As per the title really. I am looking for a little guidance in FOH sound levels please.
I am just about to start rehearsing for a new project playing pop and rock covers and, as the only member with any amount of equipment other than that of their own musical discipline - I have become the "PA guy".
Some info for reference that might help:
We are currently a 4 piece (but looking to add keys asap):
Drums
Bass
Guitar - I intend to put my HX Stomp through the PA (or at least mic a cab for spread)
female lead vox
male backing vox
I'm sure we'll begin by playing the usual small to medium size pubs to very small numbers of ( <50?) punters.
I own a couple of small behringer mixers with just enough XLR inputs to cover everything, plus
2 x 8ohm 15" subs with eminence 2 way passive crossover
2 x 8ohm 12" tops with upgraded passive crossover and compression horns
The specs of my power amp are:
Peak power 1200W @ 4ohms
600W program power @ 4ohms
300W RMS @4ohms My main concern in all of this is - will my power amp be enough to:
run as a vocals only PA (plus guitar & eventually keys) using only the tops? - obviously 300w into 4ohms becomes more like 150w into 8ohms
run as a full band PA with the subs - guitar, (eventually keys), DI the bass, and mic a few drums?
Or will I need to invest in a few extra watts under the hood?
I used to run the same speakers (in a 3 piece pub rock covers band) with a yamaha emx512 (2x500W @ 4ohm) and could never turn up past half way in most of the local pubs we played!
TIA
Comments
Some cheap power amps are really the equivalent of a souped up small car revving it's nuts off to achieve the speed a larger car could do relatively untaxed. Also smaller amps distort earlier and this taxes the speakers more than a higher power clean signal would. This is why you choose a higher power amp than the rating of the speakers.
My tops are 200W rms @ 8ohms so I should be ok powering these on their own.
The only info on my subs that I can find, is that the crossover is rated 600W @8ohm. ;
So I probably need somewhere nearer 800W a side to drive the subs and tops.
if you can take a pic and post it , pic of the actual driver would be good too
I had a peak inside the speaker cabinet this morning and my subs are (Red Label) Eminence Delta 15LFA 8ohm.
There was nothing on the product labels I could find that stated the power handling -but current LFA specs suggest 500W.
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