House PA vs your own?

[HuskerDude]

I guess it's not really a "vs" thing, but it seems like a lot of you have to haul your own PA and ligts and crap to every gig. I was just curious as to how common this is, and where folks who do/don't have to do it live...

I'm in northern Ca and everywhere I've played has had either a house or provided PA rig.

[curlymo]

Bars around the southside of Atlanta and middle Georgia. We've played a couple places that have a house PA, but most of those are for the DJs only, so we still end up providing our own sound...then we wage volume and stage time wars with said DJs.

[caveman]

It's not so much as we "have" to haul the PA as it is wanting control of our sound.

 

The only time that I ever saw Frank Zappa live, he came to town and rented a PA. It sucked so bad that it sounded like all the vocals were being run through a Fuzz Face. Of course everything else was mic'd through the same "system" which made the whole show total crap. ARGH!!!!

 

With your own PA you know what to expect and there are none of the surprizes you may run into with a rental.

[MrKnobs]

 

Originally posted by HuskerDude I guess it's not really a "vs" thing, but it seems like a lot of you have to haul your own PA and ligts and crap to every gig. I was just curious as to how common this is, and where folks who do/don't have to do it live... I'm in northern Ca and everywhere I've played has had either a house or provided PA rig.

 

 

Almost every club that has live music in Austin has a decent if not great house PA and a guy to run it.

 

I've had to carry out PA maybe five times since I started my current band.

 

Terry D.

[Fear My Potato]

Originally posted by caveman It's not so much as we "have" to haul the PA as it is wanting control of our sound. The only time that I ever saw Frank Zappa live, he came to town and rented a PA. It sucked so bad that it sounded like all the vocals were being run through a Fuzz Face. Of course everything else was mic'd through the same "system" which made the whole show total crap. ARGH!!!! With your own PA you know what to expect and there are none of the surprizes you may run into with a rental.

 

But that's a rental. A house PA, done right, has the cabinets placed in the proper places after "pinking" the room for frequencies and generally has a soundguy that knows not just the rig, but the room too. A house PA done right should actually offer fewer surprises than your own rig brought into that room...I guess it's a matter of how often it's done right.

[GCDEF]

I have a pretty decent PA. Not many of the clubs around here provide a sound system. Hauling it and setting it up are a pain in the tush. Trying to run sound from the stage and play at the same time is a pain in the tush. I much prefer clubs with sound systems and a sound guy.

[Brian Krashpad]

We use house when it's there. Almost all local places here in Gainesville have a house PA. One has a small one that we use but sometimes augment.

 

We have a small PA that's enough for vox in a small to middling venue. If forced to use just our own we don't run instruments through it, we like our amps with pretty high stage volumes anyhow.

 

BK

[cherri]

Most of the time I've been happy with house PA systems; we have our own if we need it. Ran into a little problem Saturday night. The nightclub preferred that we use their house PA, which is a quality system, but not as tweaked out as our own is. I let the guitarist book the sound tech, one of his friends way back. Lots of experience ... running sound for hard rock bands.

 

We were missing our own PA by the end of the first set. My vocals weren't coming out clearly, the bottoms and mids were heavy and bouncing around the room making the whole show sound muddy. The owner kept telling the sound tech to turn it down, to turn me up, he was getting a headache. The sound tech was getting an attitude ... how DARE the owner criticize his mix?? We weren't loud .... when I can hear the audience speaking while we're in the middle of a song, I KNOW we weren't too loud. Poor Paul couldn't get decent bass tone at the levels they wanted his amp.

 

We got it tweaked to reasonable levels on the second set. But when we play there in January, I'm bringing OUR PA and my vocal compressor.

 

We had a packed house, good merch sales, and all the posters had been torn down as souvenirs by the time the second set was over, so I know the audience loved it. But it made for a long night trying to run interference between the club owner and the diva sound tech.

[elsongs]

For my band's monthly gig, it's a little of column A, a little of column B.

 

The restaurant has a mixer/amp and speakers, but one of my background singers owns a small PA, so he brings one of the JBL Eons to use as a monitor, and all the mics and stands.

 

Otherwise, I usually do not play in a venue or event that does not have their own PA system.

[GZsound]

Around here, practically every place requires the band to bring the PA system.

 

Once in a while a bar will have a little Carvin or Behringer powered mixer and a couple of ten inch mains, but that's it.

 

I know of only a couple places that provide house PA systems.

 

Our club system is very compact and fits in the back of my van. The mixer, EQ's, effects, keyboard modules, power amp, monitor amp, compressors, gates, etc. are in one rolling rack and I just add speakers, monitors, and lights as necessary.

 

Takes us 45 minutes to set up and thirty minutes to tear down..basically a "plug and play" system.

[Blackwatch]

I've got my own PA and can set it up in about 40 mins. I play with just a drummer and myself so my PA is small. But I prefer to use it as I can get a better sound out of it than the crappy, torn to hell pieces of crap we'd find in the clubs we'd play. Half the time they didn't work at all.

Although I play in a few clubs with an outstanding system and a soundman which is great as long as the soundman is a good guy. Still if I was in a big band and the soundguy wasn't provided, I'd still have my own system just to be sure I could get good sound.

[GZsound]

Our PA isn't necessarily small, just highly portable.

 

I have a 32 input board, six keyboard inputs, bass direct input, guitar cabinet mic, three drum mics and five vocal mics and a sax mic all running through the PA. Two seperate monitor systems, all amps and EQ's, compressors, gates, keyboard modules, etc. in a single roller rack.

 

With the gear available today, a PA does not need to be huge unless you are playing for huge audiences..or you are really loud.

[Roy Brooks]

Most clubs I play at around Charleston require that the band brings a PA. Though a few have decent house systems.

[Terry Allan Hall]

Originally posted by caveman It's not so much as we "have" to haul the PA as it is wanting control of our sound. The only time that I ever saw Frank Zappa live, he came to town and rented a PA. It sucked so bad that it sounded like all the vocals were being run through a Fuzz Face. Of course everything else was mic'd through the same "system" which made the whole show total crap. ARGH!!!! With your own PA you know what to expect and there are none of the surprizes you may run into with a rental .

 

Absolute agreement!

 

There's only a very few places I gig at (primarily north Texas, but occ. Arkansas, Oklahoma & New Mexico) where the PA is as good as mine, and most have nothing at all.

[Terry Allan Hall]

 

Originally posted by Fear My Potato But that's a rental. A house PA, done right, has the cabinets placed in the proper places after "pinking" the room for frequencies and generally has a soundguy that knows not just the rig, but the room too. A house PA done right should actually offer fewer surprises than your own rig brought into that room...I guess it's a matter of how often it's done right.

 

 

Absolutely...but that's a LOT of "ifs"...few places out this way can claim to have a "done right" system, unfortunately.

 

But, it's great when it happens!

[CloseEnoughRocks]

When I played Classic rock, oldies, and southern rock, we ALWAYS had to provide PA.

 

I'm playing the dance clubs now and they always have a house setup that we sometimes augment with our own monitors.

 

It's funny...I get paid twice as much to haul less stuff and play three sets instead of four. Sold!

 

SR

[Singin' Dave]

In Chicago, it's kind of a trade off.

 

Most of the clubs you'd want to play in have very nice house PAs, competent sound men etc., but, due to so may bands vying for stage time, usually you get paid absolute peanuts for playing there (perhaps a small cut of the door).

 

However, a lot of taverns and private party gigs are available where you need to bring a PA. The audience is super (hotties galore) and you get paid $600-$1,000 for a two to three set night.

 

For example, my band played The Cubby Bear a couple months ago (pretty decent club across from Wrigley Field where a number of national acts play yearly), brought about 100 of our people on a Thursday night while the Cubs were out of town. Had some decent walk-in attendance from the street. Pretty strong crowd (that drank a lot!) and the band sounded incredible through probably the best system we have ever used. All dialed in etc. .....We were paid $30 TOTAL and had to buy our own food and drink once the case of beer we were sharing with the sound guys etc. ran out.

 

Next night, Friday night in a smallish back room of a popular tavern. Brought our little PA, did not need to recruit people to the gig, tons of lovelies, free food and top shelf drinks all night and the band split $600.

 

I'd say it pays to have a PA on hand as needed.....

[orfalot]

Likewise the clubs around here want you to bring your own PA. From the single experience we have had with a club PA and soundman we now insist on our own system. It's just a matter of going with a known instead of a variable. We've played some outdoor festival gigs and used their soundman and system and been very happy so I'll keep an open mind.

[wheresgrant3]

We use our own for about 90% of our gigs. In fact, most rooms we play in do not have house sound. We had a full range PA full of amps and speakers however we recently upgraded our PA with a system that could give most house rigs a run for their money. 16 Channel Allen & Heath Mix Wiz, 2 800 watt Yorkville active EF500P's and 2-1500 watt Yorkville LS800P subs. It's like carrying a small house system with us. We used them twice for the first time and it sounded incredible. Admittedly overkill for half the places we play, however for large indoor and even some outdoor events we probably won't ever have to rent out sound.

[Meatball Fulton]

I always use a house PA whenever I can.

 

I'll even use a supplied backline whenever I can.

 

Less stuff to cart to the gig is a good thing in my opinion.

[mikepinkerton]

I did sound for a place where the "house system" was 3 disconnected speakers shoved behind the stage connected with 18ga wire.

 

Let's say we brought our own stuff for the sake of all bands involved. Just because some place *has* a house system doesn't mean they've spent more than $15 on it.

 

-Mike

[Cortfan]

If the house system is decent, we will use it. If not, we use the Bose system for up to 350-400 people. We have several conventional systems for larger venues.