Karaoke Forums

Here's my evaluation of Breakaway...

[Short Version]

It's the biggest piece of sh!t I've ever seen!

[Long Version]

I used it at my show last night. Before starting, I went into the settings and ran the Wizard to make sure all settings were correct and that it recognized my sound card. That was the only part worked fine.

As far as enhancing the sound for the better... it does not. It only made it worse, much worse. The Evolve 50 always produced crystal clear sound with well defined bass but with Breakaway, the bass became muddy and boomy. The vocals seemed to be pushed back in the mix and drowned out by the bass. The highs sounded tinny. All in all, a disgrace. Just the most terrible overly processed sound I've ever heard.

Now, I'm sure that for some really cheap Passive speakers (think Harbinger), it may help but for a high end powered system like the Evolve 50, it is a total waste of money. You can't improve on perfection. I'm sure the engineers who developed the Evolve 50 did so to make an amazing sounding speaker requiring NO enhancement in order for it to sound good. Breakaway, just undid all of their efforts and is an embarrassment and a sham. And as I've said, Snake Oil!

So, if you have a great sounding high end powered speaker system and want to degrade the sound quality, Breakaway is for you. Anyone else, please don't fall for this scam. Don't buy into it. It's junk and garbage.

I had to temporally stop my show and ask them to turn on the jukebox while I uninstalled this crap to go back to the way things were. And before you say it, I tried all the settings. I started out with Heavy Reference, tried the other presets, and then even made my own adjustments. One worse than the other.

Now I'm sure supporters of this junk will come to it's defense and tell me I don't know what I'm talking about in order to justify their use of this crap. And if you're happy using this junk then good for you. But in my case, with the Evolve 50 it did nothing but make it sound worse. You can't improve upon perfection.

Remember, this is my experience. Your mileage may vary.

Breakaway Score = F-

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Is there anyone else here that does not like Breakaway or is Alan B the only one in the entire ocean?

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All you have proven is that unequivocally you don't know what you're doing.

Well since he probably had a stock setting instead of using the onboard manual settings, yeah I can see where the bass might be muddied up. It can be turned down to a point the bass isn't even affected. But again, I asked why would he even bother. He dislikes ANY products others find good or useful. So that is kind of my take on it.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Not always. I like many products that others find good or useful such as the Lexicon Alpha. Then again, on the other hand, I do dislike some products others find good or useful such as Bose speaker systems and Dell laptops.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Since he knows everything I'm sure he had set his entire system back to flat, so as to not be using the CompuHost EQ, board EQ, the 50's on-board DSP, and Breakaway DSP all together as a starting point.

This is absolutely correct. Everything was set flat...

• CompuHost - Never use the the EQ in CompuHost, although I've tested it and it does a very respectable job.
• A&H mixer - All EQ controls (Highs, Mids, Lows) set flat.
• Evolve 50 - Always used in the default position. Zero's across the board. No need to change anything here since this speaker sounds amazing in it's default, flat position.

I don't claim to know everything but I have been doing this for quite a while and do have somewhat of a clue. Just because Breakaway works for some, doesn't mean it will work for everybody. Everyone's systems are different. Some of them will benefit from it and some will not.

Now, sometimes processing is necessary in order for a system to sound good and sometimes it's not needed. Case in point...

A Bose speaker system NEEDS processing from a ToneMatch mixer in order for it to sound good. On the other hand, the Evolve 50 requires NO additional processing. It sounds amazing on it's own.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Which one of the 50's DSP presets is flat?

MUSIC

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Not necessarily, the one show that I go to that uses a Bose line array speaker system doesn't use a Tonematch mixer but a Behringer XR12 digital mixer and it sounds great.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Danny, the point I'm trying to make is that not everything will benefit from extra processing. Have you ever heard the term less is more?

In the case of Bose, this is where external processing is helpful since no Bose system sounds good on it's own. Whether that processing comes from a ToneMatch or an XR12, they are both digital mixers that can help a poorly sounding system sound better. Not great, but better than without using any processing at all.

In my opinion, high end powered speaker systems (think QSC, Electro-Voice, etc.) do not need any additional processing. These systems offer pristine sound on their own. Anything more is overkill and a detriment to the sound quality in which these speakers were intended to produce.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

That's one of the onboard DSP presets, and is far from 'flat'.

they recommend not using that one for vocals. but what does EV know?

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Hardly 'flat' response . Nice bump the bass and treble and cuts in mids. Closest to 'flat' would be Live mode.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

The MUSIC mode is the default position and the one I have always used. The sound is incredible and needs no additional processing. Seriously, it's that good. If you don't believe me, just ask Mr. Scott.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Sure for music it might sound great using a subtle form of the smile eq shaping with the boosting of the highs and lows and cutting the mids a bit. Which is probably why the Breakaway setting you were using sounded 'bass' heavy .

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Look, there are no speakers, at least not to my knowledge that are perfectly flat, exhibiting a straight line from 20 to 20Khz. You of all people should know that. Specs and graphs is not what's important. What's important is the sound that's coming out of the speaker. And in the case of the Evolve 50, it truly is outstanding.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

I have never used Breakaway, nor do I feel the need to do so. Like Alan said, The Evolve system stands on it's own merits very nicely. No need to adjust or EQ the music. I do have to tweek mics for sure, but that is not what is being discussed.

If I am reading this topic right, a person would use Breakaway to normalize the music when rips are not done on a consistent level or bitrate. When that is done, it only stands to reason that the music by itself would be affected, some of it would be adversely affected and some of the music would benefit from enhancements that Breakaway (or other similar programs) provide.

Am I reading this correct?

Yes it's main function is to expand/compress multiband frequencies that stand out a little too much or not enough and levels out over all volume between manufacturers. But without trying it, you really cannot speculate if it's right for you or not. I haven't heard a system yet that sounds perfect without adjustment on every song to raise/lower volume. Turn up or down bass, treble, mids to get everything sounding fairly equal. And for those that say they don't need to adjust - i call BS. Sorry!
I believe Alan tried it, but just used a basic setting and didn't tune it in any regard. If it's used subtly, it can be as transparent as any good compressor/expander. It does take some time to tweak to work with the system - as any processor would.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I think it fair assumption that some systems will benefit more or less from "acoustic wizardry"

I don't necessarily believe that just because a particular system benefits more from "enhancement" makes it an inferior system.

I use the Celestion SR-speakers and without the bass bins the bottom end needs lifting considerably to get a decent sound out of backing tracks. However, in my opinion you can't beat it for a clear vocal sound or amplifying acoustic guitar.

interesting debate.