Massive rack units?

[TRBboy]

Just out of curiosity really, I notice on the FB groups that a lot of our American peers LOVE a massive rack unit filled with all kinds of stuff. I'd say they're a pretty uncommon sight in the UK, and probably haven't been for the last 20 years or so. I'm not saying no-one uses them, just that it's more unusual here.

Just wondering why that is? I get that power conditioners are common over there due to the nature of the electrical infrastructure, but then to also have a bass amp or power amp, preamp, compressor, tuner, etc, etc just seems kinda old school I guess, with the developments in technology.

I suppose it stands out more when it's sat on top of a compact lightweight cab, I've seen a couple recently where the rack unit was bigger than the cab!  😵‍💫

 

Again, I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with this, just a discussion point out of curiosity. 😊

 

Photo from Google

[JPJ]

I used to have a rack with a SWR Grand Prix (1U) preamp, Sampson rack light/conditioner, rack tuner, Alesis 3630 compressor, and Aphex exciter, and a separate rack for the power amp. All totally superfluous but it looked pretty with all the lights on an flashing etc 😂

I still have a smaller rack based setup with the SWR Grand Prix preamp, the SWR Marcus Miller preamp (currently for sale on here), and the SWR Amplite power amp, but it doesnt get a lot of use hence the sale of the MM pre.

 

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Where power conditioners are concerned there's no more need for them in the US than in GB, which is to say none. Since they don't do anything useful they amount to being expensive power strips.

[MichaelDean]

People tend to have smaller cars here? Or are we just more sensible? No idea really.

 

A big rack unit never appealed to me personally - I don't want to carry more than I need to and I prefer the form factor of pedals/multi FX to rackmount gear for stage use.

 

If I was touring stadiums, I can really see the advantages of rack gear. It can all be safely stored and moved, spares can be kept in the same rack, etc. For playing pubs and small venues, I'd say it's a bit overkill. I'm sure there will be others who disagree though!

[TRBboy]

I have to hold my hands up I guess, I do currently have a rack case for my amp! 😂

 

I only got it because I was worried about damaging the graphic sliders if I just had it in a bag, and it ONLY has my amp in it.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

50 minutes ago, MichaelDean said:

People tend to have smaller cars here?

I would hope so. On this side of the pond the SUV has practically replaced the sedan, even though they have the same passenger space, while pickup trucks with size inversely proportional to the owner's IQ are the norm. The dumbing down of America is officially complete.

[BassmanPaul]

I use rack cases 'cos they are very good protection during transport. I've cut down on what I carry over the years. The advent of Class D power amps have made a great impact on the weight of the cases. My current amp, a Class D power amp and  tube pre-amp I built to drive it in a four space SKB case I can lift with just two fingers. 

 

Back in the early Eighties I built a rack case out of 3/4" ply and covered it with carpet. It held a 200W per channel dual mono power amp, two power transformers, a one space pre-amp and another one space unit that held a LED power meter monitoring the output of the amp It's other function was to supply two condenser microphones with Phantom power as our mixer at the time did not have that capability.

 

Over the weekend I moved the power amp section under my work bench to feed the speakers I use for testing the amps I work on. I had forgotten just how heavy that amp was. It was a struggle to position it!! Turned on it sounded glorious  and I was so delighted. 

 

 

[PinkMohawk]

I've noticed, especially with the shift towards modellers/silent stages, more and more bands, at least in metal, are moving towards all-in-one racks. An IEM rack, instrument and backing track racks too. Which does make sense, when you've got five guys, you can pretty easily move two big 10U+ racks with wheels, drums and instrument cases. Not having to haul cabs and heads does have a certain appeal too, and not even pedalboards for the bands who have their tracks set up with midi-switching to handle presets on their Helix's/Quad Cortex's. 

 

Just wish they'd learn to solder and tidy up the cable spaghetti they've all got going on in the backs of these racks. 

[Dan Dare]

3 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

I would hope so. On this side of the pond the SUV has practically replaced the sedan, even though they have the same passenger space, while pickup trucks with size inversely proportional to the owner's IQ are the norm. The dumbing down of America is officially complete.

 

We're catching you up pretty quickly, Bill. SUVs are breeding like rabbits here, too. Thankfully, many are not as massive as those favoured over there, probably because many of our roads are so narrow. Many actually have less internal space than an equivalent-sized sedan. Thankfully, bro-dozers are still quite rare, but give it time...

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

There's your price for fuel too. When it spiked here coincident with our recession in 2008 large SUVs were selling at 30% and better discounts, and small cars became popular. As soon as the fuel prices went down vehicle sizes went up. The rage among idiots now is pickup trucks that are sprung so high it requires a ladder to get into them. Why I don't know, ground clearance is still dictated by how far the differential sits off the ground, but I suspect it's compensation for a certain physical...shortcoming. 😲

[Steve Browning]

3 hours ago, PinkMohawk said:

 

Just wish they'd learn to solder and tidy up the cable spaghetti they've all got going on in the backs of these racks. 

This was mentioned in an interview with Brian May's tech. He explained that nice, tidy cable runs were a nightmare when something went wrong. Untethered cables can be changed quickly. 

[lozkerr]

If I'm playing somewhere that doesn't have backline, or only has a weedy PA, I have three racks that get trotted out:

 

A 2U rack for my Eden WTP600 head.

 

A 4U rack that holds my stand-alone IEM set-up.

 

A 6U rack that holds the PA amps and crossover.

 

One thing that really speeds up setting up and packing down is panel-mounted connectors on the back of the rack. The PA rack has four Speakon connectors and two XLR connectors for the mixer, with the electric string tied neatly out of the way inside the rack. Everything's labelled and colour-coded, so the only thing to ensure is that the colours on the cables match those on the connectors. The IEM rack has labelled XLR and jack inputs and outputs, with the IEM transmitter permanently connected to the rack mixer via a jack cable with right-angled plugs front and back.

 

The only fiddly bit is the backline speaker connections. The amp has a cycle switch that changes the colour of the Speakon sockets between 4 ohms, 8 ohms and 'do not use'. I've not yet found a reliable way to extend that to a rear rack panel, so there's a bit of faff involved in plugging the cabs into the right sockets.

 

But apart from that, I've found that carefully-designed and wired racks can save a lot of time, especially at the end of the evening when I just want to get out and get home.

[PinkMohawk]

13 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

This was mentioned in an interview with Brian May's tech. He explained that nice, tidy cable runs were a nightmare when something went wrong. Untethered cables can be changed quickly. 

Ehh, I'm not convinced, sounds like more of an excuse honestly. Secured with velcro straps not cable ties to prevent movement which would be the main source of issues with cables. And if you really need to pull a cable quickly, just disconnect the jacks from the sockets and jam a spare in there quickly, then you can pull the bad cable in your own time. Trying to pull one cable in a spaghetti sounds like a great way to take another three cables with it and really screw yourself. 

[lozkerr]

24 minutes ago, PinkMohawk said:

If you really need to pull a cable quickly, just disconnect the jacks from the sockets and jam a spare in there quickly, then you can pull the bad cable in your own time.

Agreed 100%. I've had to do that when permanent theatre lighting wiring decided to sulk half an hour before doors opened. I pulled the plug from the dimmer, ran 15 amp cables to the affected lanterns and the show went on. The sparky sorted it out the next day.

[agedhorse]

Properly harnessed racks are much more common in the pro audio side of things, we built up hundreds of racks for clients and never had any issues with servicing them. One thing about well organized (structured) wiring is that it's much easier to troubleshoot overall and it tends to be more reliable because everything is thought out in advance and executed according to the drawings.

 

 

[Downunderwonder]

2 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

There's your price for fuel too. When it spiked here coincident with our recession in 2008 large SUVs were selling at 30% and better discounts, and small cars became popular. As soon as the fuel prices went down vehicle sizes went up. The rage among idiots now is pickup trucks that are sprung so high it requires a ladder to get into them. Why I don't know, ground clearance is still dictated by how far the differential sits off the ground, but I suspect it's compensation for a certain physical...shortcoming. 😲

If you have a jacked up body you can fit bigger wheels and tires, and brakes and a new differential, and a ladder. Then you are ready to exit the supermarket carpark in any direction you please.

[NancyJohnson]

I ran racks for a few years back when I was carrying around preposterous amounts of kit.  I loved how self-contained it was; in the main it was a 4U set up, Korg Tuner (1U), Sansamps (various 1U) and a Matrix 2U poweramp (which I'd use in stereo or bridged depending on the application).  Around the back I had a 1U PSU to power everything and I had my wireless unit plugged in.

 

Just adored how tidy it was at the back; sound guys would delight that there was a short XLR extension, so it was easy to jack into FoH.  Loved the storage additional space for Speakons.  Once you put the lids on, nothing moved.  

 

Ultimately, the weight/portability of the thing was it's downfall, especially considering I'd be taking any combination of 1x15, 4x10 and 2x10 as well.  Shocking that my current small/modest set up (Darkglass AO900, plus a pair of 1x12s) arguably goes louder.

 

[Edit]. Weirdly, Facebook threw up a couple of photos today.  This was the RBI set up.  God, I loved this.  Tidy.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 22 by NancyJohnson

[northcountrybob]

 

 

 

16 hours ago, agedhorse said:

Properly harnessed racks are much more common in the pro audio side of things, we built up hundreds of racks for clients and never had any issues with servicing them. One thing about well organized (structured) wiring is that it's much easier to troubleshoot overall and it tends to be more reliable because everything is thought out in advance and executed according to the drawings.

 

 

 

 

Nice racks! Here is one from where I work... I'm actually quite tempted to get into old rack effects ATM. Midi/Quadra verbs and such. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BassmanPaul]

What I call my small PA resides in a a 4U SKB rack case. It holds a power bar, a 1000W capable Class D power amp and an in ear monitor system. I have five receivers that work with it.  The 12 channel Mackie mixer has it's own bag and sits atop the rack case in use.

 

My big PA lives in an SKB box with removable lid, front and back panels. It holds a four channel Class D 500W per channel power am for monitors, a 3KW capable Class D power amp for Mains, a power bar for distributing AC  power and a 16 channel Mackie mixer that sits under the lid.

 

Edit: I did afix wheels on each corner of the base so I just have to trundle it into place.

 

I did have other cases but they have gone to new homes.

 

Edited March 12 by BassmanPaul

[Chienmortbb]

On 11/03/2024 at 21:48, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

suspect it's compensation for a certain physical...shortcoming. 😲

Yes but it’s in the head not in the trousers/pants. As others have said, we have our share of those with sub-optimal IQs. 

[Stub Mandrel]

I've got a rack case that's 1/3 full with a 1200W pa amp and an 8 channel mic mixer. I was going to put a graphic and a compressor/processor in it, but that would make it immovable 😞

[uk_lefty]

I've never seen the attraction of having a data centre running my sound. But then again I didn't see the point of separate head and cabs until I took the plunge....

[BigRedX]

I put together my first rack unit in the late 80s. I had built up a number of rack devices I was using for my bass and guitar sounds and had also modified some pedals so they fitted into rack cases. I added up all the spaces I needed plus 2U for future expansion and built myself a total impractical 14U case out of 1/2" plywood. Even with wheels on it was too big and heavy to easily get out of our rehearsal space where it spent nearly all its time. About a year later the majority of devices in the rack were replaced by a single 1U Roland GP8. which together with a power amp, tuner and a couple of devices which did things the GP8 couldn't and the whole lot fitted into a 7U rack with a spare space. 

 

During the 90s my rack rig consisted of a 2x300W power amp, Peavy Bassfex, Peavy Spectrum Filter, Peavy Rack Light/PSU and a Korg Tuner which completely filled the 7U rack case and was ideally a two person lift. The following decade I was able to reduce this down to 6U - Tech Soundsystems Black Cat Amp, Bass Pod XT Pro, Peterson Tuner and Sony Wireless.

 

As others have said the great thing about having everything in a rack case was the set-up time was minimal. Take off the front and back lids, plug in the speakers, power and bass and I was ready to go. Most of the time the guitarists were still running their cables between their pedal boards and amps. The downside is that the weight of a rack case quickly builds up as you fill it, and is nearly always unevenly distributed towards the front which makes all but the smallest rigs a difficult carry.

 

However this all changed when I decided to ditch the backline and the rack case and contents went with it. I've now got a Helix Floor and an FRFR cab, which at a push could be carried one in each hand, and setup time is even quicker.

[Steve Browning]

I confess to having a rack setup. 

 

Unnecessary power conditioner 

Tuner

Main amp

Spare amp

 

In the back are a mains distribution unit and an isolated signal splitter to feed the inputs into the amps.

 

Not too hefty and convenient.

 

My only complaint is that the cabs are slightly thinner so the sides slightly overhang. 

[Jack]

Some rack rigs through the years. Like many I loved them for the ease of setup and hated them for the bulky carry. I still have and use the mixer rack right at the end but everything else is gone.