Advice on PA?

[JohnH]

This is a question for the old and not so old road dogs: what kind of PA to get?

Our band is a 5 piece and sometime 6 piece (depends if we can get a female singer to put up with us for more than three weeks). Drums, bass, two guitars, keyboard, with 3 or 4 vocal mikes. The few gigs we have done have been through PA provided by the venues, and each week we rehearse at a studio where everything is set up. But we want to be independent and be able to do private parties, pubs etc

As a minimum, the PA needs to be able to take the vocals and keys. I’m not sure whether we should expect to be miking the guitar cabs and the drums.
We don’t want to spend more than we need to
Thinking we need two front facing speakers and two floor monitors
Not sure how much power we need
Is it better to use a mixer plus power amps, or an all in one mixer amp, or mixer plus powered speakers? – im inclined towards separate parts so that any individual problem is easier (for me) to fix
Want to be able to adjust FOH and monitor volumes, and have left and right channels
Thinking its a good idea to buy second hand?
Advice on brands?
The guys are interested in building the cabs. Doing the design and construction would be fun, but does this save $ given the cost of parts, as compared to second hand?

All thoughts and comments are welcome

John

[ashcatlt]

I think this is one application where Peavey gear is pretty hard to beat. It may not sound all that great, but if price and durability are any concern I think it's the way to go. Plus, they're everywhere, so repairs and/or replacements are never too far away.

They had a line of speakers, I think it's the Scorpions, which are great because reconing is a simple matter of removing 3 hex bolts, pulling off the magnet and attaching it to your new basket. With an electrical screwdriver you can get them out, reconed, and replaced in the time it takes to get the drummer away from the bar.

I agree with you on principle re: seperate pieces. I like it because then the different objects can be pressed into service for other applications. A smallish Mackie board would be perfectly functional, and could be used for recording when you get around to putting down some demos. Most of these have insert points where you could patch in a compressor/gate on the vocals (highly recommended) and if nothing else you can use the aux sends for monitors if necessary. The newer Mackies also have an HPF switch which is great to help eliminate bleed in the vox from bass and drums. Opens up some headroom so you can get the vocals a little louder.

[cynical1]

I'm with Ash on this one too. The sound may not be the best, but Peavey makes things that will still work after the next ice age.

Not sure what the availability is in your part of the world, but even second hand Peavey is more reliable then most of the "affordable" new equipment.

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[andy]

If you are looking at it for the long run, then separate parts is often the best way to go. Above all it means that you can choose a rig which suits you the best, without paying for too many unneeded extras. It also means that upgrading can be a much more gradual process, without having to fork out for the whole thing every time you realise that your current rig falls short on one or two counts. Rack mounting stuff is a good thing too, even some mixers can be mountable, either as a top section or as a 19" unit, and power amps nearly always come in 19" configuration. For a smaller setup, powered monitors can be a good idea though, depending on what sort of size/amount of racks you want to be lugging about. Perhaps musicians could carry their own monitor to help spread the load.

[Happyguy]

These guys probably know more about this than me, but we (my band) use this

www.phonic.com/en/mixers/powered-mixers/powerpod-740-plus.html
(can't make links work )
440Watts
7 channels

we use it mainly for vocals but I bet it could do the keyboard.
We also use it for recording, in combination with a firebox and a PC.
Ours came with 2 big speakers but you can add more i guess.
Just a thought

very cheap.

[gfxbss]

I also own the same phonic that happy was speaking of. The sound and value isnt bad, but picked up the PA in May and Ch1 is already blown...... with that exception, the PA has performed great.....


Tyler

[JohnH]

Thanks for the replies so far which are very helpful. Im still researching, but will be away for the next few days. Has anyone used Behringer PA? they seem to be the most well known budget option down here. I have a small mixer by them and it is very good.

cheers

John

[gfxbss]

to my knowledge, behringer usually copies mackie. that being said, they use lower quality parts......

[warmstrat]

I've used a couple of Behringer PAs, and I must say, despite all the snobbery, they would be my first recommendation. Never had any trouble with them, easy to use, and very good value for money.

My school had a little Behringer powered mixer (not a proper sounds desk with sliders, just 10 channels and a LOT of knobs) and some beautiful Wharfedale speakers that could blow just about anything away, and as far as I know they're still using that rig today.

[ccso8462]

I have to give my vote to Peavey. ;D We're using one of their 8ch powered mixers and running everything through it, including electronic drums. The biggest drawback is only having one monitor mix. To alleviate some of the monitor problem, we are using a Fender 65w bass practice amp and a Peavey KB2 40w keyboard amp, which both have XLR outs that we run to the stage snake. So we don't have keyboards & bass in the monitors, but we can hear them. The guitars run through processors (a Podxt Live and a GNX4) so the monitor channel has drums, guitar, and vocals.
So if it is in your budget, opt for multiple monitor channels, even if you can't amp them at this point. You'll want them later.