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One power amp for mains and monitors
- Thread starter spacerust
- Start date
The amplifier mentioned has more than enough juice to be split as suggested. No need for the extra equipment.
Well IME if it is important to you then you will be able to afford it. That kustom monitor I posted a link to earlier cost about $70.00. The average idiot spends more than that on cigarettes,pot and alcohol in a week.
Don't sell yourself short. I'm sure you're slightly above average.....
The arrogance of this comment aside, anyone with a lick of common sense, a decent set of ears and the ability to turn a knob can keep the volume in check and keep the speakers from blowing. Sure, Kustom speakers probably won't last as long as their higher priced competition, but they could have a decent service life if used properly.
Don't sell yourself short. I'm sure you're slightly above average.....
The arrogance of this comment aside, anyone with a lick of common sense, a decent set of ears and the ability to turn a knob can keep the volume in check and keep the speakers from blowing. Sure, Kustom speakers probably won't last as long as their higher priced competition, but they could have a decent service life if used properly.
Funny, if you have the two things I highlighted in your post you wouldn't use cheap PA gear because it is a waste of money and sounds bad.
Funny, if you have the two things I highlighted in your post you wouldn't use cheap PA gear because it is a waste of money and sounds bad.
Well, some people don't have the financial means to purchase expensive gear. It's not always a choice to spend more money.
Besides, when talking about monitors for a small club or venue that will only support vocals, it's really not necessary to buy the best of the best. All you need is to be able to hear yourself.
This ^^^, I've done it for years. ...and he may not even need another amp unless he wants to run multiple monitor mixes or a passive sub, etc. If not careful with the volume he'll need new monitors before long though.
And another +1. I'm not convince they'll last long...but a smaller amp won't prolong their life if they're being pushed hard.
Since I buy almost all of the equipment for our band I bought the kustoms cuz thats what I could afford at the time. I do plan to upgrade the speakers, both mains and monitors, next but I needed advice to hold me off until I can do that.
My posts earlier really were not directed at you personally.
It looks like you realize that to sound better you need to upgrade and you bought a better mixer and power amp.No offense taken. I come here for advice and thats what I get. I always try to buy the best I can afford and then move up. No worries and you'll see I have posts already looking for an eq
that's what all of us who are foolish enough to own band PAs try to to!
the trick is to think about "scalability", or, "what can i buy now that will still be good for something when i upgrade or go bigger?"
like, it's better to buy one good shure mic like a 58 than two bull***t mics.
or if you're buying main top boxes to start out, try to get ones that will serve as monitors when you get better mains down the road.
you'll lose so much on re-sale with the cheap stuff, it's nice to get "keepable" gear the first time, even if you have less of it and buy used.
like for me, i would take a used rane dual 15 EQ over a new behringer dual 31 in a heartbeat.
Did what you're talking about for several years when money was tight. The right channel of our Yamaha board ran the mains, the left the monitors. The only drawback was the system was a mono instead of stereo, but it worked fine. It gave us seperate controls for the mains and the monitors, so we could adjust the volume accordingly. We had two Kustom monitors, one 8ohm and one 16ohm, and a 16ohm Fender to balance the ohm load. The Yamaha and the Kustoms and Fender all still work fine.
Why not, and what do you mean by "no power at all"? If they are unpowered monitors, they use amp power. You can run different impedances and volumes on the two channels; a stereo amp is really two independent amplifiers sharing a power supply. Run both channels wide open and control the volumes at the board.
I've done what you are suggesting many times and it works fine. Mono mains and one monitor mix.
I believe he meant that monitors require relatively little power when compared to mains and subs. I agree to some degree. I'm using a QSC 1450 presently but have gone as far as to use the power sections of cast-off integrated PA heads (Yorkville, peavey) during leaner times.
Monitor amps may need to be attenuated when establishing gain structure, same as FOH. This is particularly critical as monitors are more likely to be the culprits when feedback strikes.
Riis
Probably gonna get flamed for this, but I own 4 12" monitors; 2 Yamaha and 2 Kustom. The Kustoms are pretty nice little boxes. If, and when, they blow, I just plan on replacing the drivers and/or crossovers with better quality items and re-using the boxes. But for now, they sound fine. Granted, I'm only pushing 275 watts on the monitor channels, so theres not much danger of harming them. Do they sound as good as the Yamahas? Nope, but I think they could with better drivers.
Also, OP, if you still have the powered PA head, you have the option of using it as a dedicated monitor amp.
Also, OP, if you still have the powered PA head, you have the option of using it as a dedicated monitor amp.
Hi.
Same here, especially when using less-than-great amps, as we all have done at some point in time.
IF we have actually run sound that is.
If one has unlimited funds to blow on equipment, they probably have roadies to carry all that stuff as well.
I personally like to take as little as possible when running sound, but being low on funds automatically means obsolete-to-some equipment that weighs a metric ton. Leaving just one amp home may mean -15kg and one less rack to carry.
Slightly OT in this particular case, but...
Back in the day when running foldback/monitors on an indoors venue for about 700 people, it wasn't uncommon to have about the same power available on both mains and on the monitors. The roughly 1/6th of the size of the monitors compared to mains obviously played a role in it, but with up to 8 groups and up to 10 monitors, we sometimes also used all that available power on certain (METAL
) acts.
Regards
Sam
Same here, especially when using less-than-great amps, as we all have done at some point in time.
IF we have actually run sound that is
.If one has unlimited funds to blow on equipment, they probably have roadies to carry all that stuff as well.
I personally like to take as little as possible when running sound, but being low on funds automatically means obsolete-to-some equipment that weighs a metric ton. Leaving just one amp home may mean -15kg and one less rack to carry.
Slightly OT in this particular case, but...
Back in the day when running foldback/monitors on an indoors venue for about 700 people, it wasn't uncommon to have about the same power available on both mains and on the monitors. The roughly 1/6th of the size of the monitors compared to mains obviously played a role in it, but with up to 8 groups and up to 10 monitors, we sometimes also used all that available power on certain (METAL
) acts.Regards
Sam
Monitors require little power.
Mains require much power.
Running in mono in small rooms makes no sense. You have zero sound placement.
You could run monitors off a 60W amp, no problem.
If not, your stage volume is TOO LOUD.
Mains require much power.
Running in mono in small rooms makes no sense. You have zero sound placement.
You could run monitors off a 60W amp, no problem.
If not, your stage volume is TOO LOUD.
LOL.
(edit: I replied to the wrong post)
I disagree in his small PA situation: 1 power amp; 2 main 8 ohm cabs, and 2 mon 8 ohm cabs.
From all I have read small clubs venues you want to run mono, not stereo. The people on the right side of the club won't hear the left stereo channel and vice versa. (Understanding the amp will probably be set in a "stereo" mode, I am talking about running stereo right left for guitars etc.)
And running two 8 ohm cabs daisy chained on each channel of the amp will work fine and in fact give you more power out of the amp. I have used this configuration with my small PAs for years. More power gives you more headroom, but you will need to watch the volume with the monitors as others have said.
Running monitors off of a 60W amp will sound terrible.
My 2 cents......
