Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

Colors the capt. is right that actually happened to me I had a Yamaha 12 channel 2 of the channels were stereo it wasn't really enough for our 3 peice band. I can tell you that the Allen & Heath is the best mixer out there for the money it has the best pre-amps hands down. I got the Mixwiz 16-2 for $863.00 from NSL the light was an extra $100.00 I used a label gun you know the kind that prints those sticky labels and made 3 labels for each channel one for the trim at the top of each channel one for the fader at the bottom of each channel and one for the corresponding imput on the snake. On the mixer I put the vocals on channels 1 thru 4 with extra channels in 5 and 6 just in case someone sets in, or a fader goes out, acoustic guitar on 7, keyboards 8, lead guitar on 9,base guitar on 10, and drums 11 thru 16. If you have a soundman it is always best IMHO to lay the drums out on faders as he see's them from the audience perspective example, kick drum 11, floor tom is on the left in ch.12, low wing tom 13, high tom 14, snare 15, high hat 16 it makes it easier for him to find the correct fader when making adjustments or in case of feedback. I hope this helps.

I say go for as many channels as you can get, if you can find a 24 channel you wont regret it. We use a 16 and we are basically 3 piece and we use all of the channels up. We rack mounted ours but we do have an old Mackie 24 channel in the trailer we could pull out if need be.

Good Luck and Keep On Rockin

One more thing, those mixers don't have subgroups but I never use those anyway. Also that mixer is rackmountable it has a very cool feature where the inputs on the back are hinged with a ribbon cable I have mine set up in a very heavy duty roadrunner case, you remove 2 screws and carefully fold the back portion with the inputs facing down and reinstall the screws it makes the mixer footprint even smaller in your rack and thus allowing for more space. When you look at my mixer at the angle it is installed I had more space above it to mount an outboard effects unit so everything is right there for wife (the sound chick). I have all the compressors mounted underneath with a power conditioner and sonic maximizer. and the MP3 player for when we are on break also to help with sound check. I always take a song that I trust has the best mix. on the MP3 and check the sound by playing it after I get everything set up and powered on and also to make sure I have the stereo left and rights correct.

Colors I cant find a picture of our pa setup.

Weve got one big box that has the mixer, outboard gear and power amps all in one box. Its heavy but most places we play we just roll it to whereever we want it and then just hook up speakers and mics and we are in business. This may not be practical for you but I love it unless we have to go upstairs thats whole other story.

If you are building from the ground up you might want to look at configureing it the quickest and easiest way for setup at the gigs. We have ahuge pa but with the wheels on the cases and a dolley I can pretty much set it up all by myself.

Thanks guys. It does help.

I am looking real hard at that MixWiz 16:2. I just keep hearing really good stuff about the Allen & Heath mixers. I'm also looking at the Mackie 1604 VLZ. But my local shop guy & guitar tech (who also has his own band) says that what he doesn't like about the Mackies now is that they're made in China, and internally the parts aren't soldered together well. He says when he gets a Mackie for a customer nowadays he resolders the internals because he knows they're going to break.

Rack-mounting is certainly something I'd like to have. I've seen how the MixWiz can be reconfigured for rack mounting (they have PDF of everything on their website).

All of my guitar gear is rack-mounted. I have two SKB cases - one four slot and one three slot - and that is how I house my guitar amps, preamps, effects units, a Fuhrman power conditioner, and a Rocktron noise reduction system. It's great for hauling the hear (I can pickup a rack with each hand, though the power-amp one is a bit heavy) and it makes setup and tear down really easy. And my gear is protected like a tank.

I'm now wondering - what should I be doing for monitors?

I was talking to my shop/tech guy and his suggestion is for everyone to go IEM's, but I can't force everyone in the band to make the same financial commitment that I made in IEM gear.

Previously, when we were using our prior drummer's PA, he was using two of his Tapco Thumps for mains, and then two more for monitors.

I am wondering if that's a good idea, or if I should be going with some different monitors (maybe something not powered with a Crown power amp). The more I look around, the less I find any decent floor monitors that are powered. The stuff I've seen so far doesn't seem to be very good quality; a lot of the powered monitors are underpowered or sound bad.

Suggestions?

Colors we use 4 Peavey monitors powered by a QSC 1450 amp, a stereo eq and we have two independent mixs. Probably about 1700 to 2000 dollars for these.l

The Peaveys are small and have pole mounts so I use 2 or them with a Behringer 10 channel 500 watt mixer for my acoustic gigs.

Colors, you can split that shure psm600 you have into two seperate mono mixes and you and one other member can use that unit, so now that is 2 IEM's I highly advise the carvin system. The unit I am using can have as many recievers on it as you want it is just one mix though. you really should not need more than two monitor mixes in a band. one for the singer and one for everyone else oddly the drummer I was working with was fine using shure E2's for ear buds he also is a lead singer and liked the bleed you get around the buds it still gave him a little live sound and he didn't feel so isolated. That is going to be the big issue your bandmates will have with the IEM's more than the out of pocket investment it is getting used to the isolation that IEM's give you. The guys I was working with to this day say they prefer not to go back to wedges. It does take discipline when you mike everyone especially if you are running sound from the stage. Once you do the sound check everyone has to resist that urge of turning up once their ears become compressed. What you have to tell them is if you are using IEM's they have a volume knob on their receiver just turn that up instead.

You know if you could build a band up with in ear monitors and electronic drums, and preamps it would be really sweet. It would eliminate feedback, just have a big ass amp and some bad ass speakers and you could set your overall volume to the level that suited the gig. Colors Ive used my preamp straight into the pa when weve done small rooms, the only problem is to get that 4x12 thunk feel I have to crank the guitar too hot in the monitors.

Haley Ive used some in ear stuff on loan. My problem is I have so much ringing in my ears that it bothers me having the monitors in my ear.

Haley, you post some great ideas, thanks for that and Colors good luck whatever route you go.

When we practice we use headphones in the studio and Ive noticed that we play tight as hell cause you hear every nuiance of the music unlike using amps.

I get tired of hearing people complain about Tinnitus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus

I wear a set of ER25's now and they are a god send.

I used to wear -80db plugs, but I found I was losing some frequencies and couldn't really hear all of what was being played.

http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/erme.aspx

Check em out, have to have them custom fitted though.

But they are worth it.