Rack Gear

Dozyart

Hi guys,my band is about to start upgrading our pa,we never had any rack gear etc so my question is "wat rack gear would you recommend for a band ???Gate,Denoiser etc etc???We really dont have much experience with this side of the music so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

ogy

first ports of call would be:
- an Graphic EQ (2 x 31 band): primarily for controlling feedback problems and cutting any boomy over resonant frequencies
- a Compressor: for evening out the sound, a few of channels of compression is a good idea as they can be used on specific instruments e.g. for evening out the kick drum and bass drum levels, and they can be used on groups of instruments e.g. for keeping a consistent level to the vocals or the instruments.
- A Gate: if you have problems with boominess on drums a gate will control how much of the sound the microphone on the drums will capture before it "closes"
- Reverb: simulates natural reverberation, important for vocals primarily but also useful on snare and sometimes guitar. can be used subtley or for particular effects.

like everything you get what you pay for.
behringer do versions of all this stuff pretty cheap but theyre not the best quality in the world. if you can afford it check out stuff by LA, tc eletronics, lexicon, alesis, dbx, klark teknik etc.

hope that helps.

unclebill98

Ogy has good adive there. I'd not get a gate for use in small places, kind of pointless. As with any effects if used for FOH, without an engineer your never going to know what you doing with them or how it sounds. An 31 band eq for your monitors is a good investment to help get the most out of your monitors.

And yes, stay away from Behringer!

Dozyart

cheers lads,very helpful:)

unclebill98

What sort of budget do you have and whats the band line up? Mics used and instruments in the bad etc? Do you have specific problems needed fixing? Have you rack cases to limit the space needed?

Savman

Dozyart wrote:

Hi guys,my band is about to start upgrading our pa,we never had any rack gear etc so my question is "wat rack gear would you recommend for a band ???Gate,Denoiser etc etc???We really dont have much experience with this side of the music so any help would be greatly appreciated.

What do you have and what do you need? Do you just want a load of flashing lights for the sake of it or do you really have the time and patience to get the rack working as it's supposed to.
You give no info on the act, so it's pretty much a waste of time recommending gear although I'd agree with Ogy generally speaking.
Remember the more "stuff" you throw into your signal chain, the more problems you will most likely create. Sticking a compressor on a Vocal just for the hell of it will no doubt give you more hassle than its worth, these things have to be fine tuned and are not very forgiving if not set correctly.

Also depends on what PA gear you're using, adding racks could be futile if the gear isnt up to scratch elsewhere.

As the saying goes, in Pro Audio you're only as good as you're weakest link.