What is your bands PA set-up like?

[two fingers]

Originally Posted by tbirdsp

Certainly the way to go - IF you already have an iPad (I don't, nor an iPhone) and have the money for all that high $$$ Class D stuff.

I think the money is a wash or maybe even works in your favor here.

No snake (because everything is wireless so you can put the mixer right by the stage). - several hundred dollars

The Mackie mixer is cheaper than some other regular boards.

No power amps and racks to keep them in. - several hundred and possibly well over a thousand dollars

No speaker cable and cases to keep them in. - potentially hundreds of dollars

No effects or racks to put them in. - hundreds to well over a thousand dollars

Set up/tear down time is a fraction of a regular PA. - time IS money in my book

And transportation costs have to be a lot less because this stuff can probably fit in a minivan. - depending on how much you play THOUSANDS of dollars in smaller vehicle purchasing, maintaining, and fuel costs PER YEAR

[badstonebass]

Depends on the venue. We have JBL 15 x Horn tops that we use 1 to 4 pairs of and then we have some 18" subs that we use 1 to 5 pairs of. 15 - 20000 watts of power are available.

Amazingly with this PA we use hot spot monitors. We used them as emergency monitors at a show once and found we could hear them so much better than anything else we tried over the years. Vocals only of course.

[tbirdsp]

Originally Posted by two fingers

I think the money is a wash or maybe even works in your favor here.

No snake (because everything is wireless so you can put the mixer right by the stage). - several hundred dollars

The Mackie mixer is cheaper than some other regular boards.

No power amps and racks to keep them in. - several hundred and possibly well over a thousand dollars

No speaker cable and cases to keep them in. - potentially hundreds of dollars

No effects or racks to put them in. - hundreds to well over a thousand dollars

Set up/tear down time is a fraction of a regular PA. - time IS money in my book

And transportation costs have to be a lot less because this stuff can probably fit in a minivan. - depending on how much you play THOUSANDS of dollars in smaller vehicle purchasing, maintaining, and fuel costs PER YEAR

I'm running from the stage and checking the mix with a cheap guitar wireless - no snake.

Mixer is a Mackie ProFX16 - got new for 400 bucks. It has adequate on-board efx and compression for my needs (blues band). I use the built in graphic EQ for mains and have another rack mount stereo EQ (bought used) for monitors.
Power conditioner, monitor EQ and an old Alesis Microverb III EFX unit (I use it on a few songs for a long delay) plus a CD player are in a Grundorf 6U rack I already had.

I have one used QSC RMX850 I use for monitors ( I think I paid 175 bucks?). It's in a 2U rack that cost 70 bucks.
Monitor cabs are Behringer VP1220P (12 plus horn). I own a pair and the guitarist has another pair. A pair with 2 - 15 ft speaker cables is $225 shipped. We run 2 monitor mixes if needed.

My mains are Behringer B212D powered tops with a single B1500D powered sub. So no speaker cables there either. All three of these together (bought used or new scratch'n'dent) cost me less than 750 bucks.

I did buy a used 2006 Haulmark 5X8 enclosed trailer to haul the gear in, but I have other uses for it (motorcycle trailer) and I sold my ancient H&H 5X10 open flatbed for 400 bucks to help offset the cost. Tow vehicle is my 12 year old Toyota Tundra which I had anyway.

I have 4 SM58's, 4 SM57's, and a Sennheiser e902 kick mic, all bought used, total about 500 bucks.


I'm agreeing with you, but there's just no way I was gonna spend a grand for a DL1608 and then another 500 for an iPad.

[RDUB]

Classic and more modern rock cover band. 2 guitars, keys, bass, lead vocals plus three backups. Everything is miked.

Presonus 1642
Yorkville NX55P X2
Yorkville NX720S sub
2 or 3 QSC RMX 850's (for up to 5 monitor channels)
5 Yamaha SM10V wedges

Fairly compact, quick to setup, and kicks butt in small to medium rooms. I use Aux 6 to feed the subs. If I want to record, I bring my laptop, connect with FW, and record 16 tracks. I think about going to powered monitors, or even IEM's, but the wedges are cheap, clean, and loud when properly eq'd.

[Floyd Eye]

Hard rock/alt 90's cover band.
2 Crown XTi2000
1QSC GX7
1 Behringer Europower4000 ( not mine, belongs to our soundguy)
2 18" subs loaded with Eminence Deltas
2 Yamaha 12" mains
2 JRX 215 mains ( again, not mine, belongs to the soundguy)
Mixwiz 16:2
Microverb
Crappy 2 channel 31 band EQ for monitors
SM58s
Boatload of low rent drum mics ( Except the kick mics are bad ass)

Used in various configurations depending on gig and level of knowledge over the past couple years.

[watspan]

I don't see the logic behind a powered mixer is bad but powered speakers are good. the power of each can both become too little. at least w/ the mixer you can run an external power amp.

I'm in 2 bands--a 4 piece blues--use Carvin powered mixer, wireless IEM, 1x15 mains no sub--light, quick set up, tear down. vocals w/ a wee bit of kick support

The trio I'm in hauls a ton of old, large, heavy gear and takes forever to set up and tear down. jbl 18 sub, 2 Sound Tech 1x15 mains, 2 monitors and 3 rack boxes w/ 3 power amps, 2 eq's, effects and x-over. mackie 1402. vocals and a pounding kick. bl won't budge on smaller/lighter/less even when I offered to buy! we play bars w/ 100 people max.

[Granddesign]

We are a 4 piece Christian Rock/Worship band. We have a Presonus 16.4.2 mixer with 3 - QSC Powered K12 for monitors, 2 - Yorkville Elite EF500P 15" Powered tops and 2 Yorkville Elite EL801P 18" Subs, our drummer uses inears. We use Audix Mics (OM2, OM5 for Vox, D series for drums, I5 for guitar and snare.)for everything and also a Subkick for the low end on the Bass Drum. We get booked a lot of place for our system, i think lol. More than enough headroom and super clear. Get many compliments on our system

[seanm]

Originally Posted by walterw

and that's why you don't buy a powered mixer (unless it's a craigslist prize for your practice room). whatever you get, it ends up being left behind as you improve the rest of the PA.

Actually, I just needed to buy the next version up. It has what I need: inserts on most channels and two monitor mixes. I didn't get it because it was a bit too wide... but I should have. I could have made a shelf...

The reason I like the powered mixer is that it fits on top of my bass amp. So it takes no extra room. I realize a mixer and all powered speakers could also work. But I don't like powered monitors (and yes, I have used them). We almost never have a stage. So powered monitors mean more cables to tape down.

I am seriously considering powered mains though. The mains cables tend to be less of a problem then monitors.

[Biggbass]

We have a small-med PA that works well for clubs, pubs, restaurants, etc. For bigger gigs sound support is supplied, or we contract a local sound support company and work that expense into the price. Our regular use PA is this: not sure of the power rating but it more than does the job for us.

FOH - 2 Klipsch mains on poles over 2 JBL subwoofers
Power - QSC two channel amp...ch 1 to mains ch 2 to subs.
Mixer - Presonus Studio Live 16.
Monitors - we use the 6 aux sends on the mixer for individual IEM sends, which are individually mixed by the band members via the iPhone app.

[tjh]

old skool ... 50's-early 70's R & R, two guitars, piano, bass and drums ...

I own 4 Yammie Club Series 115 IV's for FOH and some Yorkie monitors, snake and cables ...

.. a guitar player supplies a Behringer board (it works & his money), SoundCraft (?) power and EQ ... everybody supplies their own mic's and stands ...

It may be nice to have the new, modern stuff, but with every else going that way, the old stuff is going for next to nothing ... and I have yet to have one audience member, or person hiring suggest we modernize ...

Edit to add: .. if we need more, or for something special, there are more than enough folk out there with the system, the $$, and the knowledge (that I dont have) to fill our need, with just a phone call ... and then they get to worry about it ...

[RS66LB]

Originally Posted by MatticusMania

Some questions to those of you who play in bands and provide your own sound...

What gear are you using? Whats the wattage? Is it enough for a medium-to-large sized room? Outdoors?

I want to put together a decent set-up for the coverband that I'll likely be starting within the next few months. I should probably mention that this'll be for a 4 or 5 piece band - at least 3 vocals, 2 Keys, Bass, 1 (maybe 2) guitars, and drums. Thanks all, in advance, for your input.

We use a Rane AC23B crossover which feeds

per side; (2) EL-36 folded horns, each pair driven by a bridged Crest FA-2401

a single "Voice of the theater" type of mid bin with an extended range Eminence Kappa pro 15" driven by one side of a Crest FA-1201

an EV 6040 horn driven by a Radian 850-PB 2" driver and powered by one side of a Crest FA-901

...our rig is kind of propriatary for our particulars, even though our Mackie 1604VLZ is pretty much maxed out (12 mic's on the kit alone) we're able to customize 8 of those mics by using a digital XD-88 that has both graphic and parametric eq available per input

-this rig has incredible fidelity and headroom however it's quite cumbersome and heavy

...for your needs perhaps a Mackie DL-1608 (and iPad) might be a great starting point since it has excellent reverbs, compression and eqing capabilities in one small package -even without expanding the monitor set up for wireless individual (iPad) control you still have 6 sends for the traditional monitor mix set up.
With this you could feed either of the two commonly used set ups;
The 'passive' set up would be something like obtaining a known name power amp which in turn could feed somthing like a pair of Peavey PR-12's (2 speakers per side)
A 'powered' set up could be something as simple as 2 pairs of Mackie "Thumps"
-either way rigs like this are good since they are modular (smaller pieces-easier to carry), not too expensive and can easily be expanded later.

[RS66LB]

Originally Posted by Jackson171

I am in a six piece Rock, Blues and Country band with 3 guitars, one keyboard, bass, large drum kit, and 5 vocals mics.

We are using a 16 channel Mackie board, three 1,000 watt power amps, 2 Community 4x15's, 2 Community 4x12+horns, and 4-6 monitors of various kinds.

The Community cabs are for the FOH mains. For most of the smaller venues, I don't use the bass bins (4x15) and don't need the third power amp. When we use the full system, it's just too loud, and frankly I'm getting tired of moving them around.

For the monitors, we usually have 2 Carvin 15" wedges up front for vocals. Another wedge goes back behind the drummer and teh 4th will usually go over on stage right for the lead guitar to hear vocals. We will add monitors on stage Left for me (bass) and the keyboards to hear the lead guitar, only when needed. All of the monitors will run off of one of the power amps. We run 2 mixes, one for the vocalists up front and one for everyone else off the other channel.

I run 31 band eq's on both monitor channels and a stereo eq with about half the the number of sliders (don't know how many) for the mains. We usually have more feedback issues on the monitors, very few issues with the mains.

I have been using this basic system for about 20 years, running sound and playing bass. Over time I got really frustrated trying to do both and got a guy to cover the board once we start playing.

I vastly prefer to do shows with a house system. I am really tired of tearing down, moving and setting up. We have a trailer to haul it all and are very efficient at packing and moving.

The system is only used for gigs where we have to provided our own sound, except for rehearsals. The thing is we don't make any extra money at these gigs and all the work is barely worth it. We figure in about 3 hours to tear down and set up, each time the system is moved. This gets a lot shorter with more help. I do it only because there is no other way to make the gig happen at times.

Currently I want to replace my board with a PreSonus digital, but a 2K for a 16 channel, I'm holding off for a while.

lol, although we don't have your exact rig we have the same essential situation where just the 'mains' rack weighs in at 225 lbs yet is only 4 amps...from there it only gets worse

[Zooberwerx]

Soundcraft Spirit FX16 mixer

GEQ and Aphex 104 in the main insert(s)

Alesis FX engine in Aux 3

Mixer feeds a dbx DriveRack

High out > Drivecore XLS 2500 (bridged) > Carvin 1503's

Low out > Drivercore XLS 1500 (bridged) > Y'vilee PS18 subs

Aux 1 & 2 outs > GEQ > BBE Sonic Max > QSC RMX1450 > Carvin monitors

...uuuh, that about does it!

Riis

[Ryan L.]

Variety cover band---rock, classic rock, country, pop, etc.

For outdoor stuff--street dances/festivals (which is all we do all summer):

(8) JBL SRX dual 18" subs
(8) JBL SRX dual 15"+horn tops
(5) JBL SRX 12"+ horn monitors
QSC power (RMX and PLX2) totalling about 25000 watts to the mains, and PLX3402's running the monitors
Allen & Heath GL2400 FOH board
DBX Driverack for the crossover
Allen & Heath MixWizard2 for monitor board
A bunch of DBX compressors, feedback destroyers, a dual 31 band EQ, etc...
Whirlwind splitter snake
A whole bunch of LED Par 64's and other lighting stuff, controlled via laptop.
I know I'm leaving some stuff out, but I can't remember all the little details.

For indoor stuff, we cut the mains in half (only 2 subs/tops per side).

It's a monster of a PA system, but there has never been a time when we haven't had enough---and we've played to some pretty large crowds (5000+). The PA is hauled in a Ford box truck with a 20' box on it. 2 man crew handles most of the setup/teardown, and runs sound and lights. The band travels in a 42' motorhome. Yeah, it's a pretty good gig.

[two fingers]

Originally Posted by Ryan L.

Variety cover band---rock, classic rock, country, pop, etc.

For outdoor stuff--street dances/festivals (which is all we do all summer):

(8) JBL SRX dual 18" subs
(8) JBL SRX dual 15"+horn tops
(5) JBL SRX 12"+ horn monitors
QSC power (RMX and PLX2) totalling about 25000 watts to the mains, and PLX3402's running the monitors
Allen & Heath GL2400 FOH board
DBX Driverack for the crossover
Allen & Heath MixWizard2 for monitor board
A bunch of DBX compressors, feedback destroyers, a dual 31 band EQ, etc...
Whirlwind splitter snake
A whole bunch of LED Par 64's and other lighting stuff, controlled via laptop.
I know I'm leaving some stuff out, but I can't remember all the little details.

For indoor stuff, we cut the mains in half (only 2 subs/tops per side).

Ah memories. I ran almost that same rig in a Kodiak truck for the better part of a decade. Heavy but it sounded great.

[walterw]

Originally Posted by walterw

and that's why you don't buy a powered mixer (unless it's a craigslist prize for your practice room). whatever you get, it ends up being left behind as you improve the rest of the PA.

Originally Posted by seanm

Actually, I just needed to buy the next version up. It has what I need: inserts on most channels and two monitor mixes.

but that's my point! the powered mixer you did buy is now basically wasted money because it won't do what you need.

if you bought the "next version up", that would become wasted money as soon as you discovered you needed three monitor mixes.

the concept is "scalability":

the small tops you buy now become monitors or sidefills when you get bigger stuff later.

you get two good vocal mics instead of four crappy ones.

the dual-15 band EQ you get for mains and the one monitor now becomes the EQ for two monitor mixes once you get the 31-band for mains later.

"buy once, cry once", yes, but even when you buy cheap, get stuff that will find a home in the system as it improves.

PA heads do none of these things, they just get left behind.

[modulusman]

Originally Posted by walterw

but that's my point! the powered mixer you did buy is now basically wasted money because it won't do what you need.

if you bought the "next version up", that would become wasted money as soon as you discovered you needed three monitor mixes.

the concept is "scalability":

the small tops you buy now become monitors or sidefills when you get bigger stuff later.

you get two good vocal mics instead of four crappy ones.

the dual-15 band EQ you get for mains and the one monitor now becomes the EQ for two monitor mixes once you get the 31-band for mains later.

"buy once, cry once", yes, but even when you buy cheap, get stuff that will find a home in the system as it improves.

PA heads do none of these things, they just get left behind.

Good post.

[DWBass]

Are we talking outfitting a PA for a band doing outdoor arenas or a simple 5 pc band performing in bars? Everyone has different needs.

[nutdog]

Originally Posted by walterw

PA heads do none of these things, they just get left behind.

One of mine is still used for practice. Another was sold to fund another purchase. For exactly what I paid for it. Kind of like a non-powered mixer I bought. And sold.

I get what you're saying but it doesn't mean a powered mixer can't meet your current needs/budget and then suddenly turns into a boat anchor when it doesn't.

So you find you need more inputs or monitor mixes? You sell it and get another. Or use it for a smaller system. How is this different from a non-powered mixer?

[modulusman]

Originally Posted by DWBass

Are we talking outfitting a PA for a band doing outdoor arenas or a simple 5 pc band performing in bars? Everyone has different needs.

Which is why people have been mentioning scalability. If you do it right you can use as much or little PA as needed. My band has the ability to play for crowds up to about a 1000. We own a total of 10 powered Tops and 8 powered subs.