How much gear do you have for gigs?

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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357
    Just an aside, really, but i never see why bands would turn up to your average pub, function or wedding with two subs. You only need one sub, surely?
    Generally today's systems are designed to be sub - pole - top speaker per side without using any tripod stands

    Also although we call em subs they are really handling frequencies from 50Hz to around 100 \ 120hz ...  so unless you can put one slap in the middle things can sound uneven. Also some weddings can be in huge venues or outside events which can require a lot of power. 
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • John_PJohn_P Frets: 2744
    Both my gigging bands use a similar set up - a couple of T bars of lights,  2subs, 2mid/high cabs a couple of power amps, 12 ch desk, 2 or 4 active monitors and mic everything - it doesn't have to be loud but it only takes an hour to rig everything up and soundcheck - usually less as we're used to working together and everyone chips in. Sunday night we packed everything up in 30mins.   

    I'd rather have a consistent rig you know inside out with plenty of power in reserve than be driving a tiny rig too hard and getting a harsh sound, fighting feedback.

    The whole PA rig could be bought for the price of just the guitars I often gig with so it's not a huge investment - I hate shared ownership tho - much better if people own bits of the rig, ideally the singer.    I usually find that storing and working out who is carrying the gear is more of a hassle...
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  • 1nten5e1nten5e Frets: 245
    Just recently we've upgraded from a 6 channel mixer amp for vox/acoustics/mandolin, with 2 reasonable 12"s on stands


    we're now running a QU16 with powered 12" EV bottoms (these power some passive 12" EV tops) everything goes through the PA now and we run 3 powered monitors (all with individual mixes), plus the singer uses his own mix from the desk into his in ears......we've never had so much control and the comments coming back now are that we've never sounded so good
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  • maltingsaudiomaltingsaudio Frets: 3098
     We would all rather sport a grand on a Les Paul than couple of Mackie SRM' 450s likewise £80 on a pedal than an SM58 
    The question you have to ask yourself is are you doing it to make some money or just for fun and how much disposable income do you have ? .



    www.maltingsaudio.co.uk
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  • mike257mike257 Frets: 374
    When I joined my function band two years ago they had the most horrific PA, cheapest cabs and amp they could get hold of and the whole thing was woefully below the required standard.  Was a two subs, two 15" tops setup but couldn't get the vocals up above the backline.  After struggling through with it for a while I finally convinced them to spend some cash so we put about £1500 into PA kit.

    Ended up with a system we can scale up and down - two EV Force i25 2x15 tops and four EV Force i subs, plus a couple of hefty Cerwin Vega amps powering it all.  It's not the fanciest or the lightest, and we've yet to use all four subs, but got a good deal on it at the time and was night and day from our previous kit.  I replaced the cheap Carlsbro desk with a used Yamaha O1V that I got for a ridiculous price because of a minor and inconsequential fault.

    The amps, crossover and a power distribution unit are built into a 12U rack that also has a large rack drawer holding all of the speaker, power and interconnect cables for the PA and a rear mounted four way that powers the mixer, laptop for DJing and also my guitar gear if we're short on mains sockets.  It's all cabled out to a nicely labelled patch panel and important cables are all labelled too so despite the size of the rig it can be set up and making a noise in under five minutes, even by the non-technically minded band members.

    As someone who makes their living as a sound engineer, I'd still like nicer gear, but I'm not sure I can convince the band to make another big spend.  I'm borrowing a HK Actor DX system (like @Danny1969 uses) this weekend from a PA company I freelance for while I wait for a replacement driver for one of our cabs and hoping to pinch a Behringer X32 Compact and some nice mics from them while I'm there - thinking once the band hear what another couple of grand can get you they'll be swayed.  We're doing around 40 weddings/function this year and growing each year so I want to get the overall production standard as high as possible.

    Having said all that, if we're doing a small room or a pub gig, we'll take the JBL JRX tops and Yamaha powered mixer from our rehearsal room and just run vocals through that - there's definitely a time and place for small rigs too!
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  • thomasw88thomasw88 Frets: 2316
    Main band use a couple mackie thumps 15s, yamaha mixing desk with built in fx and compressors, couple of small pole mounted behringer monitors. 4 vocal mcs, mic up the kick drum and acoustic/electric guitar. Couple of party bar led lights. Sound wise its good. Sounds better and easier to put up/De rig than the heads/subs rack full of stuff I used to lug around.
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  • maltingsaudiomaltingsaudio Frets: 3098
    thomasw88 said:
    Main band use a couple mackie thumps 15s, yamaha mixing desk with built in fx and compressors, couple of small pole mounted behringer monitors. 4 vocal mcs, mic up the kick drum and acoustic/electric guitar. Couple of party bar led lights. Sound wise its good. Sounds better and easier to put up/De rig than the heads/subs rack full of stuff I used to lug around.
    Got one of those on the bench for monday morning  clip light coming on the moment you power it up will let you know what I find 
    www.maltingsaudio.co.uk
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  • IanSavageIanSavage Frets: 1319
    Fortunately we're only a three-piece so when we're playing relatively small places two active 15"-ers and a basic Soundcraft mixer does the job; bigger gigs tend to have in-house PA. 
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357
    edited May 2014
    Found these pics, all the gear stacked neatly while van went off for MOT. Quite compact and most of it on wheels which makes loading in and out of venues a lot easierimage

    image
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357
    Modern FOH for one of my other bands, small format cheap digital desk, laptop is allowing remote control from iPad as well as tracking the gig in multitrack to Reaper

    image
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357
    Another FOH pic from my main band, 64 channel digital desk, racks of outboard and DMX controllers for lights

    image
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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