| PA/Mixer Primer needed!
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Ladies and Gentleman,
My band has been playing out a bit more lately and we have some cash saved up. This is a very good thing. We are a cover band that plays clubs and bars. One of the things that we have always had trouble with is hearing ourselves on our monitors. Someone always can't hear someone else. I work at a radio station and I seem to have become the "go to" guy for sound, at least as far as this band goes. I have been setting up, breaking down, and troubleshooting all the sound system stuff. I enjoy it.
We already have a Yamaha PA/mixer combo thing that really isn't getting the job done. Sure it is plenty loud and the sound quality is good enough... but there are only six inputs and we need about ten or more. Two guitars, acoustic guitar, three vocal mics, bass, and a drum kit. We have a motley collection of mics and cables.
So the band gave me $300 and told me to go buy a mixer. What to do? I know enough about this to be dangerous.
What I really am looking for is a primer- a website, a book, something... that will bring me up to speed on a whole bunch of questions that I have.
For example-
Which mics require phantom power?
Which mic's will I destroy by accidentally hooking them up to phantom power?
What does "Hi-Z" and "Low-Z" mean?
Balanced and Unbalanced?
How do I hook the mixer into the PA? Can I just run the mixer into one of the channels? Most of the mixers I have looked at online have a left and right main out... should I run both to separate channels? Can I use one of those as the monitor?
The bottom line is we (as a band) want a good mix coming out of our PA speakers and a good mix coming out of the three stage monitors we have so we can hear each other.
I am hoping that I can draw on the wide and varied experience of my fellow TBers. A website like "Live Sound For Meatheads" would be perfect. Thanks in advance for any and all advice you send my way.
Gregg | 
