Live Sound

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eraos

eraos

Local Spiderman
How much of an amp--speakers, too-- would I need to effectively fill a venue? Like, say, space for 750 people with people to fill that space.

500watts .. ?
I really have no idea.
 
Concert volume? Or are you just trying to get the vocals heard?
 
I did a small venue, and 600w RMS did me. No mics on the drums, just amps and vocals. And the drums carryed perfect. but that was for a room of 100 people.

How big is the venue ect?

- Idgeit
 
well, there is really no set venue. I'm asking for a general sense.

I'm going to college for music, and the program there is fairly large. So I'm thinking that a lot of bands will form, many which may need, or would appreciate having, a live soundman.
So, I'm thinking that if I can get some decent speakers and a decent sized amp, I would have a good chance of business.

So, I'm assuming that for starters, I would need an amp for a venue with a size that could hold no more than 500-700 people. With concert volume.
 
A bare minimum in most cases would be a base of 500 watts plus one watt per seat. That's a very gentle amount of power for most bands... Acoustic stuff would be fine - Rock would be anemic.

That being said, if you're looking for *CONCERT POWER* in a 700 seat auditorium, I'd start with 2500-3000 watts. Around half to the subs. Which still isn't going to get "loud" but it should at least be somewhat clear.
 
Maybe a pair of amps, 2000W for the mains and 1000W for monitors.

Do you really need to plan for 700 people? That's a pretty good sized auditorium. It's safer to set your goals a little lower, and make sure your setup is scalable. For example you could start with a single 1000W amp and four wedges, and do small rooms with two cabs for monitors & two for mains, and score the larger boxes and amp you'll need for mains in a big room once you get more business.
 
My band plays rock. We use 2 18" W bins(w/1000W), 1 horn loaded 15 cab(w/600W), and 1 sp2 cab(w/600W) per side. Roughly 5000W not including monitors. If you are playing heavy stuff and micing up a drum kit in a room that holds 750+, I couldn't imagine anything less. I've seen it done and it's not pretty. It sounds like someone stuck a transitor radio in the corner and cranked it up. Now, I know someone is going to say "That's way too much, you'll drive the people out." Nonsense. nobody says you have to turn it all the way up. But it is nice to have enough low end to blow their shirts over their heads :D
 
What speakers are you looking at? Their are no solid answers for this but I would want 4,000watt+ to begin with. You do know you "should" have more things to worry about other than just amps speakers and a mixer.

Do you have a budget? Their's a BIG diffrence between a behringer amp and a crown I-tech.

If you don't know on speakers JBL SRX are pretty nice. http://www.jblpro.com/srx700/728S.htm The monitors are great little things. Yorkville seem good also.
I'm using a nexo PS series system for a 300-400 person venue and I think where running about 6-7,000 watts for the house system plus monitors but the room is quite large for the amount it holds.

What kind of monitor set up are you looking at? Just running a few aux sends from the house console? IEM's and a but kicker for the drummer?

What type of FOH mixer do you have or are looking at? allen & heath has some decent stuff that wont break the bank.

What type of house processing(comps gates fx's) do you have in mind?

How about processing for the house speakers? (dbx 260.. bss omnidrive..) or just a 31 band eq and a crossover?


Check this site out http://www.prosoundweb.com/live/articles/chrisk/vdosc/side.shtml now that would be a nice system but WAY over what ever budget you would be thiking about. That site has LOTS of info that might help.
 
wow, well, i wasn't expecting so much power to be necessary.

I admit that I haven't completely thought this all the way through yet. so this is just a rough plan.

I honestly don't know what to expect for next year with regards to what I'll be doing and what I'll need. I have a 16/2 Soundcraft F1 Folio, as well as a small mixer which would be good for submixing.

My budget isn't very much. I don't have a lot to invest in this. I guess, about 50% of what I will make over teh summer.. so my budget will be less than 1000.... say, 750-900 dollars.

I was thinking that I'd just work up the equipment as I work up the money. Starting out with a decent amp and two decent speakers.. then, as soon as possible, a monitor, then two... and onward with everything else. Hopefully my investment will be payed off with the returns.

Yeah, I really don't know what to expect.
 
also, I'm sort of expecting, maybe more hoping, that the band will have a few pieces of equipment themselves, such as speakers. And I could just run the sound.

Saves me money.

But I would like to build up on the things I'll need.
 
Looks like you are seeing Live sound isn't cheap. I would guess the average price for a system able to put on a concert for 750 people would be around 10k. Their is just so much stuff you have to factor in!!
 
I run a pro audio company. For a 700 seat rock concert I would take approximately 10000 watts of power for just FOH. That is broken up between 2 Crest CA18's, 2 Crest CA12's and 2 Crest CA9's. That would be for a stereo 3 way system. For 300 people or less of Full Concert volume I would only take half that (1 rack), or for 500 people pr less (not heavy rock) just 1 rack. Not only that, but those are with high end cabs with very efficient drivers. A full concert volume system for that many people requires a lot of cabs, amps, and cables.
 
Thanks for all the advice and info, everyone.

I guess I'll just have to build as I go, and just start out with bar mitzvahs, as the joke probably goes. :rolleyes:
 
First off, what kind of music will be reinforced? Church choir? Slayer? Aimee Mann? Locals or nationals (nationals will be MUCH MORE demanding. Make sure you get a copy of the rider from the promoter).

I do a lot of live sound. One of the first venues I regularly worked at was 600 capacity. We had 12,000 watts of Crown pushing an EAW rig. Most of the touring guys were fine with it, except the really heavy shows (Kittie, Cannible Corpse, Manowar). Those guys weren't satisfied with the SPL.
 
I really don't know what kind of music I'll be reinforcing. I'm assuming just local rock/punk bands. Maybe a lot of acoustic stuff too.

But I have no idea.
 
What is the difference between 5k watts and 12k watts in SPL?

Is the difference exponential? Or is it all linear?
 
Raw SPL will not be as different as you might think. However the quality of that SPL will be exponential.

I have done many shows for both Cannibal Corpse and Kittie. If the EAW's were KF850's or similar, than I suspect that it was other parts of the rig that they really weren't happy with (assuming of course that the Crowns being used were Macrotechs). If they were something like the EAW LA series, or there just weren't enough cabinets out, then there is a good chance that speaker selection or quantity was the limiting factor.
 
I've know that for stereo home receivers that if the receiver is 100w full-bandwidth rated then it will sound more powerful than a receiver that isn't full-bandwidth.
Is that the same principle that everyone's tal;king about with quality amps vs. behringer and nady amps?
 
i'll be using a setup based on wattage per person, 5w/person for country, 10w/person for rock. So for 500 people, i would use at total of 5000 watts for rock music.
 
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