To Get The Board Working

The basic steps to be followed in order to power-up the sound system and get sound from the system are:

Turn on the power bar located on platform.
Check to see that the power lights are lit up on the following items:

The power amplifier at front of platform,
The sound board,
The tape deck.

Turn on the bass amplifier located to the rear-left of the platform (the switch is on the rear of the amplifier in the upper-right corner). Do not change the settings of this amplifier.
On the mixer, check to see that the red “Rude Solo” light is off. If it is flashing this means that one of the “Solo” buttons is selected (pushed in); check each channel and make sure that each channel’s “Solo” button is in the “out” position.
If you intend to use one or more of the on-platform monitors:

Check that the monitors are powered-on.
Check the mixer and ensure that the “Master Level Aux 1” and “Master Level Aux 2” knobs are set to “U”. Note, it should not be necessary to change these master controls later on; if you feel a need to change these it is an indication that something else is not properly adjusted.

Check to see that the Effects “Bypass” switch is selected (pushed in) and that the red light above the switch is lighted.
For each channel you intend to use:

Pull the channel’s slider all the way down.
Check to see that the channel is “un-muted” (i.e., the “mute” button should be in the “out” position).
Check to see that either “1–2” or “3–4” is selected, but not both (“1–2” for vocals/voices, “3–4” for instruments/music).
Check to see that the “Pan” knob is set to the 12 o’clock position (top).
Check that the “Pre-Fader” button is selected (pushed in).

Set the following mixer sliders to “U”: “Sub 1”, “Sub 2”, “Sub 3”, & “Sub 4”.
Set the mixer’s “Main Mix” slider to “-5” (the 5 below “U”).
Now you are ready to sound-check each channel. For each channel:

Select (push in) the channel’s “Solo PFL” button.
With the musician singing or playing, or the speaker talking into his/her microphone, turn up the “Mic Gain/Trim” knob until the “Zero Level” yellow light consistently flashes, but is not always on. The light is located immediately to the right of the “Mic Gain/Trim” knob (note, channels 13/14 and 15/16 do not have this yellow light, instead make the column of lights labeled “Left” peak to ”0”).

While adjusting the “Mic Gain/Trim”, the column of lights labeled “Left” should be bouncing in correspondence to the sound the musician/speaker is making.
While adjusting the “Mic Gain/Trim”, if the monitor level becomes too loud then turn down the corresponding “Aux 1” or “Aux 2” knob for that channel.

Once the “Mic Gain/Trim” is set, deselect the “Solo PFL” button.
Push the slider up to validate you can hear the musician/speaker in the system. Once you have verified the channel is working, pull the slider all the way back down.

Once the “Mic Gain/Trim” levels have been set for all the channels you will be using a monitor sound check may need to be performed. Adjust the “Aux 1” or “Aux 2” knobs, as appropriate, in order to send more or less of each channel to the monitors.
Lastly, as the band plays or the speakers talks, push each channel’s slider up until the desired volume is reached. Adjust the sliders to achieve the desired balance between the channels.

To Play A Tape or CD

To use the tape desk/CD player to play a tape/CD, perform all the steps outlined in “To Get The Board Working”, above, and press “Play” for the Tape/CD where the instructions call for the musician to play. All the other instructions in that section are the same.

To Record Something

To use the tape deck to record a teaching, the worship, or some other event:

Mute the channel labeled “Tape” (channel 16).
Put tape in tape deck.
Press “Record” button.
On channel you want to record set “Efx 1” to “U”.
Set “Efx 1 Send” (labeled “Tape Out”) to “U”.
Set the house level for the channel.
Adjust the channel’s “Efx 1” knob, the “Master Send Efx 1” knob, and the tape deck’s “Record Level” knob so that the record level consistently peaks to “+6”.

Final Notes

Please keep the following guidelines in mind as you use the system:

Do not adjust the “Stereo Graphic EQ” sliders; they should be set almost “flat” (i.e., all set to “0”).
Do not adjust the power amplifier; it should be set at 3 and 4 (left and right, respectively).
Leave the Effects block set to “bypass;” unless specifically directed otherwise.
Leave Monitor Sends (“Master Send Aux 1” and “Master Send Aux 2”) set to “U”

Troubleshooting Helps

When you can’t get sound from a particular channel, from the system itself, etc., but you are sure that you turned everything on correctly, use the following technique to try to find the problem: start at the person or instrument providing the input sound and trace the signal (i.e., the sound) one step at a time through the system. At each step, don’t continue until a successful result has been achieved for that step.

Troubleshooting Example

For example, if the tape desk won’t play through the system:

Put a tape in the machine and press play
Can you see signal level indicated on the tape deck’s meter? If not, the problem is in the tape deck. If the meter shows signal, then go to the next step.
Look at the back of the tape deck and check to see that the cable is plugged into “Tape Out”.
Follow the cable to verify that it is properly plugged into channel 16.
Follow the steps, above, to set the “Mic Gain/Trim” level and ensure that the “Left” column of lights shows signal peaking at “0”
Double check all the channel and mixer settings as described above.
When you push the channel’s slider up, verify that the two columns of lights labeled “Left” and “Right” are showing signal.
Check to see that the power amplifier is turned on and that its controls are set as described above.