p.a. system1111

nialler87

hi all,
i recently put together a 4 piece band, 2 guitars, bass and drums.. we are now looking to buy a p.a. system for practising with. something basic that could include 2 or 3 vocals and maybe allow for using a keyboard in the future...

does anyone have any recommendations on what to buy as i wouldnt have a huge knowledge in this area... i would have in the region of 500 euro as a budget....

cheers

Eoin Madsen

I'd suggest getting a couple of active stage monitors (wedges) and a small mixer from Thomann.de. Two or three "The Box" monitors of 150-200 watts RMS would be more than adequate and a behringer or t.mix would be fine for the mixer. You budget is a little tight, maybe stretch it to 750 and you can even get some cheap t.bone mics and mic stands.

highlydebased

Are ye mic'ing up drums?

Furious-Red

http://www.musicstore.de/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/MusicStore-MusicStoreShop-Site/en_EN/-/EUR/ViewProductDetail-Start;pgid=TOZgS8fSZObR0000000000000000fs17QdUy?CatalogVideo=&ProductUUID=U97VqHzmBXYAAAEVSdh5NmoC&CatalogCategoryID=uF7VqHzmawQAAAER3JwvKPl9&JumpTo=OfferList

how bout this one. my band are thinking about ordering that one in a few weeks

Eoin Madsen

Furious-Red wrote:

http://www.musicstore.de/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/MusicStore-MusicStoreShop-Site/en_EN/-/EUR/ViewProductDetail-Start;pgid=TOZgS8fSZObR0000000000000000fs17QdUy?CatalogVideo=&ProductUUID=U97VqHzmBXYAAAEVSdh5NmoC&CatalogCategoryID=uF7VqHzmawQAAAER3JwvKPl9&JumpTo=OfferList

how bout this one. my band are thinking about ordering that one in a few weeks

I wouldn't for practice. When is a band ever going to have a PA pointed at them? The feedback threshold will be too low and you won't get half the wattage out of it anyway. If you're practicing for stage, get something with stage monitors.

I'm not enamoured with powered mixers to be honest. It's harder to match a powered mixer to speakers than it is to match a poweramp to speakers, or to just get active speakers for a passive mixer. Powered mixers are inflexible.

Furious-Red

right so thanks. do you have any ideas with a low enough budget?

Savman

Furious-Red wrote:

right so thanks. do you have any ideas with a low enough budget?

For rehearsing, I would suggest getting a small cheap mixer and an Active (Self Powered) 12" or 15" speaker that can do wedge shape and FOH.
That'll get you started and you can add a second one down the line.

As for recommendations, dB Technologies Opera 412/415, Mackie SRM450, RCF ART series, HK Audio DART or FAST, Yamaha MSR400, there's loads of options.

Eoin Madsen

Furious-Red wrote:

right so thanks. do you have any ideas with a low enough budget?

The "The Box" Thomann active stage monitors would be more than adequate to begin with. Slightly more expensive speakers like the ones Savman recommended are preferable, but it all depends on what you consider to be a low budget.

If it's essentially for vocal monitoring, you'll get by fine with a couple of 150-250 watt RMS monitors. and an "8-channel" (4 mic input) passive behringer eurorack/eurodesk or whatever they're calling them at the moment. Get a few XLR leads, and then hit Ebay and look for a Shure SM58.

If you need a DI for an acoustic, the behringer offers the best cost/performance ratio if you're on a budget.