[RobertoCorbari]

My band has quite a few gigs coming up this year and we think its about time to invest in our own rig, pa, mixing desk, speakers etc etc
We have always hired or shared with other bands in the past. The problem is we have no idea what we need and what kind of price to expect to pay.
What kind of wattage are we gonna need (we play you usual small pub venues), how many speakers, whats the best way to monitor your sound, back through the mixing desk and into some small speakers, is there another way? Is it better to buy a mixing desk with built in Pa or to buy the units seperately?
We have mics sorted already, there a 4 vocal mics and we like to (at least) mic the bass drum as well, should we take into account mic'ing amps for any larger gigs we may have?
I haven't talked budget as i really have no idea about any of this, what do you guys use or reccommend??

I am confused, bewildered and lost!

[badasstommyboy]

small pub . . .

minimum of about 150W if you're just gonna be amplifying vocals (although I've got away with just a 75W one for vocals before now in a small pub), if you're micing up drums and everything then at least about 1000W, altho the more the better.

Speakers - most PAs either have the basic 2 speaker or 4 speaker setup. In a 4 speaker you'll have 2 subs (to handle the bassy tones) and then 2 smaller speakers positioned slightly higher up (to handle the mid and high tones).

You can either get powered (active) speakers - which plug into their own power socket, or you can get ones that are powered by a Mixer or power amp. Doesn't make much difference to the tone, just one of those options. I personally prefer active speakers, as they're a lot more flexible if you're adding extra speakers or monitors - i.e. you're not limited by the PA output wattage. But buying separate mixers and active sperkaers is a lot more money then just getting hold of a cheap 300W PA system.

Mixer - if you're micing up everything then you can say . . . around 5 or 6 for drums, 4 vocals, 2 guitars, 1 bass, so a 16 track should do it, although 24 is useful if you have any other bits going on. But if like you say you're just micing up 4 vocals and one bass drum then an 8 track mixer will do. Any places that need a guitar amp mic'd up should really have their own PA system.

For monitors, you can just have them running off the aux outputs on the mixer, then control how much of each vocal or instrument you hear from the mixer.



Or if you can get say . . . an 8 track powered mixer with 2x300W speakers you'll be good to go. However the more things you put through it, the more it'll struggle. I.e. a 150W PA will be fine for vocals in a small pub, but if you add a bass drum it might struggle and distort the vocals when the kick is played.

I'm not really up on the technical side of things, but i've been playing gigs regularly in bands for the past 5 or 6 years and this is just the experience I've accumulated.

This post has been edited by badasstommyboy: 15 February 2008 - 07:14 PM

[RobertoCorbari]

Thanks for the advice, that cleared things up for me, i will certainly bear in mind the 'upgrade' possibilities when eventually making the purchase, ive been in the situation before where ive had to spend twice the money because of a poor first descisions, i think 'overkill' certainly looks like the safer option.

This post has been edited by RobertoCorbari: 16 February 2008 - 05:26 AM

[EmEleven]

This is something you should really read alot about. Make sure all the gear your looking at will work with each other and that one wont blow the other out. Don't forget monitors so you can hear yourselves. Our group uses just 2 main speakers and maybe 3 monitors and we don't even mic the drums or bass. The acoustic is run through a direct box right to the board so you can consider that as well.

As for the drums your probably wasting your time micing every single one. kick and two overheads for sure after that add as you feel needed. If you even need to mic the drums. Even on an outside gig we didn't mic the drums and the mix was good.

[ninjato]

who is funding all of this?