whats everyone using for PA's these days?

benmurray85

Ive always pieced together bits second hand from eBay and had some decent results (more luck than management!) but it looks as though I've landed myself in a band again. We are going for a pro setup, sound, appearance etc and looks like I've been tasked with PA duties.

Just wondered whats decent yet still a reasonable price. Im not a technical expert (specs etc) will need good monitoring and might look at using subs. Might also consider putting the whole band through it, something I've never done before but why not eh!?

anyways give me a shout with any suggestions

Danny1969

HK Actor DX for main band, EV SX for another. Mackie SRM for another, some ancient Peavey speakers and amp for another, Bose L2 for acoustic band

Monitoring wise Shure IEM's 

With all bands everything is mic'ed up and through the PA

The cheap Mackie SRM450  Mk 1's tops and 18" bins are actually ok for cheap PA on a budget. 

benmurray85

@Danny1969 how do you get on with the in ears? Ive always been dead against them, i have tried!! Im not singing in this new band though so I'm thinking of forcing them on the other guys to ease stage volume! 

Danny1969

I have used them for around six years now wouldn't use any other form of monitoring by choice. I have an In ear mix in stereo that I can adjust from my phone and the clarity is amazing.

I always struggled with monitor wedges I could never seem to hear them well enough

Also with doing around 100 gigs a year minimum I need to look after my ears a bit and low on stage volume and in ear monitors is one way to do this

Highly recommended

benmurray85

Thank you Danny

monquixote

I've been using in ears for a couple of years now and I really like them. 

If I was buying new PA I'd be looking at a pair of those Yamaha powered speakers.

koneguitarist

I love my RCF310A for live work. Punches vocals through, played in a band Saturday night though using JBL's . Monitors seemed louder than out front sound. Crazy, my ears were still ring when I got to Spain on Sunday!

robinbowes

The Elements range is very good: http://hkaudio.com/products.php?sid=15

Roland

Another fan of IEMs. Without monitors we can bring the stage volume down, and never get feedback through the mics.

My recommendation on pa is to pick it up through eBay, collect in person, test it, and pay cash. It will take a few weeks for the right one to come up, but there's always someone whose band has broken up.

Danny1969

The trouble with stage monitors is you generally have to have more and more volume as you get older. In one band I'm in the singer uses 2 X HK Darts in front of him and he hits the limiters. That's 310 watts RMS of bi amped power EACH monitor.  The amount of volume is staggering, I keep my ears in, I would be as deaf as he's getting listening to that 

David5150

Currently using electrovoice ZLX 12 actives for mains and monitor.

Wonderful clear speakers for vocals and enough headroom to put the kemper through it if I'm in that kind of mood.

Bigger gigs where we do DJ stuff too we wheel a behringer 18 inch active sub along

bob21

As far as IEMs go - absolutely go that way, and make it that way from the start - if people don't know the 'sound' of the band any different, they'll get used to them quicker..

Get a digital desk - make sure you have at least one aux per band member (ideally two - stereo ears are so much better!) as it's sharing mixes etc that put people off ears! This also means iPhone control of monitor mixes (no longer do you need to take everyone's monitor requests), and if you have a trusted mate out front, you can give them an iPad to tweak the mix. 

Get enough channels to mic everything up too (yes, even the drums) - get the stage as quiet as possible (because you don't need to hear it, you've got ears) and use the PA to bring it back - it'll sound better out front, and have less overall level. Also, if you've got decent ears, you will need stuff like drums in them for a good mix!

Also means for rehearsals, you just need the desk and the ears (no monitors/pa to lug). Keeps stage volume down!

As far as FOH goes, at that end of the market, I'm a big fan of the QSC stuff, and the EV stuff. Personally, would go for 12" tops over subs.. Can't go far wrong with Mackie 450s either. RCFs are nice if you've got budget, but they are a good bit more than the rest mentioned..

maltingsaudio

Danny1969 said:

The trouble with stage monitors is you generally have to have more and more volume as you get older. In one band I'm in the singer uses 2 X HK Darts in front of him and he hits the limiters. That's 310 watts RMS of bi amped power EACH monitor.  The amount of volume is staggering, I keep my ears in, I would be as deaf as he's getting listening to that 

One of the problems of monitoring like this is the audience hears the monitors not the front of house! One of the banes of my life is artists who think they can't hear the monitors

My stuff is HK HZ Proel Neos and just scored an Outline System which is real cute! Desks A&H 

PS My old Tascam desk is still up for grabs http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/36939/

kennedydream1980

My 5 piece cover band (2 guitars, bass, drums, lead singer) have been using a full KV2 PA for about 4 years now. The rig consists of 2 x EX12 tops and 2 x EX2.2 Subs. It's top quality stuff and was a pretty Sizeable investment for us (Approx £10,000) when we took the plunge and bought it, but it's probably the best thing we ever did.

It's fairly compact but it has handled every venue we have played with volume to spare. The quality of sound from this little rig is amazing.

We also have a Presonus Studiolive 16.4.2 digital mixing desk. The singer uses in ears for monitors and we have a single Mackie SRM450 active speaker which is used as fold back for the rest of the band. Stage volume is fairly low so this single speaker is enough for us.

Teetonetal

The Bose tower thing. It's awesome for small gigs. 

Larger gigs mean PA is provided.

Gassage

We have a shared secretarial support team rather than individual PAs

bluebuddha

QSC K-Subs with QSC K12 tops. sounds great

harpo

Can someone explain how to alter iem mixes with the I pad please ? That's a new one on me. I've suffered with the 'sharing a mix with someone'

maltingsaudio

harpo said:

Can someone explain how to alter iem mixes with the I pad please ? That's a new one on me. I've suffered with the 'sharing a mix with someone'

Need a bit more information here, most digital desks come with some sort of software you can run on an ipad to control the desk remotely but the way they work and what they call things  can vary so what are you using?

harpo

Ah I see .....it has to be a digital desk

Phil_aka_Pip

A 4mm x 16mm ID ball closure ring