Idea - any reason why I shouldn't do this?

Y

Yasoo

New member
Because I don't have a powered mixer or a stereo p.a., I was thinking if I could get away with the gear I have. Anyone know of a reason why I shouldn't use this setup, or what to look out for?

I was thinking of taking a Behringer mixer and plugging 2 mics and 2 keyboards into it. Then I thought I'd pan all the input channels left and send the left main out to a 350 Watt bass amp and use a 4x10 speaker, or maybe a 4x10 and a 15 (to match impedance 4Ohms) to amplify the vocals and keyboards.

I don't see why this wouldn't be a problem, but I have only used it for 1 bass in the input before.
 
That could work, but it would probably sound terrible. I would imagine it would sound very muddled and badly EQ'd - after all, bass heads are EQ'd for basses, not keyboards and vocals. You'd be much better off sending it all through a keyboad amp since they have much broader frequency capabilities.

If I were you, I'd just rent/borrow/steal a PA and be done with it. Yamaha makes some good cheap powered mixers, and you could go directly out from that to your cab if you had to (of course it would be in mono if you did that).
 
When you say, "Is there any reason I shouldn't do this?" I'm not quite sure what you mean. It won't blow anything up, if that's what you're asking. Will it sound good? Well, that's another matter entirely. Since the bass amp probably isn't designed to amplify a full-range signal (you didn't specify which bass amp you're planning on using), then you're not likely to have the high frequencies represented accurately in the signal. The freq. response is likely to be very uneven, too. It's O.K. to have certain frequencies boosted on a bass rig. This can even be desireable, depending on the sound you're trying to get. However, a PA system would be designed to have a flatter response. Nevertheless, it would probably be good enough for what you're hoping to do with it, and would certainly be better than nothing. The keyboards would probably sound fine. I've run across some bass amps that sounded great on keyboards, and some keyboard amps that sounded great on bass. The vocal mics are what you'd have to worry about. The short answer is that you'll probably find the results to be satisfactory for your purposes.

p.s. If the mics are SM57's and 58's, then these mics ALREADY don't have anything going on above 15kHz or so, and they ALREADY have a very uneven freq. response curve, so any PA system that you use them with is unlikely to make them sound any worse than they already sound.
 
By the way...

You DO know that you should try to bypass the preamp section of that bass head and plug into the "power amp input" to go direct to the power amp section (assuming your amp will allow this), right?

Brad
 
Thanks guys.

MadAudio -

I just need something for rehearsal.


Bassman -

I have 2 possible amps to use. One I can't see right now. This one, the Trace Elliot, doesn't have a direct in for just the amp. I'd have to put it into the input and it has an adjustable input. The mixer has an adjustable output. I should be able to match the signal. I guess that's really the thing I was wondering about.
 
It's been awhile since I've used a Trace Elliot. Transistor amps. They can sound pretty clean, from what I remember. Just watch out for the mid-scoop that is part of the sound that they are famous for. I seem to recall that you can switch that out, though.

But, yeah, it'll work in a pinch.

Brad
 
Bassman Brad said:
p.s. If the mics are SM57's and 58's, then these mics ALREADY don't have anything going on above 15kHz or so, and they ALREADY have a very uneven freq. response curve, so any PA system that you use them with is unlikely to make them sound any worse than they already sound.
Click to expand...

That's a pretty serious underestimation of the ol' 57/58. First off, there is little, if any, need for frequencies over 15kHz for live. Your average career soundguy probably has almost no hearing that high anyway.

Second, the frequency response of a 4x10 cab is going to be much poorer than that, probably only 4kHz or so.

Finally, the 'uneven' response curve of the 57/58 is common to many other vocal mics, and is designed to accentuate vocals (just like the uneven response of a bass amp is designed to complement bass).

The 57/58 isn't my favorite mic either, but to suggest it sounds so bad that almost nothing can make is sound worse is simply ludicrous.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top