um ok so i will only be able to connect two speakers?

Two 8 ohm speakers in parrallel. Yes.
You can connect more if you wish. But you'll have to connect them in a manner so as they do not equal a load of less than 4 ohms

For example. You can connect two 4 ohm speakers together in [B]series[/B] for a total load of 8 ohms. If you do this to another pair of 4 ohms speaker and connect both sets together in [B]parallel[/B] then it'll have a total load of 4 ohms (2x 8 ohms in parrallel = 4 ohms).

This is called parallel series wiring. And you are basically wiring two series circuits together in parallel.

There are many more combinations open to you. And if you arm youself with this basic theory you can use it to you advantage.

ok thanks alot man

Okay this may have already been mentioned but I dont have enough time to look through all of this.

My band is just starting to look at PA Systems and we have no idea what were looking for. Heres the things we need to run through it;

My wireless mic system
Possibly 1 or 2 wired mics for back ups
2 guitars
1 bass
drums
at least 1 in ear monitor set
HOT SPOT POWERED VOCAL MONITOR

what do I need for all of this? Could you send me a link for the cheapest PA? How do you go about getting drum mics into a PA system? Thanks

For that setup it's not going to be a case of one PA. I think you'll be better off getting a number of things.

Since you'll be looking at micing up drums, as well as instruments and perhaps DIing the Bass. Plus at least three chanels for vocals. Then you'll probably be better off getting a mixer with enough channels for all this. And that'll be a big one. Perhaps 12-16 channels. A mixer with some built in FX would be advantageous. Then you'll also want a suitable poweramp and a couple of speakers for it.
You can run the in ear monitor and the powered monitor off the mixers Auxillery buses, simple enough.

This may set you back a few dollars. Perhaps upwards of a couple of grand. More if you are also wanting to get all the mics and accessories with it also.

If you can live with not micing up the bass/drums/guitars things can get alot more affordable. In a lot of venues there is just no need to run the instruments through the PA. Depending on the size of the venue your own backline volume may be enough.
And.. In venues that require these instruments to be mic'd up. Then chances are they may have their own inhouse PA with provision to mic up all the instruments.

Although your own PA for volcals always comes in handy. And for that, I would reccomend looking on musiciansfriend for some packaged PA setups.
You can get setups which consists of a powered mixer, a couple of speakers and perhaps even some speaker stands and Mics.
I would suggest looking at brands like Peavey and Yamaha. And at about 2x300 watts.

Once again, you can run the in ear monitor and the powered monitor off the powered mixer's auxillery outputs.

A plan?
 

Aes, you know how my band have one 60w and one 150w PA? Well, would this work?

-plug the vocals and synth into the 2 mic inputs into the 60watter
-plug the speaker output of the 60 watter into some (unpowered) monitors
-plug the 'aux out' of the 60w pa into a channel of the new one
-mic up/line in guitar and bass into the 150w PA
-put the guitar and bass amp at at the back of the stage slanted so the drummer and other band members can hear them
-Have the monitors facing us and the drummer so we can hear the vocals and synth (the 2 things without amps to be heard)

Is this a good idea? Would it work? can you see any problems with it?

Yea that is a good idea. Yeah it will work. And no I don't see any problems with it.

OK, my band has the vague semblance of a PA - we currently have 2 75watt speakers, and a recently acquired 15 channel mixer (unpowered). This is going to mainly be used for rehearsal but we will be carting it around to a party or two as well. Obviously, we're missing a poweramp. What wattage should we be looking for a poweramp to put out, for our situation? The PA will be used for:

- vocals (1 mic at the moment, but perhaps more in the future)
- 2 guitars
- 1 bass

At the moment our guitar/bass amps are quite pathetic; they're pretty much the standard beginner amps (10w, 20w). They completely lack the ability to not be drowned out by the drums. How much would it cost to mic up 3 amps to the PA system, and would it perhaps be better to just upgrade our amps and then use the PA solely for vocals? Another thing, if we did mic them, would we plug those mics straight into the mixer?

And just out of curiousity, what happens if you plug a guitar amp head, with no speakers connected, directly into the mixer?

Behringer sell a set of 3 mics for £35, plus £20-25 for leads

You can buy reasnoble mics for £15, they're ok as long as you're not doing proffesional recording i guess

A poweramp can cost as little or as much as you want- you can still buy a powered mixer and plug the 2 outputs of your mixer into 2 channnel inputs should you so wish.

You can buy an 80w Kustom powered mixer for not very much at all, but if you want a proepr poweramp i think they start at about 100w a side and go up from there.

NO! don't plug a guitar head into a desk without a cab, you will damage something.

And also, it would be better if you upgraded your amps and still used them with the PA.

I know absolutely nothing about this kind of stuff.... I'm asking this question for our new vocalist.

Starting with the basic question:

What kind of equipment do you actually need in terms of this PA stuff? (aside from mics, we've got that covered, he's probably going to get an SM58).

and

What's a good system that isn't to expensive?

How many times can we say, Kustom do a good package (thats probably linked to several time in this thread), 80w 4 channel with speakers, it also comes with a mic i think, but the mic it comes with won't be nearly as good as the shure.

The package will have everything you need, you won't have to worry.

Myee: A 2x100 watt poweramp sould be fine for those speakers. But just dont go turning it up all the way.
If you need to turn the levels on your mixer and your poweramp up above about 8/10 in order to be loud enough then it'll probably be better to invest in a more powerful setup.

Itwasthatwas: Look on Musiciansfriend for packaged PA setups. Search for setups that are suitable for your budget.

aes, what do 'slave outs' do?

They are used for connecting up to additional poweramps.
And output is taken, pretty much straight in parrallel from the amps main speaker outputs, it is attenuated (reduced in power) back down to a line level signal, so you can run a slave output into the input of more poweramps.

The slave out is differnt to a line out. Because, as a line out captures a line level signal from the preamp section of an amp. A slave out captures a line level signal from after the poweramp section of the amp.

So, this is useful in low wattage tube amps. Where you can capture this tone and then run it into more poweramps for even more volume.

But, it is very important that when you use a slave output you must still have a suitable speaker load attached to the amp.

ok, its on our PA

thats strange, you would think a PA wouldn't change the sound of anything, and the slave outs and pre amp out and aux out would all amount to the same thing

odd...

Slave outs are usually used to run into additional power amps
Auxillery outs are useful to be used like FX loops, or to run into monitoring setups.
Line outs are useful for running into recording devices.

OK we just bought a PA... and we dont have cables, all we have is Mic cables, XLR to quarter inch, can we connect the mikes into the quarter inch input on the PA, each channel has one and it's written Hi-Z. I think these inputs are more for other instuments cause the impedance is alot higher apparently, but willl it **** anything up if we connect the mics into them? We will eventually buy XLR to XLR cables... but we dont have enough now

It should be fine. They'll sound clearer and 'nicer' through the XLR inputs. But the 1/4" inputs are fine for the time being.

won't break anything?

[url]http://www.musik-service.de/ProduX/PA/Powermixer/Phonic_Power_Pod_740_EN.htm[/url]

I mean the input ontop of the XLR input

Nah, it wont hurt anything. Like I said, it'll just sound a little differnt (and perhaps a little quieter) than it would through the XLRs. It'll still work fine.

OK thanks alot man

um well me and my band are playing a gig at our school gym, and I was wondering like how many watts for our speakers would we need to actually be heard.......><><><

^ I think a 2x 300 watt PA will do you good. Just make sure you get those speakers up onto stands, and you'll be right.

Do you think Peavey Pr 15's and a behringer UB1832FXpro will work?

yes, very well.

You're lucky you can afford them.

You might not even have to use speaker stands, 15" peavey speakers are usually pretty substantial.

Wait

that behringer is an unpowered mixer and unpowered speakers

to those you will have to add a poweramp, aes says about 2x300

like the peavey PV1500

Yes. You'll need a poweramp..

But for simplicitys sake. I would reccomend a powered mixer. They are easier to hook up and operate.

Have a look on Musicians Friend for packaged PA setups that will suit your budget.

I am having some feedback trouble.. threw input 1 of my PA a microphone feedbacks if you turn it up more than half. It's the same PA as on page 9

I am having some feedback trouble.. threw any input of my PA a microphone feedbacks if you turn it up more than half. It's the same PA as on page 9.

Keep the microphones away from the speakers. Or invest in some higher quality microphones.

ok... so back up the speakers?

do you know if the peavey pr15p's are better than the pr 15's?

Hey I've got a few questions. How do you hook up speakers in parallel? Is there an instruction book that comes with the pa when you buy it that would explain that type of stuff? Also, how many watts are necessary for 1000 people sized venues, and would I have to mic anything, a 100W 112 guitar combo, a 120W 115 bass combo or drums, for that size. Thanks

[QUOTE=swingish123]do you know if the peavey pr15p's are better than the pr 15's?[/QUOTE]
The PR15Ps are powered speakers. That is to say they have got a built in power amplifier. This is why they cost a lot more.

If you buy the PR15Ps then you wont need a poweramp, you can run them straight off the outputs of that Behringer mixer you were originally looking at.

If you buy the PR15s then you will need a poweramp. To run in between the mixer and the speakers. And that will cost you more dollars.

You'll have to add up the cost of each yourself to find out which would be more economical.

The PR15s will be better suited if you wish to upgrade in the future. Like if you just run them off a 2x100 poweramp for now, you can later upgrade up to a 2x400 watt poweramp.

And with the PR15Ps, you'll be pretty much stuck with their 270 watts each. But, that is not to say that they wont be loud. The PR15Ps are biamped. which means that they could perform a lot better and sound way louder than their rated power.
One of these 270 watt biamped powered speakers could sound just as loud as a 400 watt unpowered speaker.

[QUOTE=BlinkRockr41]Hey I've got a few questions. How do you hook up speakers in parallel? Is there an instruction book that comes with the pa when you buy it that would explain that type of stuff? Also, how many watts are necessary for 1000 people sized venues, and would I have to mic anything, a 100W 112 guitar combo, a 120W 115 bass combo or drums, for that size. Thanks[/QUOTE]
Often, speakers have two connections on the back of them so you can connect up additional speakers to them in parrallel.

But, when connecting up additional speakers in parrallel you must be aware that you will change the ohm loadings on your amp. And running at unsafe ohm loadings can cause damage to your equipment.

Diagrams and more info about parrallel and series wiring of speakers can be found here: [url]http://www.termpro.com/articles/spkrz.html[/url]

To your second question: 1000 people is pretty big. And depending on the size of the venue I think you'll need at least 2x500 watts, and plenty of speaker area. It may also be an advantage if you have a powered suwoofer to fill in for those lower frequencies.

I also think it'll fdefinately be a good idea if you mic up. You'll probably need to mic up everything.
Monitors may also be needed, dependign on the stage area and how you set up. Monitors will definately be needed for vocals tho.

Just checking aes, it is ok to connect two XLR leads to eachother to make one longer lead?

I only just realised you could do this, that is really clever

Yeah. You can use 'em like extension leads.
But very long cable runs can degrade sound quality.

[QUOTE=Aes820]Often, speakers have two connections on the back of them so you can connect up additional speakers to them in parrallel.

But, when connecting up additional speakers in parrallel you must be aware that you will change the ohm loadings on your amp. And running at unsafe ohm loadings can cause damage to your equipment.

Diagrams and more info about parrallel and series wiring of speakers can be found here: [url]http://www.termpro.com/articles/spkrz.html[/url]

To your second question: 1000 people is pretty big. And depending on the size of the venue I think you'll need at least 2x500 watts, and plenty of speaker area. It may also be an advantage if you have a powered suwoofer to fill in for those lower frequencies.

I also think it'll fdefinately be a good idea if you mic up. You'll probably need to mic up everything.
Monitors may also be needed, dependign on the stage area and how you set up. Monitors will definately be needed for vocals tho.[/QUOTE]


Thanks. I also forgot a few things, do the monitors need to be a certain wattage compared to the mains, like is there a general rule? Also, what is about the minimum wattage for a power amp that you would need monitors? I'm trying to see if my band really needs monitors or not, for instance, for a 340W/ch power amp w/ 300W mains, how many watts should the monitors be.

There is no set rule. Monitor power depends on the size of the stage area, the complexity of the monitoring setup, and the bands own onstage volume.
But, I think you'll be pretty right with 100 watt monitors.

My band uses our old practise PA for monitors.
You know those little 4 channel 100 watt powered mixers that you can get on musiciansfriend for a couple of hundred bucks? They do the job for us.

bumping since this has slipped back to page 3, and is quite important.

It should also be in the archive.