How many watts do I need for a venue

[PaykoeTsunami93]

I wanna know how many watts would be great for a venue, I play skacore music, so it's gonna be heard a lot

[arai]

What is skacore?

What size is the venue and would you be going through a PA?

[PaykoeTsunami93]

Skacore is a growing underground scene
It's ska combined with hardcore punk
Check out these bands
Cerebro
Red store bums
Vidalta
Cannabiscuits
Doña canches
So cal skankers
Matamoskas
Blanco y negro
La pobreska
Chancalso

No Pa btw

[Munjibunga]

How big is the venue? 100 people? 1,000?

[rapidfirerob]

If you go through the PA, you need to be loud enough to keep up with your band members.

[Adam Bomb]

354 watts.

/thread

--Bomb

[lowfreq33]

No PA, I'd want at least 400 watts and a 410 or 212 if you want clean headroom.

[Essen]

IME the bigger the venue the less watts you need. Bigger venues have bigger PA's. I keep the stage volume low anyway.

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by Adam Bomb

354 watts.

/thread

--Bomb

Or 236 watts.

[walterw]

all of them, you need all the watts.

[arai]

Originally Posted by PaykoeTsunami93

Skacore is a growing underground scene
It's ska combined with hardcore punk
Check out these bands
Cerebro
Red store bums
Vidalta
Cannabiscuits
Doña canches
So cal skankers
Matamoskas
Blanco y negro
La pobreska
Chancalso

No Pa btw

Interesting. Vidalta And chanclaso 78 stood out to me. When you said hard core punk I was surprised that there was was so many horns in the bands,

You are going to need a loud amp I would say. But one 500 watt amp may not be as loud as another 500 watt amp. It depends on the baked in tone of the amp.
What is the venue size, like how many people and what is your budget? do you have a cab already?

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

Or 236 watts.

It works for me.

[Downunderwonder]

Underground as in played in basements?

I'm in the less volume is more fun camp. Most bands of young fellas play well too loud for anyone to hear the vocals, just a giant mess of sound. It is quite feasible to play "hard out" at a level where the punters don't need to scream in each other's ears to make a conversation.

To that end my rock band plays vocal PA with 15W guitar amp and I can use my 2x10 with 250W amp. To get the bottom end of ska I would be looking at a couple of 15's and 300W.

I went to a ska reggae rock band last night in a small bar, would hold 50 people and be fully full. Bassist had a 100W 15" combo in the corner, sounded real good.

[BullHorn]

I've played some gigs through a 100W Fender Rumble combo with a 15" speaker and it was plenty. Using the 1000W Ampeg with a 4x10 cabinet only makes me feel like I can play louder but it's rarely required.

[RickenBoogie]

Wattage is not the best way to measure your potential volume, speaker cabs are. In this case, 300-500 watts through a fairly large cab is what I'd suggest. No PA means even bigger spkrs are needed.

[tekdiver500ft]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

Or 236 watts.

FTW!

You need as many watts as you think you need. Wattage is only a small part of the story. Cabinet design and efficiency are far more important.

[Ewo]

In general, I'd say more power is better, thinking of the usual club gig.

When you're running either amp or cab(s) at the outer limit, things are more apt to break. This is especially true when you're EQing for a subby low end.

And--again, in general--you want your amp and speakers matched in terms of power and power handling. Just as a practical matter it's easy (when running an amp way bigger than the cab's max) on a loud stage to keep turning up, not notice the speakers are starting to fart (this is assuming the stage mix ain't totally crystal clear), and damage them.

[wcriley]

Too many variables involved for anyone to give you a definitive answer.

I've gotten by with a 40/50 watt Bassman head without problem.
I've also been in situations where I've wished I'd brought more than my G-K1001RB-II.
Different bands/rooms/situations.

[Floyd Eye]

810 or a couple 410s and at least 700 watts.

[Simorchid]

1.21 GIGAWATTS!!!!

[tekdiver500ft]

Originally Posted by Simorchid

1.21 GIGAWATTS!!!!

Great Scott!

Of course, you only need that much power if you play at 88 m.p.h.