Audio equipment

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Tom

Tom

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Several Delta Strummers Board members had an interesting field trip to the Guitar Center today. We're budgeting for audio equipment that will allow us to integrate various inputs (boom mic's, solo mic's, acoustic guitar players), and others. We have prices from the Guitar Center, amazon.com and a third party discounter.

Our current thinking is to go with powered speakers and a powered mixer. We also need stage monitors.

Should be an interesting outcome.

BTW this is not a rock band, and we rarely (if ever) play outdoors.
 
The very most important member of any band or orchestra is the sound man. One person should be in charge of sound and not play any instrument. It should be his job to sit out in the audience and keep the sound balanced. Which is why you see sound equipment in the middle of most arenas. The actual equipment choices are far less important than the skill of the audio engineer.
 
I'll second Tom's comment on having a dedicated audio engineer.  Having been one for many years at our church in CA, it can make all the difference in what the audience hears for good or bad.  One of the other guys that operated the sound system was complemented on the quality provided the local University concert in the church by the network recording guys.  They recorded but the audience heard the concert from our system.

Find someone who will do the job.  It really doesn't take an expert but does require one with good hearing and a willingness to learn.  I can no longer do it due to the state of my hearing.  All that artillery has finally taken its toll on my hearing.  Off to see the VA tomorrow to see what they will do.  :)
 
I agree with the previous posters. I used to be a sound guy in the seventies and I have the hearing aids to prove it! Some of the equipment that I see these days is inexpensive and compact. They also have specs that we had to spend a fortune to duplicate. Find a sound guy!
 
We already have a sound guy. OTOH when we recently played at a theater, they had they own equipment and their own sound engineer who was located with his board 'out there'. At venues other than the theater, we've been using borrowed equipment, not all from the same source. Our upcoming purchases are merely intended to replace the borrowed stuff.

It's been a long time since some of us shopped for any of this stuff, and seeing what's available today was something of an education.

The guy in the store (in his 30's) gave me a strange look when I asked if we could hire him to set up for our gigs. When I explained that the 4 guys in front of him (all close to 70) are the 'kids' in the band, he understood and smiled  ;D
 
We went with Beringer for speakers and mixer and have been more than satisfied with the results. Perhaps more power (550W rms/speaker) than we, or you, really need, but you have to go there to get good bass at a reasonable price.

Ernie
 
We went with Beringer for speakers and mixer ...
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Prior to yesterday's store visit, I'd been looking at the Behringer Europort EPA900 and Yamaha Stagepas 600i systems. I came away from yesterday's visit convinced we need to go 'bigger', and not necessarily have a mixer made/labeled by the speaker manufacturer. Still evaluating options.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out how we recruit younger guys into the band  ???
 
Take a look at Mackie Mixers. I bought one for our synagogue several years ago. They are feature rich and reasonably priced. I'm pretty sure we got it at Guitar Center. It was a nice unit.
 
Just remember when choosing audio gear that it is extremely important that the output impedance of the amp should match the input impedance of the speakers. In other words 8 ohm speakers connect only up to an 8 ohm amplifier.
 
Thanks for the info on Mackie Mixers. Someone else was taking notes yesterday, and hopefully they wrote down the manufacturers of the various mixers we looked at.
 
... 8 ohm speakers connect only up to an 8 ohm amplifier.
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Thanks, I figured that out in (EEE) school, although it was a long time ago  ??? 
 
Tom said:
Thanks, I figured that out in (EEE) school, although it was a long time ago  ???
Click to expand...
I figured you already knew that but I didn't want to assume since audio equipment generally doesn't put the impedance on the front panel in large numbers.
 
... audio equipment generally doesn't put the impedance on the front panel ...
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The ones in the Guitar Center did; Some said 12, some 14, etc. Isn't that the kilomilliohms number  ???

One said "bluetooth", so I figured that one had infinite impedance. But I couldn't find an amplifier that said "infinite output impedance"  :(
 
Take a look at Mackie Mixers.
Click to expand...

Confirmed with one of the guys last night that we were indeed looking at Mackie mixers on our visit to the Guitar Center. As you say, they're feature rich.
 
Mackie is good, but you might look at Peavy, too -- I have one of their small mixers, and it's excellent. I see their speakers sometimes on bandstands, too. Of course there are a few others...
 
Thanks Larry. I'm not really current on mixers, and was a little concerned we might be limiting ourselves to the brands/models they had on display in the store that day. OTOH this was mainly a tire kicking session to allow us to allocate sufficient funds in our budget.
 
We purchased a Yamaha Stagepas 400i (400 watts) system for monitors. The monitors are being used at weekly practices to feed the bass rifs from the guitarist(s). The Stagepas 400i has an 8-channel mixer.

At our next public performace, we'll use the Stagepas 400i on speaker stands to 'project' to the audience, and will use a 'borrowed' Stagepas 300 for monitors. Based on this experience, we'll decide on our next step/purchase.
 
I don't know anything about making music and I'm very late to this conversation but I thought I would mention that B & H Photo and Video also sells audio equipment.  I LOVE those people for my photography equipment and we did buy some type of sound system for our wedding. I also bought my last laptop from them.  Competitive prices and the very knowledgeable staff are experts in their specific areas. 
 
Thanks. We got a better deal than the B&H price for the same equipment. But we'll check them next time we're shopping for stuff.
 
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