Music / Stage Help

[Admiral Trogdor]

Hey performing Geezers. Our band was discussing our next move on the weekend. We want to get some gear to allow us to do small gigs (block party, fund-raiser, etc.).

As it stands now, we all know about our instruments, but none of us really understands where the sound goes next.

We were looking at a PA (Yamaha) that has four mic inputs and three stereo lines with some mixing capability.

Our band consists of:

1. Lead singer (microphone)
2. Lead guitar
3. Rhythm guitar
4. Bass guitar
5. Drums

We may also mic the other members of the band for some chorus vocals.

We're wondering just how to set things up. Would the guitar and bass players leave their amp at home and just plug straight into the PA, or do they plug into their amp, and then patch their amp to the PA?

What about levels and mix? Nobody uses stereo outputs. Can we put our two guitar players into one line by using one guy on the left channel and one guy on the right? Then we'd have one volume for "Guitar" and we'd use the balance to mix the levels of the guitars?

Maybe there's more gear? A mixer that goes in line before the PA so that all instruments enter the mixer and get balanced and set to stereo and the mixer left and right output leads to one stereo channel on the PA?

Can guitars plug into a mixer before they are amplified?

How would you set up this garage band?

[Calynda [sherpa]]

gonna point hubby to this post ... he may have some insight or advice for you ... we owned a PA for a while.

[Admiral Trogdor]

I'd love to get his input. I did get a chance to visit my music store at lunchtime yesterday.

Their advice was to use the PA to make sure the singer was more powerful than the drummer. His suggestion was in a small to medium room with 100 or so guests, the drums do not need to be amplified, the PA would get the singer to match the drum volume, and the guitar and bass could easily play through their own amps.

The system gets more complicated if the venue is large enough to require amplification of the drum kit. Then the amps of the guitar players won't be loud enough and their amps should have a mic at the speaker. They suggested not using the guitar amp's pre-amp alone, unless they went to a proper rack mounted head unit.

It all makes sense. Let's see what your husband can add.

[yngvar]

ok it seems that the guy at the music store was pretty much on point. For small gigs its a good idea to use PA for vocals. I would however mic the kick drum of the drum set cause it can easily get lost in the mix.(kick drum is the most important part of the set) As far as guitars go, I would not run them through a pa directly under most circumstances. If you are playing a larger gig I would mic the cabs with a Dynamic microphone. Bass can be run directly in to the PA with a DI box. However I would only really recommend this if you have the good full range cabinets or bass bins (sub woofer cabinets) The other thing to consider is the wattage. If your gonna do just vocals and a kick drum a few hundred watts should work for most smaller gigs. If your gonna be play anything out doors more power is a good idea. These are all things to consider. Yamaha makes really decent PA equipment so I would recommend their stuff. What system are you looking at in particular?
Ad if you have any more question feel free to let me know im always happy to share my knowledge.

[Admiral Trogdor]

Thanks for chiming in.

We were looking at the Yamaha Stagepas 300 and then later the 500 (that's Watts, although the 500 also has two extra channels as well).

We did chat about the DI for the bass player. We also worried about the kick drum. His concern was blowing speakers by putting too much bass through a woofer. Some of the speakers he had for rent had subwoofers that could EASILY handle my kick drum, but the Stagepas were a bit smaller.

[yngvar]

that doesnt seem bad for starting out...... As far as the kick drum......it doesnt need to be turned all the way up just a little bit of volume so it is heard through the mix. also i would recommend getting speaker trees(stands) they will project better if elevated.

[MidnightGhostGF [sherpa]]

yngvar covered stuff pretty well so I'll just add that Mackie makes some decent equipment as well. I setup a friend's group with stuff from Mackie a while back that sounds pretty good in smaller settings. I personally consider Yamaha a better brand but I've used Mackie stuff on and off since the mid 90's and always had good experiences. It's also not a bad idea in my book to get stand mounts and stands for the speakers. It's always good to get them up off the floor so you get the most out of whatever you're using (for a PA setup like this anyway).

[Admiral Trogdor]

There's a used Mackie in the local classifieds. Looks like an alright kit.

http://halifax.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-s...AdIdZ273948322

[SquidgeyFlint (admin)]

Mackie mixers are awesome. I'm not doing concert sound any more but I still hope to own their 16 channel mixer.

[MidnightGhostGF [sherpa]]

That might be an OK deal, honestly I've never heard anything through Yorkville speakers and don't know anything about them at all. For about the same price you could probably get a decent new setup, which is something to consider when you're looking for a deal. At least in the states it looks like new, those speakers run about $800 and that mixer would be about $270. Maybe someone else here is more familiar with Yorkville and can give their opinion.

My first thought would be to stick with a known brand like Yamaha, Mackie, or another bigger name (may be that's just me). Another that just popped into my head is JBL, I used to really like the JBL EON stuff. I haven't messed with it in a while but they always had some nice powered PA speakers.