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Amplifier volumes


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Help please, I have a Crate KX-160. But since I live in an apartment, I never get to crank it up. I got a chance to yesterday at my sister-in-laws house. I could not get that thing to sound right to save my life. My organ, XK2, has a volume control. Where should it be set? the amp has an input gain control with a peak light. On the output side there is a peak light and a green limit light. What do these lights mean? Approximately where should I set these level controls. What do the blinking of these light mean? Could it be that since I haven`t cranked it up in four years it just don`t want to play loud anymore. Casey

 "Let It Be!"

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I have a Crate bass amp. It osunds good at low- and mid- volumes, but not when really cranked up. So perhaps it's endemic to the brand....

 

But there are general guidelines for amplification. In general, you want to feed as high a level as possible to the amp short of clipping - this increases the signal-to-noise ratio. But it's definitely an art, NOT a science ;-) BTW, the lights mean nothing if you are getting a sound you desire. Those lights are just guides. Though I'm sure you hear distortion when the light is constant.

 

 

Originally posted by kcbass:

Help please, I have a Crate KX-160. But since I live in an apartment, I never get to crank it up. I got a chance to yesterday at my sister-in-laws house. I could not get that thing to sound right to save my life. My organ, XK2, has a volume control. Where should it be set? the amp has an input gain control with a peak light. On the output side there is a peak light and a green limit light. What do these lights mean? Approximately where should I set these level controls. What do the blinking of these light mean? Could it be that since I haven`t cranked it up in four years it just don`t want to play loud anymore. Casey

I used to think I was Libertarian. Until I saw their platform; now I know I'm no more Libertarian than I am RepubliCrat or neoCON or Liberal or Socialist.

 

This ain't no track meet; this is football.

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yeah the green light is a clip light like coyote said. as for level wise, i just keep my keyboard at 3/4 volume and let the amp control the rest. that's just how i do it anyway.

 

pray for peace,

kendall

"Consider how much coffee you're drinking - it's probably not enough."
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I did not see a 160 on the crateamps web site. I did see a KX-100. The specs say it has 5%THD at 100 Watts output. That's a lot.

 

You really should give us more info though - if you were setting your synth to about the same level as you do when playing at home then you were not overloading the front end. Unless you accidentally were trying to use the mic input as the line input (and on this amp you would probably have to be using an XLR cable to do that) you should be able to set your synth close to max output and not overload the first stage of the amp.

 

What was the nature of the problem?

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Originally posted by Byrdman:

I did not see a 160 on the crateamps web site. I did see a KX-100. The specs say it has 5%THD at 100 Watts output. That's a lot.

 

You really should give us more info though - if you were setting your synth to about the same level as you do when playing at home then you were not overloading the front end. Unless you accidentally were trying to use the mic input as the line input (and on this amp you would probably have to be using an XLR cable to do that) you should be able to set your synth close to max output and not overload the first stage of the amp.

 

What was the nature of the problem?

 

At home it doesn`t matter much. I mostly listen with headphones because in the apartment I can hear myself pressing the keys over the sound of the amp. I can`t play it too much louder because of the rental contract. They only rent certain apartment #s to musicians. We chose the end that watches movies on the week-ends.

The problem is that it seems to distort really easy. I set it up the same way as I did with my Yamaha PSR-530. the Psr just cooked with this Crate, so I thought it would be fine with my XK2.

The KX-160 was replaced power wise by the KX-220. About the only real difference is the model number, and on the 220 the put the volume controls on top of the amp,( that was stupid). As finances premit, I`ll be getting a Motion-Sound Pro3T anyway, but meanwhile I have to live with just the Crate. I`m really starting to think it just lost its uumph because I haven`t ran any respectiable power thru it for a long time, is that possible? Casey

 "Let It Be!"

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