Another newbie questions about PA's...

N

nafai

New member
OK, I've figured out that there are basically 3 PA configs:

1) powered mixer, unpowered speakers
2) power amp, unpowered mixer, unpowered speakers
3) powered speakers, unpowered mixer

What I can't figure out are what the pros\cons of each one is, other than config 2 has more gear to deal with.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thx.
 
Alot depends on usage & budget.

Are we giggin now?

Do we schlep or do we pay roadies to schlep?

club use or rehearsal etc.

Are we a folkie band or do we have 3 Marshalls and a lead screamer.

I've done more stage work than home recording - and I like what I have seen and heard recently in those 300W Eons.

From my perspective I would say -

3)unpowered mixer, powered speakers
 
Good point! Knowing what I need would help, huh?

Let's see:

1) Not currently gigging, but getting ready to start soon.

2) We schlep...no roadies.

3) Mainly for practice use...so we don't need the ultra loud, death PA...just something that projects. Right now we're renting a Yorkville MP6 and a couple of 200 Watt 15" Yorkville speakers. That's working OK it seems, but I don't want to pay rent on it forever. (We're also going to play at a party or two, so it needs to be able to handlke that.)

4) We're a 3-piece: guitar, bass, drums...although we've plans to add some electronics to the equation soon. So, I'd say 2 Marshalls (well, Fenders actually) and 1 lead screamer...with the occasional backup yelp from the drummer.

Thanks!
 
The "with the occasional backup yelp" line just about caused me to spit fruit punch on my keyboard. Thanks

I think each option has its advantages - separate bits means you can upgrade each as your needs change (for instance, changing mixers as you need more inputs), but I think the "powered speaker, unpowered mixer" is probably quite flexible, since you need to generally keep your amp and speakers in lockstep anyways, so buying 'em in one package is convenient and one less thing to schlep.

Plus, with the unpowered mixers you generally get faders instead of knobs - and faders are just much cooler :D
 
PA's

So where does one go about getting good PA equipment at reasonable prices? I live in Chandler (Phoenix), Arizona.
We are a 70 member acappella chorus that needs a sound system for rehearsals and quartets.

It needs to have at least two mics and the ability to record to cassette (external is fine) and playback from cassette or CD (again, external is fine). Portability, ease of use and of course, low cost are also concerns.

I've shopped around on the Internet but I really don't know what we need.
 
More info needed :

So you'll be doing quartets? So only 4 singers? Or all 72?

How big of venue? Are you background or not?

Do you have a sound guy or will you be doing it as you sing?
 
PA's

It could be either the whole chorus or just the quartet. We'd change the setup for each, of course. No sound person beyond someone to watch for feedback or something. It's acappella so we control the sound balance and volume with our voices. What I mean by that is that we don't turn the volumn up and down on the sound system so that our song is heard at a consistent volumn. Singing incredibly soft softs and loud louds is part of the fun. Our worst nightmare is when we are playing a venue and the sound guy tries to do us a favor by balancing our volume for us. We just have to make sure that our louds don't over power the system.

We would not need a system any bigger than what would be necessary for an audience indoors of about 250 people.
 
Closest I've ever done was with a high school jazz choir (acapella as well) that was about 25 people... they had a mic (handheld) for each 2 people, which seemed to work well, but scaling that up to your size would require a hell of a lot of mics!

You could probably get away with a couple of condensers in front of you, but I'm getting outta my depth here. Anyone else????
 
How about just for a quartet? The organization uses a two mic setup in which the mics are crossed (the left mic pointing at the two right hand people and the right mic pointing at the two left hand people). With the needs stated in my earlier post, what is the bare minimum we would need to set up an adequate system.
 
I was hoping someone else answered this before I attempted to give a response, but here goes. DISCLAIMER : When I was actually dealing with live stuff, I was not handling the gear. Now that I *AM* a gear head, I'm doing studio stuff only (well, a bit of coffee house live stuff, but that's just a 100 watt amp!)

I would say with confidence that a pair of 800 watt powered speakers and a unpowered mixer (like, say, a Mackie 1202 (there's some expansion room there, in case you decide to, for instance, give each member of the quartet a mic)) along with a pair of Rode NT2s would be a good start.

A cheap alternative to the Rodes that I've had luck with in the studio and for live ambient recording is the Yorkville Apex 420's. I'm really happy with mine.

Alternatively, you could give each member of the quartet an SM57 or SM58 (the industry workhorse mic) and allow them to sing directly into the mic - that can allow you to do some neat proximity effect stuff and vary volume with mic distance as well as voice.

What sorta budget are you looking at?
 
There is a Guitar Center in Chandler

They will give you a fair deal....

I used to live in the Phoenix area.... It's about 110 degrees right now isn't it! HA HA HA .... I am so glad to be out of there...

Oh Oh... Ahhh Sorry I got carried away there...

It sounds like you have a church group or something?
I'd go with an unpowered mixer, they usually have better specs for recording, and use 4 speakers (2 pairs of powered speakers) this will give you the flexibillity to place speakers best in each room you perform in. If you can afford it, buy 8 Shure SM58 microphones and boom stands. Raise 4 of the booms up high for the back row of singers. And leave 4 mics up front to catch the front singers, when you do the quartet numbers, have the singers step up front to one or two of the mics.

The SM58's will work well and eliminate feedback, you can experiment with mic placement, but any fewer mics and I don't think you will get even coverage. Omni Directional mics could work, but you may have feedback problems!

Crank down the Air Conditioner and stay Cool!

Dom Franco

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
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