Dr. Audiogeek’s checkup on Interio Bar Houston.

Interio Bar right in the middle of Houston, TX is one of the best Bar/Clubs I have ever set foot in (being a sound guy, i’ve been in a bunch). The place just exudes good vibes, and the owner, Dion really cares about sound. Dion has been having a few issues and has also added some new elements to his system so he gave the Audiogeek a call.

His sound system consists of A Behringer Xr12 mixer, two Electro-Voice Etx18sp powered subwoofers, four Electro-Voice Elx 200-15p powered speakers and a Pioneer DDJ SX3 D.J. controller.

Everything is already connected properly and i’ll go over that for you. The main outputs of the XR12 mixer are connected to the inputs of the sub ( Left out going to left sub, right out going to right sub.) The reason er do this is because Powered subs (most at least) have built-in crossovers, which separates your bass and treble. The outputs of the sub are going up to the Speakers. Going into the mixer, there is a Sennheiser XSW-1 wireless mic, and the DDJ-SX3.

The XR12 is a digital mixer that doesn’t have any knobs or faders, it is controlled from an app that can be downloaded on Android, Ios, Macos, or Windows. The unit has a built in WiFi router which creates a network which your devices can connect to, it also has an ethernet port for wired connection or use of an external router. the XR12 has a lot of the same features an the much more expensive X32, and while needing a tablet or computer to control it does add an extra layer of complexity, it does come in a a very good price of $398.99 https://www.guitarcenter.com/Behringer/X-AIR-XR12-Digital-Rackmount-Mixer-1422297029582.gc.

Electro-Voice makes awesome gear and the ETX18sp is no exception. it is an 1800 watt powered sub with built in dsp. These subs pack a serious punch and they were actually overpowering the speakers before I made some simple adjustments. The ETX18sp has a switchable crossover point, optional cardiod operation, a few preset EQ curves, two in, and two outs. All I did was turn each sub down by 6db, and change the crossover point from 120hz to 80hz. This allowed the subs to blend better with the speakers and cganging the crosoover point created a more distinct separation of treble and bass. https://www.guitarcenter.com/Electro-Voice/ETX-18SP-18-Powered-Subwoofer.gc?rNtt=etx18&index=1

The Electro-Voice Elx200-15p is an excellent powered loudspeaker. It has a power rating of 1200 watts, a titanium driver, A frequency response that goes all the way down to 55hz, built indsp and can be controlled from a bluetooth app. While the Elz line from EV is a tier bbelow the ETX line from them, The fact that Dion has four of them more than makes up for it. these speakers have two inputs and one output which can be used for daisy chaining. https://www.guitarcenter.com/Electro-Voice/ELX200-15P-15-Powered-Loudspeaker.gc?rNtt=elx&index=4

The Pioneer DDJSX3 is a very popular DJ controller. It has dual USB sound cards, Balanced XLR outputs, a separate booth output, 2 mic inputs and a four channel mixer. It is designed to work with Serato DJ Pro which users of this controller get for free. one feature that really came in handy is the ability to put a ducking compressor on the music. what a ducking compressor does is make the music automatically turn down when someone talks or sings on the mic. A very simple setup, i just connected the main output of the SX3 to a pair of inputs on the XR12. its very easy to stereo link channels on the XR12. https://www.guitarcenter.com/Pioneer/DDJ-SX3-DJ-Controller-for-Serato-DJ-Pro.gc?pdpSearchTerm=ddjsx3&tNtt=DDJSX&tAt=item&tAv=Pioneer%20DDJ-SX3%20DJ%20Controller%20for%20Serato%20DJ%20Pro

This is a very simple yet extremely effective setup and it yields a very strong sound.