Clipping from electronic drumkit

[Rocketman]

My drummer uses a Roland TD27 electronic drumkit. He runs 4 direct lines to me to the FOH mix. We use the Qu16 mixer. His lines are direct and are Kick, Snare, Hihats, & Toms. He plugs in to the XLR inputs on the back of the Qu16. I am experiencing clipping on the snare channel. The other drum channels are fine. We’ve tried switching channels, nothing changes. I have the input gain on his channel at 4 and, its still clipping. We use QSC k12.2’s FOH main speakers. He runs a JBL PR 800 series 15″ speaker for his monitor. He runs the headphones out of his module to his monitor and the snare sounds great. The signal to FOH clips and sound like someone hitting a piece of cardboard. He compresses the snare in his module. I tried compressing the signal from the FOH mixer setting the ratio 3.2, attack 5ms, release 200ms, gain 0, it did help, but still showing the red light on the channel coming on. I did have him turn down his output signal and it does help… should I have him reduse his output gain more until the channel is not clipping at all? Am I choking off his signal by running the snare channel input gain at 4? Would it make a difference if he ran line level sign to the main mixer instead of XLR? Any thoughts, anyone else have any issues with this problem?

[Giga]

Yep, have him lower his snare output signal. In case of an emergency, Shure I think also has inline pads.

Giga

[Mike C]

Try an XLR to 1/4 inch adapter and plug into the 1/4 inch line jack for the snare channel.
You could use a DI box on the snare output, that would reduce the level.

The in line pad is also a good idea. I carry a couple each of 10, 20 and 30db.

[SQuser]

@Rocketman
You’ve already received 2 good suggestions.
The question remains, however, whether and why the snare produces a significantly higher level.

> We’ve tried switching channels, nothing changes.
So if the kick on input 1 is perfect and the snare on input 2 is clipping, and you swap the two, will input 1 be clipped.?

> I have the input gain on his channel at 4 and, its still clipping.
> Am I choking off his signal by running the snare channel input gain at 4?
What does 4 mean?
According to the manual, you can set a gain of -5 to +60dB on the QU.
So if it’s currently set to 4dB, you could reduce it to -5dB = 9dB less.

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