Pedal Reeds lack bite

I've got the audio tuned in pretty well, except for the pedal reeds. My main sample set is the Salisbury Willis and I find that the 32' and 16' pedal reeds lack bite, or raspiness that I am able to hear through headphones. The main speakers for the pedal are Adam F7's and a SVS 2000 subwoofer. Right now both are set with filters as open as possible, but I'm thinking of engaging the 80Hz High Pass filter on the F7s and turning up the volume on them to try to emphasize the highs.

Any other thoughts?

P.S. My speakers are stacked in a tower fashion with the F7s on the bottom. I could try moving them up, but that's just going to put some other stereo pair on the bottom. I'm using 1 stereo pair of speakers per Division, no cycling, etc.

The ribbon tweeters are more effective at ear level, rather than down at your feet. I get a lot of bite from reeds on my Adams, but they're all up at 5 -6 feet from the floor.

However, for the big pedal reeds on Salisbury, I send them to the SVS sub plus 4 KRK RP-10s on the floor and get plenty of snarl down to the bottom. Not sure the F7 has quite enough support in the low range for that, and the sub will tend to sound too smooth if the F7 isn't providing enough mid and upper power relative to the sub.

So maybe increasing the F7 levels and placing them up higher would be enough.

Something else to consider might be to place the pedal reed trebble speakers on their backs on the ground, pointing up at the roof (like real bombards do)
It will probably involve wood blocks/ empty rolls of gaffa tape to allow for connections to the rear, but worth a go.

I use full range 15" with piezo tweeters & midrange; two units per division;
[url]http://theatreorgans.com/owenjones/images/The%20Beast/audio/sony%20pics%2020150311/main.JPG[/url]
The subwoofers are auxiliary assignments in the audio screen. This arrangement gives me all the harmonics I want.

Hi Mike,

Have you tinkered with the voicing for the ranks in question, in particular the amplitude and high frequency adjustments? I've found cases of either too much or too little bite with certain reed ranks, and the voicing features have always did the trick for me.

Marc

just to be clear- do you have other speakers producing the full pedal signal other than the sub? A lot of the "reediness" is going to be coming from the upper harmonics.

I have an svs pb-2000 with two krk 8" monitors stacked on top. I route all pedal and surround/rear ranks to that group. I've never had any trouble with hearing the full range of tone from pedal ranks. I will only say that from time to time the clarity of the upper harmonics can be trumped (to my ear) strictly because the speakers are behind me and can't speak to my ears the way the monitors in front of me can. But if I turn around/ step away from the console that effect is nullified.

Monitor speakers, like the F7's, should be treated like "big headphones" in my view.

That is, the tweeters should be pointing directly at your ears and not just be at ear level.

It might also be worth checking that you have the outputs from the sub and the F7's balanced. It is all too easy to have the wrong levels set.

I adjusted mine by comparing them to my headphones. When I sit on the bench I can hardly tell any difference when I put the headphones on. However, when I sit in my armchair, I can tell that the speakers are well down on treble levels because the tweeters are no longer point at me.

Mike,

If you haven't yet seen this, check it out >> viewtopic.php?f=17&t=14769

From what you describe I see you're using pretty much the same speaker layout / routing scheme as me which has worked quite well. What I detail above is a bit different and has made quite a difference in my set -up. Best overall sounding routing arrangement I've come across. It gave the Zurek v5 which I use outstanding results, someone else here reported the same following this with the Hereford. The reeds not only have bite now, they really bark as well!

Marc

Mike,

If you haven't yet seen this, check it out >> viewtopic.php?f=17&t=14769

From what you describe I see you're using pretty much the same speaker layout / routing scheme as me which has worked quite well. What I detail above is a bit different and has made quite a difference in my set -up. Best overall sounding routing arrangement I've come across. It gave the Zurek v5 which I use outstanding results, someone else here reported the same following this with the Hereford. The reeds not only have bite now, they really bark as well!

Marc

I've been painting my apartment so the organ is not currently connected, but I'll have to give this a try. Thanks for the shout out!

Mike