PA Advice for acoustic 2 piece

gavo82

I am part of an acoustic 2 piece. Instruments include guitar, fiddle, flute, tin whistle. cajon drum and kick drum.

I am just wondering what would be the best road to go down regarding getting a pa. Budget would be 1000 max.

Would buying two powered speakers and a nice 8 channel mixer like this http://www.thomann.de/ie/mackie_profx8.htm by worthwhile. Or to go for passive speakers and a powered mixer.

Any thoughts? Thanks

kahler

i am open to correction on this, but i would be looking into getting subs (bassbins) as well if you are putting drums thru the PA. tops on their own wouldn t be sufficient. and you d prob need a slave amp to drive the bins(powered bins are expensive and weigh a ton..)
cant open your link on this machine, but with a small budget you might be better off going secondhand. ask someone who knows about this stuff to look it over first tho.

gavo82

What would going with one bin and one top with over 600 watts be like?

Hi Gav.

First off what kinda crowds do you play to?

I used to sell PA & I'm a trained sound engineer. They way I looked at a scenario like yours would be weighing up the benefits of carrying individual equipment vs the comfort of an all-in-one kit. The main sacrifice would be the low end, is a seriously beefy 50hz really required? For an acoustic set I think it's generally not worth the extra hassle.

Something along the lines of a Yamaha stagepass would probably be ideal. Very reliable and good sound quality with plenty of volume and punch.

I assume you have microphones?

If you really wanted to go with a bin/top set up and separate desk then Alto is a good low-mid range brand, mixed with the Mackie desk you linked would be fine.

If you can avoid Passive speakers, generally there is no benefit of having a separate amp unless you're going high-end and know exactly what you're doing.

If you really stretched your budget something like the K-Array would be exceptional, you'll also still need a desk and you'd be looking at around 2000. I have heard good things about the Bose system but I've never liked any of Bose's products so I can't really judge.

Brands to avoid; Behringer, The Box.

paulheu

I don't know why anyone should avoid Behringer really and at the €1000 price point for the set will be about the only choice delivering a usable setup. I would agree you need to know which product to avoid, but no the brand in general.

In all honesty €1000 is not much for a decent setup. You will limit yourself to the low budget products. Unless you really need the bass boom I'd go for a set of 12inch tops only. Forget the bass bins as they will only complicate the setup. Do get a mixer with at least a mid sweep as your choice of instruments may need that in many cases. a 12inch top will generally have enough low end but be cleaner overall and easier to control on a basic mixing board without multiband EQ. Also keep in mind that if you nomrally perform in a noisy (pub/bar/club) enviroment that crisp-clean Hi-Fi sound will not really get across..

Having a good set of mics would also be important as this will be half the work as far as mixing goes. If you want PM me and I'll gladly sit down with you to help you on this.

I personally have good experience with these:
http://www.thomann.de/ie/behringer_eurolive_b412dsp.htm
http://www.thomann.de/ie/behringer_xenyx_x2442_usb.htm

Mind you this is not a top quality set, but including cables and pole stands it fits the budget while delivering a decent set for the money. In all fairness if you could stretch to around €1700 you'd have more choice/options.