the woofer only speakers. Then the rest of the band will be routed to a mixer and sent to the main full frequency speakers. Wedge monitors will be on a separate full frequency amp channel pointed at the player's feet, in the old time setup. (70's-80's-90's). Modern bands use in ear monitors with a radio feed. Pro mixers have a separate feed with separate adjustments for the monitor amps.
Cheapo bar bands sometimes parallel the main speakers and the monitor speakers on one amp, but you have to know that the parallel combination is above the rating of the amp in impedance. This requires downloading the datasheet for the speakers, and also the datasheet for the amp. As a newbie, you are safer with one speaker per amp channel.
Note, in a modern setup, the speakers are to the sides of the stage, and the big stacks behind the players are just there for show. Onstage stacks feedback too much into the vocalist microphones to use them that way with any volume.

Wow! I will peruse your response even further and try to give it a go tomorrow. Thanks a bunch for your tips!

The thing that worries me is that in one touring rack I have a Crown DC-300A some Art Audio processors and a Rane electronic crossover [and dunno why]. I also have another Amp in different case that I personnally built but really don't think it is in the mix here - could be very wrong. What I am really looking for here is for somebody to tell me here is how to connect this stuff and you have given me some good clues.

If anybody else is out there that knows definitively, I would really appreciate it.

-Stu
 
The thing that worries me is that in one touring rack I have a Crown DC-300A some Art Audio processors and a Rane electronic crossover [and dunno why].
-Stu
The electronic crossover could be useful if the band derived their bass from a keyboard or something, instead of having a separate bass guitar player. Usually one fairly powerful amp is dedicated to the bass only speakers,which anything with 18 in the name sounds like. (Peavey 118 is a single 18" woofer). However small setups could run the bass out of the mix. The crossover could be used to split the bass signal off for the subwoofer from the main amp output.
You might try the Crate website for user manuals for this stuff. I've learned how to work the Peavey website, and learned a lot from downloading manuals for equipment on craigslist I never even called on because I can't afford it and don't have a band (yet). Non-employment is fun, sometimes dreams can be made to come true with enough practice time.
 
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