Some PA Questions For The Experienced.

[drummerdoug86]

Ok, so the band I am in, we are having a gig in two weeks. I know the basics of setting up PA, but there are still some questions I need answered.

1. I want to hook up two PA speakers, and two stage monitors. My mixer, however, has two main mix outputs. So if I hook up the PA speakers to those two, where do I hook up the monitors?

2. How should I hook the guitars up? I could hook them directly to the mixer, then could I run a TRS from the direct out channel to my guitar amp, or should I just get a direct box. Keep in mind I want to be able to use distortion. The distortion is built in on the amp, no pedals.

Thats pretty much it for now.

 

[Light]

The monitors get hooked up to the AUX send outs. Hook them up in mono. If everyone has amps on stage, you likely only need the vocals in the monitors, with maybe some kick or snare. Keyboards, if you have any, can help singers sing in key when put in the monitors. If you add more than that, the sound image starts to get confusing, and they don't do you most people much good. Don't DI guitars, mic them. You can DI the bass, if you need to, but if the room is not large, you can just use the amp, same for guitars. If you want an answer beyond that, you need to tell me how big the hall is, how many people, etc.

Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[camn]

what kind of mixer is it?

and I DI my guitar all the time.... Especially in small rooms. I do it to keep my stage volume low... but its still loud enough that the first couple tables will hear it.. then I just patch a line out from my amp into the board. No feedback, no noise.. just a little backup, and a little monitoring.
In bigger rooms, I move my amp to the front of the stage and crank it... but away from us on stage... cuz we like to be able to hear... then I run a line back into the monitors.

But if its a REALLY big room, and the PA is gonna do the lion's share of amping my guitar.. then I mic it.. cuz speaker tone is importante.

oxoxo

 

[camn]

oh.. and I ALWAYS run the bass direct. But our bassist is real clean.

And I always run kick and bass, as well as vox and ttables... even if its just a little bit of kick and bass.. it makes a big difference. Most rooms thats all we need.

 

[Light]

Too much bass in the monitors can make singers sing flat. It is a issue of psycoacoustics. Your ear gets fooled by the bass. A little is fine, but if the singer dosn't ask for it, I do not put it in there. Of course if they do ask, they get it. It is not my sound, it is theirs. Kick and snare are good to have in the monitors, because they help to keep everyone in the pocket. Assuming the drummer has a pocket.

Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[BrettB]

Too much bass in the monitors can make singers sing flat. It is a issue of psycoacoustics. Your ear gets fooled by the bass. A little is fine, but if the singer dosn't ask for it, I do not put it in there.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

Nope, the rythm guitar or keyboard always helps, and for the rest a lot of vocals in the singers monitor.

I agree with the kick and snare in monitor.

 

[Badger]

Small club you may not need to run the GTR through the PA at all. Most bands I have been in, we ran vocals, and keys through the PA, drums were loud enough already, and bass and GTR just ran thier own amp. Also, you want to run your mains mono, so depending on your setup, you could just chain your mains off of one chanel of your board, and run the monitors off of the other(if, for instance, you dont have a mixer with an aux to spair).