Members Telecruiser Posted December 19, 2009 Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 As I have stated on earlier post I am building a small, quality PA for livingroom and small venue use. We have five players; electric guitar, acoustic guitar, dobro, fiddle and electric bass with three of us singing. Should I put a compressor in this setup or will I be fine without it? The components are either an Allen Heath 12:2 or a 16:2 with a couple of JBL EON510's. Mics are Neumann 105's, AKG 535's and Shure SM81's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jwlussow Posted December 19, 2009 Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 Keep it simple. Compressors are usually used to solve problems. I wouldn't add anything to my setup unless it really needed it. I don't believe you will need a compressor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members whataracket Posted December 19, 2009 Members Share Posted December 19, 2009 I'm assuming you are using the PA for vocals and acoustic instruments only ... You don't absolutely need a compressor as long as everyone singing has reasonable microphone technique. However, a decent one is an improvement if used properly. I own plenty of compressors, but I only use a compressor on the vocal mics (KMS105) and the pickup system on my acoustic guitar for small duo gigs. I don't use one on the SM81 on the guitar when I use a mic. I also don't use one on my Dobro pickup, but the Fishman outboard preamp for it has a certain amount of compression. If you haven't already, I'd buy a decent eq before I'd buy compressors if you are limited in funds. If you are looking at buying 4 channels of eq, consider digital processors as a potentially cost effective substitute for analog 31 band eqs, particularly if you think you may grow your system in the future. For my small gig system, which uses different speaker configurations depending on the venue and who I am playing with, I use an Ashly 4.24C 4 in 8 out processor, and it saves a lot of rack space, weight, and resetting time when changing configurations (I just recall a different setup program). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted December 20, 2009 Members Share Posted December 20, 2009 Don't use a compressor unless you have a specific reason why it's needed. You can do a lot of harm to the sound by using one where it's not needed. Generally I don't use comps for acoustic music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.