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Just how small can a bands PA be?

Bow tie

Bow tie

Guest
Jan 9, 2014
44
14
Upstate NY
#1
Started playing in a band a lady wants to start, and she has volunteered to buy the PA. She sings great, but knows even less about band sound than I do.
Somebody at guitar center told he she could buy this 80w four channel pa with 8" speakers since the plan is to play in small venues. (25-100 peeps)
This band is suppose to be pretty "standard" with guitar, bass, drum kit, and multi vocals.
I think that she might get away with that if just amplifying the vocals and everyone just amps themselves - but I don't think it will ever sound "good" (balanced) unless you have an 8 channel, with at least 200w, and probably at least 12" speakers and some sort of bass speaker.
Anyone know more than me? That's just what I've always been exposed too, but I know a lot of people over buy and I don't want to recommend she waste any money.
 
#2
I doubt that's enough. 80w, 2x8" speakers. Nah. Not with Guitar, Bass, Drums, and harmony. I'd say 200w and some 12's. If you all play very softly, sure, you can get buy with very little PA. But a club that has 50-100 people in it is gonna require more than she's buying.

What kind of music are you playing?
 
#3
What kind of music and how loud? The PA might be enough for just vocals, but in venues that small pumping everything through the FOH is overkill.
It probably is a bit underpowered, but maybe she is within the 30 days and can get something a bit more powerful.

Back in the day, there was no such thing as running instruments through the PA and the was no such thing a monitors.
And we had to walk 3 miles to and from each gig carrying our equipment on our back uphill both ways.
 
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#7
Gravedigger Dav said:
Back in the day, there was no such thing as running instruments through the PA and the was no such thing a monitors.
And we had to walk 3 miles to and from each gig carrying our equipment on our back uphill both ways.
Click to expand...

Was that back when bass amps were 45W, guitar amps were 15W and drums were only 1000W!?:woot:

Seriously, if this lady has dough to spend and doesn't want the hassle of dealing with boards, bins, stands, monitor, cables, etc etc etc., I'd recommend one of those Bose L1 systems. Band I subbed with recently used it for (loud) rehearsal and it kicked some major derriere. For modest sized venues I could see that kind of system being an asset for a technologically challenged person - speakers, monitors, stand, mixer etc all in one package.
 
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#9
It also depends on the ability of the vocalists. A really good singer who understands and is practiced at creating resonance in his/her voice. sings in key, and is able to focus projection into the room doesn't need more than a little bit sound support in a small venue. If someone who isn't a good singer is the bands vocalist they will need more sound support to be heard, but that might not be a good thing. Nothing, in my opinion, is worse than a crappy singer who is loud enough to hear...
 
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#10
What I do these days, is grab a couple of the JBL EON 10 self powered speakers. with 125 Watts going to the low frequency driver. A dedicated 50 Watts feeds the high-frequency driver, as well. You'll have all the headroom necessary to get that little extra boost in volume when the crowd is really digging your set. There's no fear of driving the speaker too hard; all your tone will come through clean and distortion-free.

I use a couple of those and a small micro mixer, like a mackie 802VLZ4, and you will have a nice compact, great sounding PA that fits into a the front seat of a volkswagon.

And yes, you would be able to put the whole band through there and sound great.

I've done it, and it is the way to go these days.
 
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#11
Slough Feg Bass said:
What I do these days, is grab a couple of the JBL EON 10 self powered speakers. with 125 Watts going to the low frequency driver. A dedicated 50 Watts feeds the high-frequency driver, as well. You'll have all the headroom necessary to get that little extra boost in volume when the crowd is really digging your set. There's no fear of driving the speaker too hard; all your tone will come through clean and distortion-free.

I use a couple of those and a small micro mixer, like a mackie 802VLZ4, and you will have a nice compact, great sounding PA that fits into a the front seat of a volkswagon.

And yes, you would be able to put the whole band through there and sound great.

I've done it, and it is the way to go these days.
Click to expand...

Yup, that's another good option...
 
#14
meh, I was old fashioned until a few years ago when I was contracted to bring the PA for a small / medium corporate gig.
I was playing drums on that gig, and decided that the extra money would be nice if I bring the PA.

So, I load up my old trusty Yamaha powered mixer thing, a couple of 15" Community passive PA speakers, and a couple of 12" wedges for monitors.

It had been a while since I had moved the entire kaboodle, and boy it sucked moving all that stuff and my drums.

Couple weeks later, I got offered another gig with extra $$ for the PA.

I did NOT want to lug all that stuff around.
I already had a Soundcraft Notepad that I was using as a small mixer for keyboards and monitor mixes during recording, and I picked up a couple of those EON 10 speakers, and my life was changed for the better.

Sold off the old stuff, and now I have a lot of extra room in the garage for other stuff! I swear those little JBL's are louder than my old PA, and they are crystal clear.

I've driven them pretty hard, even put the kick drum in there a few times, and they handled everything smoothly and pleasantly.

I'll never go back.
 
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#16
It all depends on the music style and volume. That rig sound to small to me. My old folk rock originals band gigged for 4 years with a 200 watt head with two 15" mains on poles.we all just went straight to house thru amps and vocals thru the PA. Worked great.
 
#17
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#18
Slough Feg Bass said:
meh, I was old fashioned until a few years ago when I was contracted to bring the PA for a small / medium corporate gig.
I was playing drums on that gig, and decided that the extra money would be nice if I bring the PA.

So, I load up my old trusty Yamaha powered mixer thing, a couple of 15" Community passive PA speakers, and a couple of 12" wedges for monitors.

It had been a while since I had moved the entire kaboodle, and boy it sucked moving all that stuff and my drums.

Couple weeks later, I got offered another gig with extra $$ for the PA.

I did NOT want to lug all that stuff around.
I already had a Soundcraft Notepad that I was using as a small mixer for keyboards and monitor mixes during recording, and I picked up a couple of those EON 10 speakers, and my life was changed for the better.

Sold off the old stuff, and now I have a lot of extra room in the garage for other stuff! I swear those little JBL's are louder than my old PA, and they are crystal clear.

I've driven them pretty hard, even put the kick drum in there a few times, and they handled everything smoothly and pleasantly.

I'll never go back.
Click to expand...

Yes. I have JBL EON 10's, EON 15's, as well as the newer EON 515xt. Also two JBL PRX subs. WE mix and match all the time - all of this stuff is lightweight, rugged and sounds very good IMHO. The EON 10's are a great choice - they are perfect for small venues, and are great monitors for large venues. For mixer, I usually bring along a Soundcraft EPM8. Very small, light and simple. This works for most venues we play. If we need more channels I switch to an Allen & Heath Mixwizard 16:2, but to be honest, the big mixer stays home most of the time. Most big venues that we play have their own sound - we just have a bit of the big stuff in case we are asked and the venue is willing to pay for it.
 
#19
Ok, laugh all you want. My singer has two of these but usually uses one. They can be daisy chained and have three channels (2 w/xlr and 1/4", one with 1/8" separate channel vols and master vol
Invalid Link Removed

We have 6 horn section, drums, electric bass, electric guitar and singer. Normally these are $100 each but I picked up one for small solo stuff and practice for $70 on sale at GC a while back. On our bigger gigs I'll bring out the big guns but these really are impressive in a perverted kind of way.

edit: I see DWbass mentioned them too. And we are not very loud either.
 
#20
BTW I wouldn't consider running bass or kick through these. Vocal only for that group. Mic, guitar -> pedal board-> mixer and iRealPro into 1/8" for my low-key solo thing. I have plenty of other options but this is a handy "grab 'n' go"
 

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