Members Jaspa Posted March 10, 2011 Members Share Posted March 10, 2011 Hi folks. Any Advice rendered on this subject will be gratefully accepted I am an electronic musician who likes to play live from time to time. I always end up using the house PA but I'm thinking of getting my own live sound set up. I am interested in using a keyboard amp or PA but I'm leaning towards a keyboard amp, a stereo roland KC 880. it's the flaggship model so I don't think I will be disapointed. However, I will be playing noisey ambience, drum beats, ect and also finished tracks from laptop from time to time. Will a keyboard amp be able to play the complexity of sounds I inevitably will be using or is a PA a wiser choice? I don't want to blow out the keyboard amp. I know they are more designed for single tones, but I want the color and portability of the roland. A PA is larger and more setup involved. I haven't looked into PAs much but my main focus is on a stereo keyboard amp, IE roland KC880 or a Hartke, or a Traynor. Lemme know what you're thinking, -J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scarecrowbob Posted March 10, 2011 Members Share Posted March 10, 2011 You might not be super happy with the keyboard amp in the long run. It isn't the "complexity of sounds", it is just the bass volume levels and, more importantly, the form factor. Are you mixing within your rig and sending out a stereo signal? I would be looking for a powered speaker, preferably one with a matching sub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jaspa Posted March 10, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 10, 2011 I use a mixer and probably would send that to the amp as a stereo signal, along with possibly a mic. So you think it might be disapointing in regards to bass volume? I was thinking it would be good for smaller spaces like house parties, and also as a monitor on stage if need be. Still figuring in factors... I was happy performing on a Mackie powered PA system a while back. Hmmmmm... A set of powered mackie Thump PA speakers would be cheaper than the Roland... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted March 10, 2011 Members Share Posted March 10, 2011 go with a couple powered speakers and a small FX mixer. You can do alot more with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shaster Posted March 10, 2011 Members Share Posted March 10, 2011 Just about evey keyboard player that I know use a small mixer and powered speakers. If they're decent speakers, like the Yorkville NX55P or similar, they will sound better than most keyboard amps AND they will double as a PA on small gigs. Most guys that do use spekaers have purchased two, and then let the gig and stage size dictate whether they use both or just one. Also... I was on a gig with a fellow that did use a keyboard amp. It went down, and he was hooped. Had to go direct with no monitor (it was that kind of a gig). If he had two powered speakers, he would have redundancy in the event one went down. Or dragged the other one out of the car if he was just using one speaker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bugzie Posted March 13, 2011 Members Share Posted March 13, 2011 It's a tough decision. I often rent a keyboard rig to a local "martini" bar. My instrument of destruction is a Traynor K4 keyboard amp. The advantage is that it have 4 input channels, including a mic channel. Simple and effective. It's well powered and sounds pretty good for an all in one unit. The thing has DI'd outs and for larger jobs, adding a pair of powered speakers is just a matter of plugging them in. Another advantage is that its a stereo amp. Mind you it loses its "stereo" field in a short distance. But I have had more than one keyboardist say that they really liked it when using it as their monitor. Personally I think its a tad behind soundwise when compared to a decent powered speaker, but there are a lot of advantages built in that prompted me to purchase one. It's not a cheap amp by any means, when compared to whats available for guitarists, but it has to go 20-20,000 due to the range of a set of keys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members davidss1 Posted March 13, 2011 Members Share Posted March 13, 2011 for any stereo effect to be noticable, a spread system will be much better. i really cant understand the concept of stereo coming from one point?? i think its really moreso an advertising gimmick for a dual drivered unit.as mentioned b4,,a small pa will serve u better for ultimate flexabilty. it can do everything ur amp could do,,but u cant say that in reverse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GigMan Posted March 14, 2011 Members Share Posted March 14, 2011 Hi folks. Any Advice rendered on this subject will be gratefully accepted I am an electronic musician who likes to play live from time to time. I always end up using the house PA but I'm thinking of getting my own live sound set up. I am interested in using a keyboard amp or PA but I'm leaning towards a keyboard amp, a stereo roland KC 880. it's the flaggship model so I don't think I will be disapointed. However, I will be playing noisey ambience, drum beats, ect and also finished tracks from laptop from time to time. Will a keyboard amp be able to play the complexity of sounds I inevitably will be using or is a PA a wiser choice? I don't want to blow out the keyboard amp. I know they are more designed for single tones, but I want the color and portability of the roland. A PA is larger and more setup involved. I haven't looked into PAs much but my main focus is on a stereo keyboard amp, IE roland KC880 or a Hartke, or a Traynor. Lemme know what you're thinking, -J I am a kybd. plyr. for a wedding/banquet band, as well as freelancing for various bar bands and doing frequent duo/trio and other "pickup" gigs - so I run the gamut on every kind of gig situation you can think of... and so I've tried all different sorts of amplification. Roland keyboard amps are good if you need a TON of bassy bottom end but not much good for anything else - they're horrid for trying to accurately reproduce nice acoustic piano samples. I used the JBL EON15 G2's for many years - a pair of active PA speakers, coupled w/a little passive (unpowered) mixer of your choice, it makes a solid PA rig and is a fantastic rig to put keys thru, I used it for either/or both (PA or keys). Then I went to the Motion Sound KP200S stereo keyboard amp (and its little brother, the Motion Sound KP100S for smaller gigs) - sounds really great, warmer than the EONs & having it in one piece is less gear to move. But in the last year I inevested in a pair of QSC K12's active PA spkrs. and I liked 'em so much I also got the QSC K10's, which are smaller and lighter. I was very tempted to go for the JBL PRX12's but got nervous when I'd read about how the limiter/compressor thing kicks in hard at low volumes, which would not be good for me as a piano player (as opposed to an electro-synth-pop keyboardist type) - at least, that was the reports on the earlier models, that the limiter kicks in automatically and you can't do anything about it. So now I use the QSC K12's as PA mains for the gigs where I need to supply PA (which is not a lot but sometimes). Also use the K12's as a killer keyboard rig (with a mixer), for gigs that are LOUD! I use the K10's as floor monitors, a perfect match when using the K12's as Mains... I also will use the K10's sometimes as a nice little stereo keyboard rig (again, w/mixer) on gigs where I don't need ear-bleeding noise levels... they work great for medium-level volume situations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mshifflett Posted March 14, 2011 Members Share Posted March 14, 2011 go with a couple powered speakers and a small FX mixer. You can do alot more with it. +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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