I'm in a rock covers band that does stuff from the heavier end of the spectrum. We're just nearing the end of rehearsals, about to go gigging, and need a decent PA system rather than using the rehearsal studio stuff.
Our singer has just put me in the unusual position of spending his money for him to get the PA sorted. Apart from the singer, the rest of the band have been in bands for years, so we've already got enough stuff between us so that we only really need a set of FOH speakers and we've decided to go the active speaker route. We've also decided to buy fewer pieces of decent stuff for the money and make do with less kit until we can add to it over time.
We've got an initial budget of up to £1300.
Around here, the Mackie SRM450 is a sort of de-facto standard for bands like us doing bars and smallish venues (up to 150-200 people). I've also used these in previous bands (albeit quieter ones) and I think they're OK for what we'll be doing.
However, you can get a pair of these with stands for about £950, so that leaves a chunk of change.
At the moment, the mixer we have belongs to me (as part of a divvy up of a previous bands equipment). It's a solid semi-pro mixer, but it's a Yamaha 24 14FX so it's got about 16 more channels than we actually need and it's a big old piece to lug around.
So, the choice comes down to getting something like the Mackies and using the change for something like a Soundcraft 12 channel mixer, which has the advantage that the singer will then own the core of a PA rather than just a pair of active speakers and it will be better scaled to this bands needs or...
Use the big Yamaha mixer and spend the lot on FOH active speakers, so are there any active speakers for an extra £350 that will offer enough benefits over the Mackie's to go this route
Like everyone else we want the biggest bang for our buck
BTW: a bit of a dumb question perhaps, but on paper the spec of Mackie Thumps looks very similar to SRM450's yet they're about half the price...there's got to be a reason for that but since I've never heard any, can someone enlighten me?
Our singer has just put me in the unusual position of spending his money for him to get the PA sorted. Apart from the singer, the rest of the band have been in bands for years, so we've already got enough stuff between us so that we only really need a set of FOH speakers and we've decided to go the active speaker route. We've also decided to buy fewer pieces of decent stuff for the money and make do with less kit until we can add to it over time.
We've got an initial budget of up to £1300.
Around here, the Mackie SRM450 is a sort of de-facto standard for bands like us doing bars and smallish venues (up to 150-200 people). I've also used these in previous bands (albeit quieter ones) and I think they're OK for what we'll be doing.
However, you can get a pair of these with stands for about £950, so that leaves a chunk of change.
At the moment, the mixer we have belongs to me (as part of a divvy up of a previous bands equipment). It's a solid semi-pro mixer, but it's a Yamaha 24 14FX so it's got about 16 more channels than we actually need and it's a big old piece to lug around.
So, the choice comes down to getting something like the Mackies and using the change for something like a Soundcraft 12 channel mixer, which has the advantage that the singer will then own the core of a PA rather than just a pair of active speakers and it will be better scaled to this bands needs or...
Use the big Yamaha mixer and spend the lot on FOH active speakers, so are there any active speakers for an extra £350 that will offer enough benefits over the Mackie's to go this route
Like everyone else we want the biggest bang for our buck
BTW: a bit of a dumb question perhaps, but on paper the spec of Mackie Thumps looks very similar to SRM450's yet they're about half the price...there's got to be a reason for that but since I've never heard any, can someone enlighten me?
