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The covers band that I'm in wants to renew its PA. Probably uppermost in our needs is portability. Our old PA is a 600W powered mixer with a couple of passive FOH speakers (Peavey I think) and a couple of passive wedges (Peavey). The mixer is heavy and the FOH speakers are particularly heavy and awkward to carry. We're all getting to the age where we don't want to be carrying awkward heavy stuff any more.
We've just been using the PA for vocals (lead +3 BVs). Instruments are just handled by instrument amps. Drums are purely acoustic. This has sufficed for the places that we play in.
A replacement mixer isn't a problem. Between us we have a couple of line level output mixers to choose from, so the choosing bit comes down to speakers. The current technology in active box speakers (eg Mackie SRM450) seems to offer quite a bit of power from relatively lightweight boxes. But I'm also wondering about Compact Line Array systems.
I've had some very good results using a borrowed Bose L1 model 2 on acoustic, folk, rootsy, type gigs and even with a rock band that used a drum machine, rather than a real drummer. This was with the L1 behind the performers. The sound was pretty good for the performers and the audience. The Bose units are pretty expensive, so I'm considering something out of the LD MAUI range, but the one application that I don't see discussed much with this type of PA is 'pub band'.
I understand that these systems really need to be heard from a few feet away to get right blend of frequencies and knowing the tight spaces we sometimes find ourselves in I can see this as a problem. I'm not sure that having one behind the band will be possible at times. So we could deploy a line array for FOH, but then we'd still need wedges or IEMs.
Has anyone else got any experience of using this type of PA kit in a pub band?
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Comments
is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?
Our singer and bass player (BVs) loved the vocal clarity. For me there was a hole in the sound right in the middle of the guitar’s warm zone, caused by the crossover. Each system has a different crossover zone. The Bose put most of the guitar through its sub, where it would get absorbed by the first line of people. Same crossover problem affected our keys.
If someone makes an array with larger cones, and a much lower crossover frequency then I’d be interested.
As for saving weight. The Maui subs and arrays weighed more than our existing equipment.
Having said all this I believe that @Danny1969 has done semi acoustic gigs with Bose equipment.
We also use one Bose L2 for indoor acoustic gigs or both L2 for outdoors ... in that area the Bose shines
But not for full on bands ... even with the bins the Bose system has nothing going on below 90Hz or so and as Roland said there is a hole in the lower mid ..... for band stuff I always use bins poles and tops, when it comes to reproducing Kick and bass guitar etc there is no substitute for cab size and moving air... the Bose doesn't cut it in full on band situations in my opinion.
It obviously has its limitations in terms of sheer volume, but for a small band replacing a couple of 12" powered cabs on poles there's a night and day difference in sound quality and spread.
Our singers like their IEMs, but if they get fatigued are happy enough to pop them out and do without with the current PA, something which would've been impossible before.
The system comes into its own for our acoustic gigs, it really sounds like a lovely big stereo rather than a brash, cheap PA, but I would honestly say you'd be pushing it putting a whole band through it in a biggish pub with a decent audience.
If you really are getting away with a vocal-only PA, our system would be excellent, you would be amazed at how good it sounds all over the room. Feedback rejection from vocal mics is stunning too, you can plonk 'em anywhere.
In the end, I went for this:
https://www.bax-shop.co.uk/speaker-sets/hk-audio-linear-5-power-pack
Really happy with it.
R.
Eqd Speaker Cranker clone
Monte Allums TR-2 Plus mod kit
Trading feedback: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/60602/
The main advantage is the long throw - in theory they produce a cylindrical wavefront instead of a spherical one, so drop off with distance is 1/r instead of 1/r^2.
The downsides are less bottom end (an array of drivers big enough to produce deep bass would be enormous) and occlusion issues, so as people have pointed out you need subs. The occlusion effects mean that they'll throw to the back of a venue nicely, but if you're standing behind someone else they'll block much more sound than from a point source speaker.
In practice we install them as high as possible and angle them down slightly. You can cover a big lecture theatre with two moderate length columns.
I don't think they'd work well in a small venue - such spaces aren't their natural prey.
Depends what you want though - if it’s just to act as a little vocal PA like you have now then it will proudly sound a lot better. For a full band inc drums then you need more imo.
Above a certain size we will revert to a big pair of conventional tops (15" I think, with no sub), but for everything else we find the MAUIs work really well. People can hear us all over the venue, but the punters up close don't get deafened. We place them up front as per a normal FOH system, and use a combination of IEMs and a couple of floor wedges.
Trading feedback here
The evox were were plenty loud enough, and I thought they sounded better