Liver performances, need help figuring them out

Leftybass12 · #1 11-19-2008, 11:41 PM

Okay, so I am a bit confused about live performances. I'll just provide a real life example.

I've played two shows with a full band soon to be three, but I used my amp for those shows and the upcoming too (I know that for sure). Now, I was looking a place that offers live music, an open mic night to be more exact, but they said that NO AMPLIPHIERS are permitted, the instruments will be plugged in through their PA system. What is a PA system and what does it do exactly? Because I'm a little bit confused on why you cannot use an amp. Do you plug in your instrument in the PA and a sound board or mixer board controls all the guitars and vocals??? What does a PA do exactly?

Just to add, I do not play an acoustic bass or acoustic guitar, I play electric bass and electric guitar

This will be very helpful to me and I greatly thank anyone who helps me in this confusion I'm having.

midnightsin · #2 11-20-2008, 10:12 AM

To answer your questions simply, a PA takes a signal and amplifies and mixes with others so that an entire room can hear what is going on. It also makes everything sound good to the people listening. In your case you would just plug into the board directly and the person running it would form your sound.

I've done that before because my amp was packed up for a gig later that evening and my singer/guitarist and I wanted to finish writing a song for it. I wasn't pleased with the sound that I got because it wasn't a dedicated bass amplifier but it worked.

Hope that answers your questions.