Well, for an XLR or RCA output, the voltage which should read “0dB” is well defined, so I don’t really expect the XLR output of a Prime 4+ outputting less voltage than say a Pioneer DJM. You could measure it though, using a voltmeter and a 1kHz sine (although not super accurate!).
But there is so much more happening to a signal chain before it reaches the speakers themselves, and this story varies from venue to venue:
- Were you plugged directly into the speakers or where you plugged in to another mixer or sound processor?
- What were the gain settings on the other mixer, if any
- What were the gain settings on the sound processor
- What were the gain settings on the amps (if passive)
- What were the gain settings on the speakers themselve (if active)
- Who was asking, the club owner or some drunk punters?
- Was there a third party controlling the volume? A knob behind the bar? A small mixer at the lighting desk? A big PA mixer in the middle of the venue?
- Last but not least: were you running through an SPL limiter which rendered any efforts turning up the volume fruitless?
- Was this SPL limiter properly calibrated?
All in all, for small gigs you need a small soundsystem and a mixer. For bigger gigs you need a bigger soundsystem, connected to the same mixer.
There were also often times where we started to turn up the volume during the beginning of the evening, and around about the time we start wondering whats wrong with the volume someone walks into the booth and tells us there is an SPL limiter in place. And indeed, these things squeeze all dynamics out of your tracks. Best in these cases is to pull back the volume and wait a few seconds. But some limiters can really sneak up onto you, if you weren’t told they were there…
And more often than not the audience asks me to turn up the music while my 10Eazy display tells me Im running at 99,5dB(A),Leq60…. The legal limit is 100dB however, so Im already pushing things…
Ive also seen some sound techs set up the soundsystems gains so that with a maxed out DJM, fully into red, you will just achieve max SPL. This is a bad idea on multiple levels and such soundtechs should be fired, but indeed, when you would use a mixer with less maximum output voltage, then you wont really reach max allowed SPL. But again, in this case the soundtech needs to be replaced, not the mixer…
In any case, you should never have to run your master into red. Red says distortion, red says stop. A soundsystem should be capable enough to provide adequate SPL without running the mixer into red. Ofcourse, this means you have to know your limits as a DJ. Its a case of mutual respect and trust between sound tech and DJ.
