Live Equipment Help and How To.

Ask questions and get answers about how to make music in any particular way. Hardware or songwriting or whatever.
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Adam!
Ice Cream Man
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Live Equipment Help and How To.

Post by Adam! »

This December I’ll have a few weeks of free-ish time between semesters, and aside from SongFightin’ up a storm I’d also like to get some live practice in with a few friends. The last (and first) time I did any live playing was on Octothorpe’s rig, and I neglected to check out the signal path. When playing live, or even just practicing with a band, what kind of equipment is needed? I assume the vocals need a compressor, an EQ and [maybe?] some reverb. Then there is the question of a monitor or a PA. Also do I need a separate keyboard amp, or can I put that through the same speakers as the vocals, and if so what will I need in the way of a mixer for a live situation? Money is a concern, and I don’t even know where to begin estimating costs.

So the question is “What should I squander my hard-earned textbook money on?”
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Kamakura
Panama
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Post by Kamakura »

If I were you I spend a couple of days in a rehearsal room that already has the equipment.
Play around to see what you like, get the best sound etc, and then buy equipment.
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Leaf
Jump
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Instruments: Drums, guitar, bass, vocals.
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Post by Leaf »

It depends on a)money b) purpose.

As you know, I have a full p.a. with full effects, compressors, etc and it set me back lots of money over the last ten years....

You can get some great "practice" p.a.s from peavy, mackie, yamaha and lesser brands like yorkville ,etc. Yamaha currently makes a powered board with 500 watts a side, two effect paths, inserts and 12 mic ins, direct outs, two eq's and all that for under $1000.... all you need to go with it is some speakers, and maybe one stereo compressor (a behringer composer pro is about $190) to give you front end compression and limiting for speaker protection and mild enhancement. You could probably pick up some speakers from a buy and sell. The advantage of this system is it is potentiallly expandable, the in board power can run a monitor system,and you can go out to power amps for more front end power.


In the buy and sells, you can always find old-school, powered mixers from peavey and the like, usually 6 lines in, eq, 300 watts or so. These are ok, probably doable with speakers for 600 bucks or so...

go to the yamaha site, and mackie to check out some powered boards...
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Adam!
Ice Cream Man
Posts: 1425
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 11:10 am
Instruments: Drum 'n' Bass (but not THAT Drum 'n' Bass)
Recording Method: Reaper + Stock Plugins
Submitting as: Max Bombast
Pronouns: he/him
Location: Victoria, BC, AwesomeLand
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Post by Adam! »

Wow, I completely forgot about the equipment I've got in my closet. It's all second hand, but it works.

1. Old-school 60-pound Tascam 12 channel mixer (12 powered mic ins).
2. 2 stereo compressors
3. A digital delay
4. Midi-verb!
5. Behringer 8 channel digital mixer.

Though it's not all good equipment (some of it is quite bad, in fact), it fits my budget nicely. In that case I guess I'm just in the market for a practice PA. Ideally it will be used, but recommendations are welcome.
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ken
Hot for Teacher
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Post by ken »

hey Puce,

I highly suggest some nice powered speakers on stands like the JBL Eons. You can run a mixer directly into them and run your vocals in keyboards into the mixer. Use the inserts on your board for compressors and reverbs.

be well,
Ken
Ken's Super Duper Band 'n Stuff - Berkeley Social Scene - Tiny Robots - Seamus Collective - Semolina Pilchards - Cutie Pies - Explino! - Bravo Bros. - 2 from 14 - and more!

i would just like to remind everyone that Ken eats kittens - blue lang
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