Show tonight and shy on gear. Help?
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Posted on Jul 18, 2008 12:13 pm
CptTripps
Czar of Turd Polish
Member Since: Jun 20, 2006
Hey all,
We have a show tonight where we were supposed to play with another band, they canceled and also had a good portion of gear we were gonna use.
We now have a smaller powered 6 channel PA with almost zero routing (1 mono monitor out), two 15" PA speakers and some large mains that are the house speakers and a couple monitors.
Now, I still have my Mackie Mixer which is 16 channels and I'm wondering this. Can I use the powered PA as a power amp if I just zero everything out EQ wise? If this is possible how would I connect?
I was thinking running everything into my mixer and the using the Line out mains into the PA. Would I just plug them into Line 1&2? Would I do panning on the PA at all? Should I route my send 1 from the mixer to it's own channel and then send only that channel to the monitor out on the PA?
I was thinking that we could use the PA to run vocals only and just go with stage sound but... where all the line inputs work fine, most of the mic pre's don't work and the couple that do are very loose and tend to cut out.
Suggestions?
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Jul 18, 2008 12:31 pm How big of a venue are you playing? The Powered PA would make a perfectly usable amp...if it doesn't have enough power, what is the financial situation like? Could you rent or maybe borrow a bigger power amp from elsewhere?
It sounds like with speakers you can get by, the issue is power and mixing...if it's a small room you will probably just need the PA for vocals and maybe a little kick drum, so you may well be able to do it with what you have...again, depending on room size.
CptTrippsCzar of Turd PolishMember
Since: Jun 20, 2006
Jul 18, 2008 01:07 pm Finance = bad, I can check prices for a couple power amps but I am assumingn o rental will happen.
Venue is not to large, we use his PA at practice and from that experience I think it would definitely fill the room with some vox, a little kick and maybe some snare. Also, we have no problem cranking our guitar\bass amps, plenty of headroom there.
So I guess my question is routing now.
Would my previous mention be a workable solution? The PA has seperate volume control for Mains and the Monitor.
Mixer main line outs -> PA Channel 1&2 (Panned accordingly)
Mixer Send 1 -> PA Channel 3 (Centered, no gain, monitor send only)
If this is a viable solution, what do I need to know about the gain? I would of course dial in the gain on the mixer before it's routed to the PA. But what would I set the gain on the 1&2 inputs? Should I treat em like a power amp and just dial in 2'oclock? It confuses me a tad with the pre-gain and then having a main volume knob.
This is similar to the PA we are using, his is only 6 channel and 500W but the setup is very similar. Man, if only his mic-pre's worked this would be sooooo easy.
Jul 18, 2008 01:35 pm Hey Cpt. Send me an email with your phone number. I'll see if I can help talk you through how the connections could work.
[email protected] Or [email protected]
CptTrippsCzar of Turd PolishMember
Since: Jun 20, 2006
Jul 18, 2008 01:46 pm sent it to bauderaudio.com
Jul 18, 2008 02:23 pm Sorry to take this away from the post group. I was on my lunch break, and it seemed that time was short for Cpt.
Since I am still at work, I will post what Cpt. and I discussed over the phone, for any one looking to do the same thing as he was.
CptTrippsCzar of Turd PolishMember
Since: Jun 20, 2006
Jul 18, 2008 06:12 pm Yeah, thanks again Rob. Am off work early, got the gear packed up and heading for setup so I can have time to verify everything.
Jul 18, 2008 08:58 pm OK, as you have read from CptTripps post earlier. He has an old self powered mixer that has issues.
The club that he is playing at has a small in house system, and he has two speakers on stick that he wants to use for the show.
What we came up with was to use the self powered mixer just as an amp.
The way that is done is just by running a line out of his Mackie 1642 that he owns, right in to the self powered mixers power amp in.
The power amp in on just about all self powered mixers, is just a direct line to the amp section of the mixer.
So, even though the channels on the self powered mixer are broken, the amp section is fine.
So now he can run the FOH speakers off of one side of the mixer, and a monitor mix off the other.
Hey Cpt. drop us a line when your done the show. Let us know how it went.
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jul 19, 2008 09:30 pm Nice one Rob, bringing it all home for the HRC peep's.
Well done indeed.
Jul 20, 2008 02:50 pm That was really cool. It could be held up as a text book example of how HRC can be used!
CptTrippsCzar of Turd PolishMember
Since: Jun 20, 2006
Jul 20, 2008 03:48 pm Hey all,
It went as good as I could hope, only thing I missed was not having a sub.
So I ended up piping my send 1&2 to the Peavey which was perfect for monitors. We had only two monitors (third one was crackling), one for the singer and one for the drummer but being able to dial in a seperate mix for each was nice.
The other band actually showed up with a 2500W power amp, how nice :) We had to run it full range through a pair of speakers with a 15", an 8" and a horn. Those speakers were capable of a bi-amp which would have been nice if we had more amps.
Since the drums were not mic'd I simply balanced out the levels for Guitars and Vox with the drums. Did not have to push the amp very hard to do so. The sound in the audience was pretty killer and the stage mix was actually fantastic. Being able to hear everyone sure does improve performance.
We have another show at the same venue in a couple weeks with 3 other bands. I am going to bring my laptop this time and record the whole damn show along with video taping it. I will pimp my own band with a cool live video and then show it to the other bands. If they want the same treatment, I will offer it to them cheap (100$ for raw unmixed files and the video and a bit more if they would like me to mix\master it). For bands kicking in gear, I will probably give them a mixed version for $100. I think that is fair yes?
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jul 20, 2008 09:07 pm I think that would be fair indeed.
But very glad to hear it all worked out OK in the end.
And yes indeed, it does show how HRC works pretty well for everyone.
HuePinnipedal Czar (: 3= Member
Since: Apr 11, 2004
Jul 21, 2008 09:42 am Yeah, that is quite fair... pretty darn cool, as well .
Looking forward to seeing your vids, Cap'n .
