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Impossible question!

fuzzy beard

fuzzy beard

Mar 8, 2011
2,747
31
Aurora, Indiana
#1
I understand this is subjective! I understand needs change over time! I googled small band P.A, Folk bandP,A, and some other combinations i could come up with with not much luck.

The question for those of you who wont want to read the rest of this post is how much P.A does a folk band need? Also thid P.A may double as the P.A for a folk, roots, bluegrass jam i am trying to start. If you need more info try reading below. So bild me P.A please? lol

Jammin tonight with some guys and the subject of playing out came up. And we started talking about P.A and we were all over the place with what we thought would be needed. Were talking small bar, small hall, maybe the odd farm/barn jam. Never a drummer maybe a cajon. All acoustics maybe an electric bass and vocals.

We were all over the place! from fender passport to 3000 watt full rigs with a 18 inch sub. Here is what i was thinking. 8 channel mixer, 2 12 inch 2 way main cabs, 2 10 inch wedge monitors, no sub, and a 2 channel power amp.

What do you think? build me a P.A please. lol:hyper:
 
#4
I actually did a wedding gig with a Yamaha stagepas 500 last weekend. I was surprised that it didn't sound to bad. We were playing a good sized room with maybe 200 guests. Yamaha recently introduced the Stagepas 6001 If it has enough inputs this might work for you. It looks to be pretty much idiot proof and has better EQ and other improvements over the 500 series.http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/yamaha-stagepas-600i-680w-portable-pa-system
 
#5
What you listed seems reasonable. I use a Carvin XP1000L powered mixer (3 x 400 W, $521 including shipping) and Peavey 12's for mains. (This works for blues or country. It wouldn't be enough for hard rock or metal.) If you only have two channels on your power amp, you would need to make sure your mains and monitors are all 8 ohms. If you ever play outdoors or in a barn, you would probably need more power than a Fender Passport system could deliver.
 
#6
Hi.

What You listed there will probably suffice unless there's some bass heavy folk instruments involved.
For just vocals and monitoring it'll be more than enough.

I would ditch the power amp though, active speakers have come a long way and there's enough on the used market as well. If the mixer has some sort of FX, You don't need a 19" rack anyway.


I've done similar gigs and pretty loud biker club rock gigs with two very old PA cabs and either Marshall 2002 or Fender PA100 on top.
Vocals mainly though, perhaps a hint of guitar for a bit of a spread.

Those old tube PA's sound wonderful BTW, worth a try if someone has one in their attic/basement.


Regards
Sam
 
#11
If your bass amp can hold its own I'd just run all the acoustics and vocals through a couple 115 tops. I play in a rock band that uses acoustic guitars at times. It works fine for us at the practice space and the acoustic sets we do. I wouldn't want to do it with a little 12" bass combo but even with a 410 its cool. I'd also try to point your amp straight ahead an not towards the acoustics. Getting a pa thats overly big for what you need can turn into a disaster with acoustic guitars. Youll end up with tons of feedback and humming noise because acoustic guitars will resonate with even moderate stage volume.
 
#12
Bose killers
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Because of the way line arrays work, you can usually put these on stage behind the band facing forward. Use them for stage and FOH. Feedback is controllable as it not a loud point source. Sound is very balance on stage and out in the audience for folk, bluegrass levels.

If you want bass, you can add a sub later.
 
#14
It sounds like you are gunning for the small venue kind of thing. 50-200 folks? I'll approach the question from that and the most simple hook up idea.

I'd suggest something like the Mackie SRM 450. A pair of them. I'd suggest trying to find the older ones with the Italian drivers in them. They would be used but are FAR superior to the newer ones. They are a 12 and a .... 2 inch horn I think... might be a inch and a half? They are powered boxes and only require power and signal to get happening. There are lots of other powered boxes out there as well. I've heard Wharfdales that were ok, JBL Eons are cool and even Samsons will do the gig if you can get one that's about 400 watts.

As far as a small easy to use console goes, there are TONS out there. At that point, I'd have to ask if you prefer analog or digital? The digitals can scare a lot of folks off but are far more powerful imho (Yamaha O1V or something similar). If you go analog, I would look for something with sweepable frequency EQs (Mixwizard, Midas, ect). It can be extremely difficult to mix anything with let's say only 80, 400 and 6k hz frequencies (Behringer, Mackie, ect).

Be sure that whatever you get has phantom power on-board. You'll want that for mics in the future (if not now).

Good luck in your search,
Dan
 
#15
Yeah 50 to 200 people. Reasonable volume folk/blugrass should be heard not the only thing you hear.

I figure a minimum of 2 vocal mics and 2or3 instrument mics and a line in for bass amp as needed. So really a 6 channel mixer could do but I feel for the price why not get a 8 10 or 12. Never know when it would come in handy.

So are monitors needed?

Is a sub needed?
 
#16
fuzzy beard said:
Yeah 50 to 200 people. Reasonable volume folk/blugrass should be heard not the only thing you hear.

I figure a minimum of 2 vocal mics and 2or3 instrument mics and a line in for bass amp as needed. So really a 6 channel mixer could do but I feel for the price why not get a 8 10 or 12. Never know when it would come in handy.

So are monitors needed?

Is a sub needed?
Click to expand...

Monitors yeah, If you have no kick drum and the bass player is using an amp then you probably don't need the sub.
 
#17
When I started putting together my own PA, my goal was to put together components on a cash basis that would work well in virtually any venue - long as I brought amps and speakers suitable for the venue.

I chose an unpowered mixer, figuring this would leave me free to choose amps, or powered speakers, of my choosing; I started with a small Yamaha mixer, and very quickly found its limitations unsatisfactory. I upgraded to an A&H MixWiz3 16:2, with which I have been exceedingly happy. In addition to the rack case containing my MixWiz, I carry a rack case that houses 6-ch of graphic EQ, 2-ch parametric EQ, compression, and effects (crossovers live in the amp rack).

Were I doing it again, today, I'd buy a digital mixer to eliminate or reduce the need for outboard EQ, effects, compression, crossover, etc.. So far, 16 channels and 6 auxes (1 for aux-fed subs, 1 for on-board effects, and 4 monitor mixes) haven't been limiting, but, for six years I used a separate outboard mixer for percussion; something I could have avoided with a 24-ch board.

I have unpowered monitors, mains, and subs, and a rack case with three power amplifiers (Carvin 4-ch for monitors, QSC PLX-3002 for mains, Carvin DCM3800L for subs) that is positioned close to the speakers. I use the same amp rack for all venues, but take only the cabs I think I'll need. If I were starting over today, I might opt for powered speakers to eliminate the amp rack (less pack space).

It took me awhile to invest in stage snakes and rolling cases for mics and cables, but the time saved, and the convenience, made me believe that these items were more necessities than mere niceties.

Hope this helps a little.
 
#18
At that level, I wouldn't overlook the behringer PMP580S 10 channel mixer. A friend of mine has a earlier rendition of it in his practice studio. After that, I'd get a couple of really nice used Yamaha SV115 mains. They really sound great and are very easy to EQ. For monitors, I'd use some cheaper stuff like behringer or low end peavey stuff. Shop used and you can do really well on the price.
 

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