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During band practice how is a singer heard?

#21
If possible, maybe for practice, if the drummer could play some Roland V drums or some electronic kit that could be fed into a mixer, the guitars and bass could be run into that mixer as well as the singer. Then you will hear things even better. Like if the singer really can sing or not.

If that isn't possible, a PA will have to do.
 
#27
Admiral Axtell said:
You would need one big ass amp... and how much does a PA cost...?? and what exactly is it... Iv'e heard about PA's in the past but I have not much of a clue what they are exactly...
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The PA is the most important componet of a band.

In the old days the pa was just for vocals. The moden approach is you need a good pa and you run everything through it. You mike or run a line out from every instrument. Then you need a mixer with 12 or 16 or 24 channels. You need effects. You need 2 power amps. One for the mains, and a big power amp for the subs. Having a full time sound man is a good idea. Then you need monitors. The best way to go is in-ear monitors.

With the modern approach the bass and guitar amps are for stage volume only and the crowd hears the pa system so quality is important here if the band is to sound good.
 
#32
Ric5 said:
The PA is the most important componet of a band.

In the old days the pa was just for vocals. The moden approach is you need a good pa and you run everything through it. QUOTE]

I'm not sure what you mean by the "moden (sic.) approach". From at least 1968, big time acts playing large venues were running eveything through the PA. What do you think they were doing at Woostock?
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#34
We are old-school and don't DI much or anything at all - it's not from not having the stuff, we just don't want it that way.

Practice is usually done with 'full-dress' so we can get a good mix figured out and not have to be making last minute changes or settings at the gig. It gets crowded though with all that stuff in the barn.

Fortunately one of our lead singers is married to the lead g-guy and he owns a serious JBL-PA with about 10 channels, so she's covered OK.

The drummer refuses to sing and doesn't need/want a mic, but that's a blessing anyway.

I carry my own 4-channel cab/combo Peavey PA with 2 satellite Kustom 2-way 110+ horns for myself even though I don't sing when I play - that's pretty hard for me to do, but my wife uses our PA and she's got about 140 Watts in a stereo mic setup to play with. She also insists on using a DR LMX mic as it's response is flatter and doesn't drop off on a female voice like a 58 does.

Our 2nd g-guy and his wife use another PA - so you can see that we have maybe too many PAs, but it all works out fine.

What's nice is that with all these PAs and everybody bringing their own, we get a really great mix with the inherent spatial separation, although after the session we have what looks like an explosion in a wire factory at our feet to clean up.

Everybody brings and is responsible for their own mics, cords and mic stands so there's no "I want to use the mic/stand/cord I used last time" or "Where's the gum I stuck to the stand I had last time?" sortta complaining going on.

It's kinda nice that almost everyone can do a stand-alone gig too with all the crossover equipment they own. Unfortunately I cannot see a bass player with a PA doing a solo act though.
 
#35
Smallmouth_Bass said:
For rehearsals, a small moderately-powered powered mixer with a couple of 12" monitors/speakers should do. As long as you don't play too loud, that should work. Prices will vary greatly, depending on the setup.

A related question for you guys: how many of you play in a band where the SINGER has their own P.A. or amplifying equipment?
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we use a 400 watt powered speaker with the mic direct into it for practice.
http://www.amazon.com/Tapco-TH-15A-Two-Way-Active-Loudspeaker/dp/B000NY49MS

playing out is a different story.
 
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#36
Passinwind said:
Here's a nice starter one.

grateful_small.jpg
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Hey how did you get into my bedroom :mad:
 
#37
If you're at all serious about this, you need to 1) find out what a PA is and does, and 2) get one. You might be able to "jam-out" some songs without one, but you cannot prepare a performance for more than a dozen people (and if that's your thing, enjoy!). You need to be building experience in what they can do for you and do to you.

For rehearsals, we don't mic anything but the vocals (though we use what used to be our show rig for rehearsals, monitors and all). For shows we mic everything. That makes for a much better show with much better balanced sound, regardless of the size of the venue.

As far as "old school", the Beatles did not mic their amps at Shea--though you can't hear them, either. A good lesson in how important proper support can be. It was really the Dead (pictured above, if I'm not mistaken), that really started the trend towards band-managed full-band PA support.

Get crackin'. You have a lot to learn.
 

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