Some PA Questions For The Experienced.

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drummerdoug86

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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.
 
Mic the guitar amps if you want them to sound good, and if you can tell us what kind of mixer you have it will be easier to help you with the monitor question. I suspect you'll need another power amp to run monitors, but without knowing what you have that's speculation.
 
Your mixer will either have auxillery or monitor outputs on it some where and monitor/aux sends on the channels. This is where you send signal to your monitor amp system. Mic the guitar amps. If the bass players amp has a line output, you can take that to the board (he's still playing through his cabnit of course). For the most part, send only vocals to yor monitor mix. Also know that the aux/monitor sends are (for the most part) pre EQ/fader sends so the EQ on a channel doesn't go to the monitor master send (no EQ and fader movements don't effect it's level). It's a REAL good idea to have at the very least a 1/3 octave EQ on the monitor buss for feedback controll. Most of the feedback problems you'll run into will be generated from the monitors so you'll want something there.
 
If you must, you can use the line outs on the guitar amps, but it's going to be tough to make them sound good. As near as I can tell from the link, this is not a powered mixer. Therefore you will need at least two power amps. One will run monitors and will get its input from an auxillary or monitor send. The other will run mains and get its input from the main outputs. That's a simple explanation. I suspect if you look through the mixer manual it will show various configurations for patching eq's etc.
 
I wouldn't put the guitars or bass into the PA then and only use it for vocals and just let your stage volume carry the instruments. Unless you're playing a large venue, this should be fine. I would NOT use the direct outs from the guitar amps as that will most surly sound like ass.
 
The PA speakers and the monitors are active, I think. So I will not need a power amp right? And I'm gonna have to plug the bass in directly, because his amp is a POS. It's a Peavey Rage, it's not even supposed to be used for a bass!
 
I think Track has the best idea. Just get the stage sound from stage and use the PA for vocals only. If the whole PA is only a couple of powered speakers, you may want to rent a bass amp. You might need all the power you can get for vocals.
 
You don't appear to have anywhere near the amount of gear you need to do monitors and run guitar amps through a PA. Your insrument players will have to have basic amps to play. Jacking them into the board you are describing is not realistic. If you need to, rent an amp. If you can't afford that, you don't have enough money to be a rock band, so *get a straight job and buy some gear!*-Richie
 
If your monitors are powered than you will be okay. Just run vocals like everybody says. Tell your bass player to beg, borrow or steal a fricken bass amp. If somebody wants to be in a band they are usually expected to have the minimum equipment neccessary.
 
It looks as if your best bet is like the other cats said, get the bass player to rent, borrow, buy, or steal an amp. if the main speakers are powered already you can split the signal at the mixer and send it to another "borrowed, rented, or stolen" amp/speaker cab or powered cabinet for monitor. An old tried and proven method is to get the PA loud enough to fill the room and turn one of the mains sideways and use it for monitor.
 
Hmmmm....

Ok, so if I plugged the bass in directly to the mixer, would it not be loud enought to compete with the guitars? And second, should I use my drum mics or just play without them. I have two overheads and a kick mic.
 
A lot of that will just be 'try it and see'. Can't you set it all up before hand and see how well it works? If not the best practice is to keep it simple and just plan on vocals only. Anything else is icing on the cake. If you count on using it for bass and it does mess up the vocals then you are really screwed.
 
drummerdoug,

I DO NOT MEAN THIS TO SOUND CONDESCENDING!!!!!Seriously, I'm just trying to save you some grief here.
It sounds like you really could use some experienced help for this gig. If you want the gig to come off well, get someone with some experience to help you out here.

Again: I'm not trying to piss you off but it sounds like you have not much of an idea about live sound. You're asking a lot of questions that are very difficult to answer without a hell of a lot more info (room size, how many speakers, what kind of speakers, how many and what kind of amps are available, what is your budget, how many mics you have, what is the configuration of your band,how many players, what is the instrumentation, how large of an audience are you playing for, is it a loud rock room or a dinner club, etc...etc...). There will be acoustic problems, micing problems, and a lot of other stuff you haven't BEGUN to think of yet. Get someone to help you out for the first couple of gigs until you get the hang of things. You'll be a lot happier. A lot of the stuff you need to know comes from "on-the-job" experience and you simply can't learn all you need to know from a BBS.

Good Luck!
:D :D
 
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