What to low tech sub mix?

[Texas twelve]

I am not a sound dude, but am trying to put together a way to do sound for my high school's rockfest. We have a powered mixer with 6 channels, but really need more. I have a small peavey 4 channel mixer. I have heard I can sub mix something and use the speaker out to go into my primary mixer. If that's correct, I don't know what will be OK to sub mix--the drums, the backline, or the vocal mics upfront, or does it matter at all.

I apologize if my sound ignorance leeks out of my search for advice. I am an older high school English teacher who used to gig years ago, trying to provide a venue for my kids to rock.

Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I had a heck of a time logging in, so if I don't reply to questions, it may be this forum and not me.

 

[4Mal]

1. Line out, not speaker out. You go speaker out and smoke happens...
2. Given what you're working with, I would be included to save what PA you have for vocals, acoustic guitars,etc... Let the backline carry the room and hope the drummer doesn't overpower everything else.

My .02, worth every cent ;-)

 

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Is your small Peavey mixer un-powered? A passive mixer? On occasion I will use my little Yamaha mixer to mix down extra (i.e. drum) mics into one channel. Take the output (line out or aux out) from the sub-mixer into a channel on the main (powered) mixer. This leaves me the rest of the channels on my main mixer for vocals and the remaining instruments.

I found this picture on another forum. The drums mics are going into the top mixer. The line out from the top mixer (un-powered) is going to a channel on the bottom mixer (the main/powered mixer).

Be sure everything is well grounded. You don't want any hum or shocks from the mics.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff