This article will cover patching guitar amps in and back out of the ISO cabs.
Gather Supplies:
You will need the following items:
SGI TX + power supply - This will go on stage, next to the guitar player or their pedal board.
SGI RX - This will go in the ISO cab.
If you cannot find the SGI RX, check in your ISO cab, it's very possibly located in there.
Two 1/4" cables - One for Guitar to SGI TX; one from SGI RX to Amp.
Two XLR cables - One for the SGI TX to the wall plate, and one from RIO/TIO to SGI RX. 15'-25' cables are recommended.
If you have this feature on your wall plate, things are much easier! This process will start on the stage with the SGI TX. After deciding where the guitar player will be located, place the SGI TX next to where they will be.
On Stage:
1. Find a good place to plug in power to the SGI TX. If needed, use the extension cable to plug in to band power.
2. Run the XLR line from the SGI TX transmit port to the Guitar I/O section of the wall plate. These wall plates are on both sides of the stage, so please try and keep everything on one side of the stage.
When plugging in the XLR to the wall plate, take note of the GTR number that you plug into. This will help in the amp room when patching the other half of this setup.
In the Amp Room:
3. After plugging in the XLR cable to the wall plate, head to the amp room where the ISO cabs are located. Start at the I/O plate that sits next to the ISO cabs, mounted on the wall. Verify that the cables are run from the I/O plate to the ISO cab. If they are run correctly, continue to the next step. If they are not already run, click this link. Below is a visual example of both instances.
Starting at the wall plate next to the ISO cabs, you should have something like shown below. Here is a breakdown of what each port needs to be connected to.
MIC-49 - XLR input that is tied to snake tail 49. This should be coming from a microphone in the Top ISO cab.
MIC-50 - XLR input that is tied to snake tail 50. This should be coming from a microphone in the Bottom ISO cab.
GTR 01 - XLR output that is tied to GTR 01 on the stage wall plate. This should be for the Top ISO cab's SGI RX.
GTR 02 - 1/4" Speaker output that is tied to GTR 02 on stage wall plate. These are normally used for when the guitarist wants to have his Amp Head on stage, but speaker cabinet in the ISO cab.This can be run to the guitarists speaker cab in the Top ISO cab.
GTR 03 - Same as GTR 01, but for Bottom ISO CAB.
GTR 04 - Same as GTR 02, but for Bottom ISO CAB.
4. Now that the lines to the ISO cab are verified, place the SGI RX in the ISO cab and connect the cables as follows:
- XLR cable - Receive from TX.
- 1/4" cable, from Output and into Guitar Amp.
5. If not done already, position the mic up to the Guitar Amp. Since the mic placement is such a big part of capturing a guitar tone, it may be a good idea to ask your FOH engineer take a quick look to be sure the mic is where they would like it.
6. Lastly, connect the Mic from the ISO cab to the FOH console. You are looking for the snake tail labeled "49" or "50", depending on which ISO cab you are using.
- 49 = Top ISO cab.
- 50 = Bottom ISO cab.
7. Choose an input you would like this Guitar Amp to be on and plug it in.
At the Console:
8. Head back to the console and select an open channel for the guitar amp
Please try your best to keep instrument groups together. E.g., when adding a guitar, please try keeping it near existing guitar channels.
9. On the selected channel, press the gray box that is just to the right of the gain knob. If the channel is completely empty, this box will say "----". If something is already patched here, the box will show a "Dante-(number)".
The "Dante" numbers, match up to the RIO numbers. If you have a CL5, the first 32 inputs are the bigger RIO, called the RIO3224. Inputs 33-40 are the smaller R series interface, called the RI8. If you have a QL5, the top TIO is 1-16, the middle TIO is 17-32, and the bottom TIO is 33-48.
10. Keeping the above in mind, select the correct Dante input for the channel by tapping on the input square.
Notice the small numbers (Y001-001) underneath the Dante input number. If using a QL5/TIO setup, this is a great indicator of which TIO input you should select.
For example:
Y001-001 = Top TIO, input 1
Y002-009 = Middle TIO, input 9
Y003-016 = Bottom TIO, input 16
11. Before exiting the menu completely, name the channel by tapping on the text box that displays the channel name.
Everything should be all patched and ready for a FOH engineer to dial in Gain, EQ, and Dynamics.
If you do not have those fancy wall plates at your campus, this is an easy process to get the ISO cabs patched quick.
You will need one extra XLR cable for this method, making three total XLR cables.
On Stage:
1. After deciding where the guitar player will be located, place the SGI TX next to where they will be standing.
2. Find a good place to plug in power to the SGI TX. If needed, use the extension cable to plug in to band power.
3. Next, lets run the XLR line from the SGI TX, to any open mic input on the wall wall plate. These wall plates are on both sides of the stage, so please keep everything on one side of the stage.
When plugging in the XLR to the wall plate, take note of the MIC-number that you plug into. This will help when we get back to the amp room to patch the other half of this setup.
In The Amp Room
4. After the XLR line is run on stage, head to the amp room where the ISO cabs are located.
5. Take an XLR cable and plug one side into the 'snake tail' labeled with the same number we plugged the SGI TX into on the other side of the wall.
6. Plug the other end of the XLR into the SGI RX input.
6. Take the third XLR that was set aside and plug the female side into the microphone in the amp cab. Take the male side of the cable and patch it into the correct input on the Tio/Rio. This cable will bring sound from the microphone in the ISO cab back to the sound console.
7. Now, place your SGI RX in the ISO cab and connect the SGI cables as followings:
1. XLR cable (male end) - Receive from SGI TX.
2. 1/4" cable, from Output and into Guitar Amp.
8. If not done already, position the mic up to the Guitar Amp, and plug in the other XLR cable you just ran through the amp room to that mic. Since mic placement is such a big part of capturing a guitar tone, it may be a good idea to ask your FOH engineer to take a quick look to make sure that the mic is positioned where they would like it.
:At the Console
9. Head back to the console and select an open channel for the guitar amp
Please try your best to keep instrument groups together. When adding a guitar, please try to keeping it near existing guitar channels.
10. On the selected channel, press the gray box that is just to the right of the gain knob. If the channel is completely empty, this box will say "----". If something has already been patched, this box will show "DANTE-(number)".
The "Dante" numbers, match up to the RIO, numbers. If you have a CL5, the first 32 inputs are the bigger RIO, which is called a RIO3224. Inputs 33-40 are the smaller R series interface, called an RI8. If you have a QL5, the top TIO is 1-16, the middle TIO is 17-32, and the bottom TIO is 33-48.
11. Keeping the above in mind, select the correct Dante input for the channel by pressing on the input square.
Notice the little numbers (Y001-001) underneath the Dante input number. If using a QL5/TIO setup, this is a great indicator of which TIO input that you should select.
For example:
Y001-001 = Top TIO, input 1
Y002-009 = Middle TIO, input 9
Y003-016 = Bottom TIO, input 16
12. Before exiting the menu completely, name the channel by tapping on the text box that displays the channel name.
