PA setup help - long

[stevetree]

Hi,

 

I recently joined a band that

[GCDEF]

You posted in the amp forum and got a few replies.

[Craig Vecchione]

I won't mince words. The Crate and Kustom gear you describe is nowhere close to gig-worthy. I would suggest you ditch the crate and Kustom stuff, and get 2 or 3 decent powered speakers. Yorkville's got some good stuff at reasonable prices. Use one or two for FOH, and the other for a monitor.

 

Does the Behringer mixer have an aux send on each channel? If so, that's what you'd use for the monitors....you can set each channel's level to what works best for monitors instead of it being tied to what's going to FOH.

[picker13]

I'll agree with Craigv. I've always hated those "head" units when used as speaker amps. In addition, maybe some speaker stands to get the speakers off the floor and over everyone's heads. One last thing -- unless you're walkin' out in front of the FOH speakers, I'd ditch the feedback eliminator from the FOH signal. Especially when run in the automatic modes, they can pull down a lot of mid and high range frequencies and just trash the sound of vocals. You might be able to live with it in the monitors, but then again...

[stevetree]

Hey thanks for the quick replies and for pointing me to where I posted yesterday!!!

 

I do have speaker stands, so they were around head height.

 

The Behringer does have aux sends so next time I will use that - but since we were only using the pa for vox, we didn't see a need for a different monitor mix. However, I do want to start micing some additional stuff so we can better hear each other and I think that will be great to alter the mon mix.

 

Surprising about the FB eliminator because it worked so well in practice. But in this ridiculously bright room, feedback has been such a problem that we figured it was exactly what we needed. You're right though because I remember seeing nearly all the automatic filters used, so it must have pulled down all the highs and mids.

 

Follow up question about the compressor. Assuming we get some better speakers/amp.

 

Do you think I should try to use it or just leave it out altogether?

 

Would a 32 band eq be more help than the FB elim?

 

Thanks,

steve

[tlbonehead]

Originally posted by stevetree Hey thanks for the quick replies and for pointing me to where I posted yesterday!!! I do have speaker stands, so they were around head height. The Behringer does have aux sends so next time I will use that - but since we were only using the pa for vox, we didn't see a need for a different monitor mix. However, I do want to start micing some additional stuff so we can better hear each other and I think that will be great to alter the mon mix. Surprising about the FB eliminator because it worked so well in practice. But in this ridiculously bright room, feedback has been such a problem that we figured it was exactly what we needed. You're right though because I remember seeing nearly all the automatic filters used, so it must have pulled down all the highs and mids. Follow up question about the compressor. Assuming we get some better speakers/amp. Do you think I should try to use it or just leave it out altogether? Would a 32 band eq be more help than the FB elim? Thanks, steve

Yes,by all means,get a 31 band EQ if you can. Skip the comp for now too,IMO.

[dboomer]

Biggest improvement for least $$$ ...

 

Spend about $500 per speaker cab on some new ones.

[Craig Vecchione]

True dat. Stop worrying about feedback eliminators, EQ's and compressors, and get decent speakers.

 

Decent speakers will have a much flatter response. Flat response will reduce feedback immensely.

 

Compression in live sound is primarily used to tame single source problems, such as keeping a singer who varies his dynamics too much, or making a kick drum punchy. Neither of these issues are a concern to you at this point. First you need clear audio at an acceptable volume level.