Testing the Subwoofer installation
Now for the testing, I do the following:
a.) Turn on audio interface first and AH 200 first.
b.) Boot computer to Windows.
c.) Turn on BX5a.
Make sure all volume levels of the monitors, audio interface, amplifiers and subwoofers are set to minimum before doing any test. Once everything is set:
1.) Press CD/Tape Mix button of Xenyx 502. This will make the inputs (which is coming from the Saffire Pro40 outputs) to appear at the Xenyx 502 outputs.
2.) Turn the volume of the BX5a reference monitors to 50% maximum. Later once everything is OK you can turn this from 50% to full volume if you like.
3.) Turn the monitor volume to 50% on Saffire Pro 40
4.) Turn the volume of Auxiliary input control in AH 200 to around 50%.
5.) Turn the main mix level control to 50% on Xenyx 502. Do not apply any EQ and other settings on the mixer, leave everything flat (unadjusted).
6.) Since AH200 is used as a sub; you won’t be need the mid and high frequency components. So turn the master mid and high EQ to minimum (0) and turn the low (bass EQ) of AH200 to maximum. This will let AH200 output only bass components of the signal.
Now to balance the low, mid and high frequency in your room; you need to do some audio testing.
a.) Re-calibrate your room using test tones, or those that are found here:
Sample tones at M-audio Overdub
Studio monitor test tone at Home Tracked
b.) If the bass is too dominant, kindly lower down the aux in volume of AH200 until the desired low to mid/high frequency balance has been achieved.
b.) Try to listen some professional recordings with great sounding bass. This will let you know how much bass level they have and makes it easy for you to adjust how much bass you need in the mix.
Below are my favorites in calibrating the bass to mid/high frequency:
“Soul to Squeeze” – Red Hot Chili Peppers (for bass guitar notes clarity test)
“Time after time” – Inoj (for deep kick drum bass clarity test)
Of course, you can use any of your favorite tracks.
7.) If you are now mixing, if you want to turn the mix volume level up and down in your mix, you only need to adjust the audio interface monitor output volume. It will automatically adjust the volume of both the BX5a reference monitors and the AH200 used as sub.
8.) If you want to turn off the subwoofer during mixing, then simply turn the volume of aux input in AH200 to minimum or much better turn off AH200.
This is how the complete setup would look like:
complete setup BX5a and Laney AH200
I put AH200 in the center of the mixing position to preserve the BX5a reference monitor stereo imaging. Now, my low end/bass mixing decisions would be more accurate with the help of this setup.
Content last updated on August 5, 2012