General Music Chat

Yeah lots of good stuff used ! the bose are probably out of your price range we've used two of them & 4 woofers on & off as our smaller system without monitors ( system placed on backline 4 vocal mics, keys & kick & snare only ) . we used a mackie 1402 to mix. Its a little wierd at first but I kinda like it once you get used to it .
it keeps you from killing the audience in smaller places & sounds awesome for break music. Its kinda a deluxe smaller system though as it'll cost you over 5 K new . I'm a fan of the carvin & yamaha systems they sound very good ,play loud & dont cost a fortune.Also if your buying used take a mp3 player & cord to plug into the system & make the seller fire it up & play it loud ! If it sounds ok ( no rattles or distortion ) & the price is right then your good to go !

Most power amplifiers use pretty much the same basic circuitry. The big diff is how many power transistors are boot strapped to the first output stage. Some use discrete component drivers, and some use an IC for a driver. Most have their own protection circuit designs.

I have several Behringer power amps and some Behringer pre amps. I think they have quite a good line of inexpensive gear, and they are made well as far as the gear that I have seen. I have never had a problem with any Behringer product so far. I bought my mixers and power amps from them for the specs, not the price. They do overrate the power specs with a burst, but I bought more power than I knew I would need.

Some of the best amps are Yamaha, which are usually rated far below their actual power. Peavey amps are simple to maintain and rugged, but their power output is also greatly exaggerated. A Peavey 400 only puts out 125 watts per channel @ 4 ohms, a Behringer 500 only delivers out 100 watts per channel. Look for RMS power ratings, not Peak to Peak ratings. A 300 watt Yamaha amp will put out about 350 watts usable power. (RMS)

I have repaired amplifiers, PA systems and guitar goodies for several music stores in the area for over 50 years, so I have seen the inner workings of a lot of gear. I have some real dislikes, but I have found that price is based on brand name in a good many cases.

Your best bet is to go to the music store and crank it up or check out what other musicians are using live to see what would work for you. If you aren't planning to play auditoriums then small club gear is far easier to set up and haul. Just another opinion.

http://www.carvinguitars.com/mixers/

These mixers even have 2 onboard digital effects processors the six channel is $329.00

Wow!

Wow, you guys are fantastic! thanks for all the information. I went to the Carvin website lastnight and started drooling. Great heads up on that.

JHaley, so um, that carvin you listed. the 500W 6 channel - think that'd be sufficient? I'm not a touring pro by any means but I don't want to be sound starved - the price is right there in my range. Thoughts?

Yes, I think this would be great for you! They have a package deal with 2 speakers, speaker cables, this mixer and 2 mics and mike cables for $749.00 here is the link

http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/s ... 02&cid=101

Wow, you guys are fantastic! thanks for all the information. I went to the Carvin website lastnight and started drooling. Great heads up on that.

JHaley, so um, that carvin you listed. the 500W 6 channel - think that'd be sufficient? I'm not a touring pro by any means but I don't want to be sound starved - the price is right there in my range. Thoughts?

Jams,
The Carvin is a nice system for what you are doing. It works out to 140w RMS/side at 8ohms which is plenty for vocals. That will get you into that 120db performance window. If you add drums to the mix at some point, just add powered subs.
http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/s ... 00L&cid=12

to Paper Dog, mr haley is right better to have a small amp turned up as loud as it will go than a big amp turned way down. (naturally distorted amp usually = cool tone )

I use a little Yamaha 312 to power my monitors
which are Yamahas with 12 inch speakers.
I use this also as a small standalone pa and have been
more than happy with it.

If you run your piano straight into a head
you should probably use one of the quarter inch
jack plug ins instead of the xlr. Phantom power running down
a mic line will burn your piano out.

I'll never buy anything less than sixteen channels again.

I love my Carvin 1200 ... but twelve channels is just not enough for what I need to do.

Next step will be one of their 16 channel mixers and separate amps.

They have out two new ones with 4 or 6 truly independent monitor outs.

That is where I am headed. Four running independent Hot Spots.
One for Bass & Drums & one for guitars and stage mix vocals.

George, get the 6 aux. sends. If you add effects processors or the mixer you buy has 2 onboard processors the processors will use 2 of your sends leaving you with only 4 for monitors. My 1602 mixwiz has 6 sends and has 2 onboard effects and I added 1 so now I only have 3 for monitor mixes.
I have mine set up 1 processor for vocals 1 for drums (snare & kick) and 1 for guitars.

I just read the manual found here:
http://www.carvinguitars.com/manuals/76 ... _20_09.pdf

I'm concerned about not being able to mic a 3 piece band. Why would they create a PA system that leaves the bass out of the mix in the manual, even in a trio ?

As far as monitoring goes - it looks like there can be two monitors - one for me and I guess the bassist, but think I would need 3? I mean, I'm sure my drummer want's to hear what's going on. I donno - all of a sudden I'm getting pre-purchase jitters. Initially I was thinking that I just wanted a PA to sing thru, but now that I'm thinking about it, if this PA is going to serve a party, then it almost seems that at a minimum, I would need

1 vocals mic
2 Instrument mics
3 a few (?) drum mics
3 monitors - one for each member

2 main speakers

George, I'm guessing this is why you won't settle for anything less than 16 channels for your band

Does everyone sing ?You can always put 2 monitors up as side fills everyone does not need to have a monitor ( depending on the size of the stage ). Ive played lots of gigs with only two monitors . some of the stages i've played on weve used only one front speaker & one monitor. If your just jamming & playing parties for friends the system your looking at is probably fine . If later your playing some more serious gig you can alway rent or hire sound or buy additional equipment and use this pa as a monitor system.I'm thinking you may be getting a little ahead of yourself. If the drummer doesnt sing he probably just needs enough monitor to keep track of where hes at in the song by the vocal I'm thinking the way to go with this system would be to use only vocal mics , akick & snare mic & keys . If the bass player has an amp he probably doesnt need to go though the pa & same w / guitars, & dont try and jack the kick up to concert level just a little presence will be ok. hope this helps .

Thats what I meant about being carefull while buying components for your p.a. you have to ask yourself what it is you want to do with your p.a. Intially you said a small p.a. for rehearsals and small rooms. The p.a. we suggested is good for that and within your budget. When most bands play in a small room they run the vocals keyboards and maybe a kick and snare mic. For monitors these bands usually only have vocals and keys and sometimes kick and snare depending on how hard your drummer hits thru the p.a. When you put 2 monitors where the singers stand up front that usually covers the drummer too.
When you start putting a p.a. together to mic. everything, bi-amp, and
tri-amp it gets expensive FAST! I have about 15 grand tied up in my p.a. and its setting in a trailer in my garage collecting dust LOL! I won't sell it cause I never know what the future holds and besides I would be lucky to get 7,500 for it. The band I am playing in is using a state of the art system hell the speakers alone for this system cost 20 grand!

Mr Haley I"m a old equipment geek , so when you said 20k for speakers . I had to inquire, what in the heck are you guys running ???? I love this stuff , did you guys hit the lotto ?

Just run the bass mic'd or direct out to the board man. With the right speakers your set.

But ... yes, I will never buy a PA with less than sixteen inputs.
You start adding guitars and vocalist drums bass ETC it eats up inputs in a hurry.

We could run with just the two monitors ... in fact we have been for four years. Monitor one runs the three hot spots for the vocalist.
Monitor two operates two 12" Yamaha monitors L/R for general stage sound.

I want more control over the situation. Being able to send just a vocalist signal to his hot spot will allow me to reduce the overall stage volume.

All effects will be from the signals origination. IE pedal boards, guitar amps, vocalist has his vocal multi effects so this is not a issue.

Besides I thought that is what the inserts were for ??

This is the C1648
http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/s ... 648&cid=13

Though I may go with the C3248 so that I can produce multiple band shows on my own.

http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/s ... 248&cid=13