Strange problem last night

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T

The Wizard Of OZ

Well-Known DJ
Dec 13, 2007
3,130
50
68
Tampa Bay Area
I was doing my singing show at a local VFW last night, I've been there a few times with no problems. They have a "stage" where the performers set up and where the officers stand to address the audience when they have meetings etc.

Off to the right side of the stage is an electrical outlet with a powerstrip plugged in. I always plug my powerstrip into theirs and then I plug my powered mixer, transformer for the wireless mic, second small Alesis 8 channel mixer, laptop charger and, last night I had a 19" LCD monitor.

I went for 2 1/2 hours with no problems. All of a sudden my Yamaha EMX512 started to have lights blinking on the monitor channel and the LEDs on the level monitoring started going way up, the sound was muffled and distorted. It seemed like everything was going haywire all of a sudden.

So many things were happening at once it wasn't clear what was wrong. First I thought it was a software issue so I closed the programs and restarted the computer. Started back up and it was doing the same thing. I decided that it must be the Yamaha powered mixer, but I was REALLY surprised because it has been the most reliable piece of equipment I have ever owned.

I went out to the van and got my backup power amplifier, plugged it in, hooked it up to the Alesis mixer and started back up. At first it seemed like the problem was solved. Then the music started cutting out and then after a second coming back on. I was sweating and kind of freaking out.

I looked at the powerstrip and I looked at where it plugged into the wall. The outlet in the wall was loose and could wiggle in and out. This is when I started thinking it was a power problem. This whole thing took about 15-20 minutes and by that time it was pretty much time to end so I just told everyone that was it for the night.

I unplugged my powerstrip and plugged it into another powerstrip that was about 8 feet away. It appeared to be on another circuit and it was mounted to the wall about 5-6 feet up from the floor. I started everything up again as a test and played a few songs while I packed things up that didn't need to be unplugged. The system ran perfect, no cut outs.

What bugs me about it is that I know people just assume it's your fault/you don't know what you're doing/you have crap equipment etc. I told someone who is an officer that there may be a power problem with that outlet and his response was "well, we never had any problems before".

Needless to say, next time I'll be plugging in to the other outlet or splitting some equipment between the two outlets. I figure that there were other things somewhere on that same circuit that I was using and the wires heated up and I wasn't getting enough current.
 
Same thing happened to me back in October at a venue. I had my main console up and playing and then it just started going haywire. My mixer went into a protection mode and the lights on my decks went dim. It turned out to be a bad outlet because I plugged up in another location and the system ran flawless for the rest of the night.
 
People don't know who else would be at fault. You are on stage, your stuff screws up, it's your fault.

They just don't understand.

It's a hard way to learn about a problem, but if things never go wrong, we never learn....
 
I had similar, not exactly, but similar problems two times with my craig's list Peavey PV 1500 amp that I got recently, distorted, muffled sound. It's probably a fluke that I have run into some power problems at more than one venue, just unlucky I guess.

I figure the more I do this, the more weird things I'm going to run into. I used my Peavey amp in my garage yesterday to rehearse and never had a lick of trouble running continuously for about 2 hours in around 82 degree heat. I blamed the previous problems I had on the Peavey amp never even suspecting power issues. I just assumed it was the amp malfunctioning. I thought maybe it was clogged with dust. I never opened it up. It has run cool and problem free in my garage every time.
 
You'd be surprised to know all of the electrical gremlins that are out there. I would also suggest getting some very long and heavy duty extension cords just in case you need to find another outlet which may be far away and not close to other stuff (Refrigerators, coffee machines, blenders, etc.)
 
I've worked some pretty old, outdated, and ramshackle electrical circuits out here, but luckily have never had a problem like that caused by electrical shortcomings.

As a rule I try not to plug into the standard plastic 6 or 8-banger power strips... I'll do that for lights on occasion - especially the LED guys, but not for sound.

Plenty of sonic and behavioral anomalies my first couple of years, but those were either my low-grade equipment, my not knowing better, or some disatrous combination of both!:rofl:
 
Set the system up at home and run it for a few hours. If you experience no issues, I'd say the branch circuit at the hall was suspect. Also, if you don't have one already, contact Ben about a Furman power conditioner. We don't leave home without it. :)
 
I've had one gig where I blew the fuse. Same issue..the manager said..its not our fault, your the only one who has blown a fuse. First she blamed our equipment on being bad, then luckily someone had a outlet tester, and proved to the manager it was their fuse. Already killed like 10 minutes, then the manager says, I dont know where the fuse is?

So we brought out our other extension cord, and away we went again. The cord ran in front of the bathrooms so we needed to affix the cords above the doors to avoid any tripping hazard.

I did some talking to the guests, and the bride and groom during the failure. We did the bouquet toss and the garter during this time. I apologized, and the family and friends kept reassuring me it wasn't my fault. In fact a handful of the guests thought we were taking a break.

Thank goodness the family and friends were very forgiving! We finished with no problems, and I became the brides new brother, and her parents second son..of course after the groom, and their first original son...lol.

Wiz..glad to see you have backup...and I'm glad you got that all resolved.

Take care.
 
Here we have a group called the OH&S (Occupanional Health and Safety) and is run by the government

now if there is that situation where it can affect a persons life (not saying it would) but..... they can be called and they would close down the venue for anywhere up to 4x months (after the show is over) for the said venue to have electrical work carried out and cords/cables fixed so it wont happen again

now this is the extreme of what can happen - if we let said venue know that its faulty and they normally fix it asap

so yeah normally here we dont have problems because they would get in more crap than they would know

have a great day all
 
Fred thats where here in Oz I am lucky

our power is very clean and I never have issues with dirty power
so I might say I think I feel bloody fortunate I am here

sorry for you guys

anyway take it easy
 
If the power strip was one of those cheapie Wiremold strips, it's possible that there was a bum connection inside. Those things have never been worth a damn in any application I've seen 'em used in.

And I've seen 'em used at some venues for stage power. I won't plug in to 'em. I'll go back out to the truck, get the 100' cord and find another outlet. :)
 
I'd recommend this.

I've found that wiggling this tester in an outlet can show you if there's a poor connection.
 
I have a home built FULL spectrum power conditioner ( I'm not even sure a full spectrum - voltage, frequency, anti- ripple/transient-surge protected, UPS,etc..- is available in a store), but the easiest way to avoid future problems is to spring for the highest capacity UPS you can find and run through that. They provide backup, surge protection, power filtering, and virtually everything but frequency conditioning- which is a very rare problem anyway.
 
Sounds To Go said:
As a rule I try not to plug into the standard plastic 6 or 8-banger power strips... I'll do that for lights on occasion - especially the LED guys, but not for sound.
Click to expand...

Same here. Those plastic power strips are not built for current and I have actually seen the on-off switches melt when too much power is run thru them. If you need a good power strip, you can make one yourself out of some 12 guage wire and a two gang box from Home Depot.

The black cord is 25 ft of 12 guage wire.
The orange cord is 10 guage wire and is used at outdoor events
 

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I have a venue I play at about 2x a year, the outlet right behind me has been bad for 4 years that I know about. The outlet is so loose if you do use it you have to twisted the plug some and tape the thing down to hold it in the wall and the tension on it. I ask the manager about getting it replaced, and even told him if he would let me I would change it out if he would show me the breaker. So now when I go there I just carry in a 12 AWG cord and use another outlet about 15 foot away. Maybe one day they will fix it.
 
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