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Equiptment needed for Outdoor Gig?


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My church band is playing an outdoor gig in april and I need to create a list of what equiptment we will need to rent. The band ( 2guitar, bass, drums, 3x Vox ) will play at home plate on a baseball field in a park and a few hundred people will be in the outfield. I have some various equiptment that would work well for mixing and driving monitors but nothing appropriate for mains.

 

Could you please suggest What i should be looking for power or size wise and possibly how much i should expect a rental to cost on a sunday afternoon?

 

I appreciate any information you can provide.

 

BigSam

Tucson, AZ

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How loud does it need to be?


Rock concert level or Sunday morning service level?


On a full size baseball field it is 127' from the plate to 2nd base. If the people are in the outfield they will be a
LONG
way away.

 

 

How about rockin in the infield and audible beyond the dirt. ( I guess rockin is pretty subjective. ) I don't think i know how to quantify how loud. I think it only needs to be clearly audible at 150' but it would be nice if it were rockin at 50' ( Church rockin not 125 dB rockin )

 

Last year we used a 400watt mixer/amp and 15" Yamaha club speakers for mains and people were not able to hear the bass guitar or drums. We want to improve on that this year.

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No subs last year. Also, the mixer/amp was clipping alot and overheating and shutting down quite a bit. We were not able to run any of the instruments through the system, vocals only. This led to a very inconsistent sound quality.

 

I think i am looking to rent main speakers, subs, amps and crossover if necessary. When the rental company asks me what i need, i am not sure that have the right answers. Should i specify requirements in power or in SPL or just call around town and take whatever is available?

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I often provide my "small" system for a friends labor day party. Most in attendence are musicians, and they all take turns providing live music is provided from noon till 10pm. Everything from jazz to blues to reggae to classic rock.

 

I provide two FBT Maxx4as (400 watt self powered each) and two JBL 418s subs powered at about 750 watts each. (also a few monitors, but lets forget that for the moment). FOH totals about 2,300 watts. We run the kick and one overhead through the PA, as well as the bass. Everything else is miked and a little added to PA as needed.

 

About 200 people are there at any one time, and those interested in listening congregate towards the front. The system sounds very full to about 50 feet, which works out just right for about 100 people up front, and the rest are eating burgers in the back.

 

This is an audience of musicians, and I always get lots of positive comments.

 

BTW - I side cluster and couple the two subs. This seems to help a lot, in fact, we sometimes end up turing the subs down a bit.

 

If you are producing a "concert" you'd want much more SR, but for a "get together" type of event, a minimal system works great for us.

 

A baseball field is a lot of space for 200 people. If you actually need to fill it with sound, you'll need a LOT of PA.

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I think most sound companies will have a rig with 2-tops and 2-subs per side in the 4000-6000 watt total range. Something like that should work for a reasonable cost. You do have to figure out how much power you have available. A rig that size eats a lot of AC power. The sound company can help you with that.

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Thanks for the information guys. This is more of a get together. The outfield will have jumping castles and a bunch of tents with people cooking and other activites. There will be closer to 750 people in and out of the park. I just figure about 200 will be interested in the music.

 

I was planning on renting a 15kw generator for power. Are there any special concerns for using a generator with sound equip? Also, we normally do not use any effects ( just some eq ) on our sound system. Do you think anything other than eq will be necessary for the mains? ie reverb

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I was planning on renting a 15kw generator for power. Are there any special concerns for using a generator with sound equip?

 

 

A lot of generators put out dirty power that isn't good for things like audio equipment, electronics, or computers. Honda makes one of the cleaner generators out there in the eu2000i (2000w), and have a model that goes up 6500 watts in the same line.

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how much i should expect a rental to cost on a sunday afternoon?

 

Reading through the thread and digesting the information contained within... if I was contacted to service this event, I'd bid it in at somewhere around $1,500 to $2,500 for the full meal deal (I supply the generator and all production except for a stage) depending on undisclosed circumstances (to be determined after I front the venue).

 

Of-course rates vary depending on the market, but I'll suggest my bid quote would be somewhere in the ballpark of "average price" for an "average job".

 

I doubt if you'll find a sound contractor who will rent suitable racks and stacks cash and carry for this event. I strongly suspect that most anything that proves to be suitable for the job will involve some degree of hired expertese accompanying the rented gear.

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Thanks for all the information. I will give Beaver's Band Box a call.

 

 

April?


Don't forget tents.

 

 

It's not too hot. I think a little suncreen is all we'll need but we will have some sun shades for if things are getting too hot.

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