Underpowered PA tonight

Dkerwood · #1 08-18-2006, 08:57 AM

So we're playing an out of town gig tonight. The opening band is providing PA. So after trying to get in touch with him for a few days, he finally calls me back a couple days ago and gives me some details on the PA...

...100W 6 channel Kustom.

Crap, man. We usually run north of 2000W on our PA, but since the van broke down, we're reduced to using two cars to get up there... so no decent sized PA for us.

Anyway, any tips to keep the vocals heard over everything else? As far as I understand it, this gig is outdoors (might move indoors if it rains like the weatherman indicates). There's a wall 15 feet behind us, but nothing else to help push sound forward.

We'll probably try to bring our monitors to supplement the sound, but even those bad boys will have a bigger amp feeding them...

Any advice to deal with the situation (save for "play quieter") would be appreciated.

AdlerAugen · #2 08-18-2006, 01:00 PM

rent a van locally? ask for a testdrive in a big truck and have your friend take it up to where all the stuff is, load up, drop off, and have him get the truck back before the gig starts...that's if renting is too expensive. After that you could always use two cars to go back home.

guy n. cognito · #3 08-18-2006, 01:23 PM

I was thinking the same thing about bringing another amp or powered speakers.

Diggler · #4 08-18-2006, 01:45 PM

Rent. Either a PA or a van. Seriously.

Dkerwood · #5 08-18-2006, 01:48 PM

Well, hey, if we had room to bring more amps and speakers, we'd just bring our PA! Lol...

Nah, we'll just try to haul out our 200W monitors, and if we're really hurting for volume, we'll turn those around... I'll have them hooked up to a 1500W amp, so there will be enough juice, I think... that is, if we can get it all in.

Since we're in the market for a new van, I had thought about the "test drive" idea, but since the gig is an hour away, I don't think that would go over too well.

Anyway, we've done outdoor gigs with the 200W monitors doubling as PA mains before (way scaled down gigs), so we should be relatively ok... I just hope the Kustoms can handle it.

Diggler · #6 08-18-2006, 01:55 PM

I was thinking more on the lines of finding a sound company local to the gig and renting their sound.

I'd rather come away with a couple bucks or even nothing than risk my reputation on a crummy Kustom PA that would be underpowered for a comedy act, let alone a live band.

Dkerwood · #7 08-18-2006, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diggler

Rent. Either a PA or a van. Seriously.

We're making $200 for an hour show. Not bad money, but certainly not enough to rent a vehicle, nor is there a sound company ANYWHERE near the gig. We took the gig when the van was operational, otherwise we would have brought our PA.

We started at $300 ($100/hr/man), but he was able to talk us down to $200 with the promise of a house PA. My guess is that the opening band told him that they had plenty of PA.

Meh, oh well. We'll deal. It'll probably rain on us tonight anyway.

Diggler · #8 08-18-2006, 01:57 PM

Do you guys cover any Stone Temple Pilots?

Dkerwood · #9 08-18-2006, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diggler

I was thinking more on the lines of finding a sound company local to the gig and renting their sound.

I'd rather come away with a couple bucks or even nothing than risk my reputation on a crummy Kustom PA that would be underpowered for a comedy act, let alone a live band.

True. Unfortunately, there's not much we can do. The closest sound company is 60 miles away, so we'll just make it work.

I've done gigs with less of a PA.

Dkerwood · #10 08-18-2006, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diggler

Do you guys cover any Stone Temple Pilots?

Sadly, no. I'll run a mic into my guitar amp if necessary.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON! lol

Dkerwood · #11 08-18-2006, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mb1

I'd write this experience down under the heading "Things To Verify Next Time..."

Not enough lead time.

Here was the timeline of events:

May 30, 2006 :: He contacts us and invites us to come play "sometime". I check with the band and reply in a day or two with our terms.

June 4, 2006 :: He says they don't have a date yet - "Sometime in September" he says.

July 18, 2006 :: We've gone on tour in the interim, and I was just emailing to touch base. He says the date is August 19. He also says that they MIGHT be able to come up with a PA system - he'll check around and get back to me.

August 1, 2006 :: At our request, they change the date to Friday, August 18. Still no official word on the PA.

August 8, 2006 :: Money is FINALLY settled upon, and he says he will get me the contact info for the opening band.

August 9, 2006 :: I get the contact info.

August 12, 2006 :: I finally get in touch with the other band and learn about the "PA".

Should have been PLENTY of lead time, but people are busy, I suppose.

Oh well. It's not like it's a huge gig. We'll just keep the instruments low and crank the crap out of the vocals. And we'll bring the monitors to help supplement the sound.

Lazylion · #12 08-18-2006, 03:32 PM

Play lots of instrumentals.

need4mospd · #13 08-18-2006, 04:01 PM

I hate to say this, but if that's the same PA our lead singer bought at first.... that thing is a turd. We plugged in extra speakers and it wasn't any louder. I could completly dominate that PA with just a 60 watt Fender 1x12 at 1/2 volume. Unless you are in an acoustic band, the vocals just won't be heard.

It works great for coffee house gigs though!

Vegiehead · #14 08-18-2006, 10:42 PM

Oh thats an easy fix!!

Turn the PA up till it almost clips then unplug all your instruments and do an accoustic gig

badstonebass · #15 08-19-2006, 10:37 AM

What kind of music is this? I wouldn't do a gig for my rock band without a set of subs, 2 boxes and monitors. If it is acoustic or Bluegrass....ok.

Dkerwood · #16 08-19-2006, 08:28 PM

Surprisingly, it worked quite well.

We're an alt rock band, and we play under control. :-)

The first band (all high schoolers) is sort of a modern rock (read cookie cutter) band, and they brought one of THESE. I'm shocked to see them actually MIKING up guitars and *cough* the bass through this "PA".

After some tweaking, their vocalist was able to be heard alright... Not much for clarity, and it was slightly overdriven, but you could certainly hear him.

We brought the monitor system from our church (our wedges wouldn't fit in our cars). It's THIS and the speakers from a Fender Passport. We plugged the Kustom speakers and the Fender speakers into the Yamaha amp, and that gave us plenty of power to push JUST VOCALS. We cranked our amps up and played for 90 minutes or so.

Everyone was able to hear (save for the band at times), and we dodged a "bad gig" bullet.

badstonebass · #17 08-22-2006, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dkerwood

Surprisingly, it worked quite well.

We're an alt rock band, and we play under control. :-)

The first band (all high schoolers) is sort of a modern rock (read cookie cutter) band, and they brought one of THESE. I'm shocked to see them actually MIKING up guitars and *cough* the bass through this "PA".

After some tweaking, their vocalist was able to be heard alright... Not much for clarity, and it was slightly overdriven, but you could certainly hear him.

We brought the monitor system from our church (our wedges wouldn't fit in our cars). It's THIS and the speakers from a Fender Passport. We plugged the Kustom speakers and the Fender speakers into the Yamaha amp, and that gave us plenty of power to push JUST VOCALS. We cranked our amps up and played for 90 minutes or so.

Everyone was able to hear (save for the band at times), and we dodged a "bad gig" bullet.

Improvise or DIE.......that is the motto for those of us who might have to use the "house PA". Good job fixing your dilema!