Horses for courses, maybe.
What's great, what's just OK, and what makes you think "Oh, Shit ! - that's going to sound crap" ?
I am thinking about manufacturers / brands you can rely on for a good sound,
or great technology that works,
or choosing a good hire company for something a little, or a lot, bigger.
If you are just choosing your own gear, what's good or what to avoid ?
If it is a venue installation, whatever the size, what makes you think either, "this is going to be a cracking night" or that is a demoralising POS, what am I doing here ?
And onto pro sound hire, what is recognised as the best in PA right now, and what should you avoid ? How about the middle ground?
Comments
To answer the latter:
Anything that's bought out from a cupboard behind the bar (yes, this happened, in a 'venue' which we'd been assured 'had a 4kW PA with monitors').
Anything with 'Phonic', 'Soundlab', 'Skytec' or 'Alto' written on it (and pretty much anything powered with 'Behringer' on it, especially if the venue has professional pretensions).
Personally I still prefer old-fashioned power amps with big ol' transformers, but very aware that the lightweight Class D stuff is very much getting better all the time - I've still got an affinity for field-proven UK and US-made stuff like QSC, Studiomaster, Crown, Crest, C-Audio, some Peavey etc etc etc, although the older Italian-made Mackie SRM450s and a fair few variations thereof have pushed me towards powered speakers for 'own gear' as opposed to installations (ALWAYS with the big heavy iron for installs ).
I'm kind of out-of-touch with pro sound hire these days, although it appears from working a few festivals that whilst modern digital desks are very much 'in', not so much modern lightweight power amps (massive racks of multi-band power still very much evident).
Something that looks like it was a considered option rather than left over from the 70s. Power is king (headroom) processing is nice (dynamic and Eq).
Broken anything is off putting, you just know if you see that first, then more and more will come to your attention as you try to clean up the signal chain.
Knowledgeable local crew is a big plus especially if they get excited about providing what you require (require rather than want).
Modern equipment is nice, stuff like HK, Yorkville, Db, Ev, can be made to sound good, in fact it's often pre tuned to sound good in most venues without additional Eq or processing.
I agree with Ian about Big Iron transformers in power amps that do the low end, I'm generally happy with digital switching power supplies for everything else.
The single most important thing is knowing what the hell you are doing, just putting things where they look nice and twiddling knobs is a recipe for poor sound. Read up and empower yourself.
I've always liked nexo PS15's. Perfect to use for monitors or front speakers.
Dynacord desk's sound great and easy to get into for live bands. Two different fx to use.
As for amps the Powersoft are superb! Not cheap. But reliable bags of power and LIGHT! Seriously, I think the 20kW one is around 12kg. If you've got a strong back or a road crew, maybe the Crown Macrotech instead. (Always funny watching someone trying to pick one of those up off the floor for the first time. The big 5k one is monstrously heavy!)
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"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I find the attitude that all Behringer gear is crap really tiresome. You see plenty of examples of people new to recording posting on internet forums asking for advice within a limited budget and saying "I was thinking of this by Behringer?" and straight away get bombarded with negative responses dictating how if it says Behringer on it it must be shit.
I have worked in various commercial studios and my own for most of my adult life. When you learn to not become dependent of your safety net of 'this preamp' and 'these settings' you realise that most negativity to a lot of gear of any type is poor application by the users. People pushing gear beyond it's capabilities and expecting a magic wand to polish a turd. It's like the equivalent of wanting a Fender DRRI to give you it's sparkling cleans and then dirt like a Mesa Dual. Of course there are also crap bits of gear with a multitude of makers names on.
About 8 years ago I was sent a Behringer UB2222FX desk. I will freely admit that I would never have gone out and bought it myself - really as I had what I needed at the time. I would also add the caveat that the UB2222FX is supposed to be a bit of a flagship for Behringer apparently overseen by Uli Behringer personally. Anyway I was really pleasantly surprised. It has since been flight cased and I used it when I need something mobile and in less than ideal conditions where I wouldn't want to risk something more expensive. The desk is pretty robust, the preamps very good and very quiet. The built in effects are shit but then I have never liked desks with inbuilt effects.
Another piece of Behringer gear that puzzles me in the negativity it gets is the VX2000 Ultravoice. It is well known to be a clone of the Focusrite Platinum Voicemaster. Side by side tests have be done aplenty on the internet with virtually all claiming no audible difference yet the Focusrite get rave review and great value for money, yet the half the price Behringer gets slated. I am aware that a portion of this is the fact people seem to gets the arse ache that Behringer have cloned a dearer unit, but is that not exactly what happens with companies like Mooer and is well received.
If you had unlimited funds would most Behringer gear rank amongst your first choice? No. But a good amount is perfectly serviceable gear that can give really good results (if used correctly and within it's limits) for those on a tighter or more realistic budget.
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Behringer dealers expect a certain amount of DOA units which they switch out readily, with electronics they tend to die quickly or last a good while (if not abused) so the stuff can work out decent value for you budget system, but if you earn your living from music don't rely on behringer in a key application.
I have owned a number of Behringer units and still own some now, I have had a number of throw away items once they died and two DOA units swapped by the dealer.
Like I said just avoid critical applications (like a mixer on the road or crossover you can't bypass).
"Nobody is really researching robot jokes"
"Nobody is really researching robot jokes"