Perfect stage sound

richyrich · Post by **richyrich** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 9:48 pm

Hi I have a kronos 88
And I am never happy with my sound on stage
Can anyone tell me what the best setup to have as backline for clarity and perfection for mid / large gigs.
I have the best keyboard so why should I compromise on backline

Any help appreciated.

jeebustrain · Post by **jeebustrain** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 9:55 pm

you mean for monitoring? I use a single QSC K10 onstage and it sounds fine to me. Sound guys tell me that the Kronos blends really well, too.

richyrich · Post by **richyrich** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:08 pm

Yes for monitoring

Is it absolute clarity and tone ?
I'm wanting the best I can get.
So you use a kronos?

JPWC · Post by **JPWC** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 2:50 am

I've been working on this lately...

Two Bose L1m2B1 $5000

Two Mackie DLM12 and DLM12S $3400

Two SRM450 and SRM1801 $2600

Two SRM650 and SRM1850 $3200

Two Mackie and HD1531 $2400

Two K10 and KSub $3800

Two Yamaha DXR12 and DXS15 $3000

Two JBL PRX735 $2600

Of course there are many factors to consider

Weight (I don't want lift more than 80 lbs, still would need dolly)
Sound Output (How Loud, lots-o-power)
Sound Quality (Full Bandwidth)
Dispersion Narrow vs wide and near field
Complexity of hook up
Other Uses, such as PA
How does the system work with other equipment?
How Reliable

What do you think?

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:46 am

For monitoring?! All of them huge overkill. Sound guys would go crazy if I brought a sub to the gig for my monitoring.

For mid/large gigs, in my opinion the best solution is mid/high end in-ears.

ronnfigg · Post by **ronnfigg** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:54 am

I am with Sander on this one. In-Ear monitors are the way to go. That is a near perfect acoustic environment. And listen in stereo. You will never want to go back to speakers again!

Laste7 · Post by **Laste7** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 9:33 am

Same for me, Mid-/Highend-Inears.

I use a submixer and DI in a rack, I get a monitor signal from the FOH, and he gets sound signal from me, Inear is cable based in the Submixer than. Due to the fact, that I like to have some stage and audience sound, i get a signal from the ambient micro from the drummer.

But the best advantage is simply the weight....20 gramms instead of 20kg...

jeebustrain · Post by **jeebustrain** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 11:54 am

richyrich wrote:Yes for monitoring

Is it absolute clarity and tone ?
I'm wanting the best I can get.
So you use a kronos?

yes, I use a Kronos, along with a V-Synth. Both are fed into a small 1u line mixer - the main (mono) out goes to the house and I route the sub-out to my K10. That way I can alter the stage volume on the fly without changing the signal that goes to the house.

geoelectro · Post by **geoelectro** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:05 pm

We have in-ear monitoring with an Aviom system. Since that gives me sound in mono, I run a small Behringer Mixer. I take the Aviom signal to one channel of my mixer and my Kronos signal from the headphone jack to another channel. I kill the keyboard volume on the Aviom since I'm getting it direct.

Now I have keyboards in stereo and Aviom (band) in mono. House is stereo and keys are run in stereo as well. I think it's possible to get stereo in the Aviom but uses another channel or something.

The nice thing about this setup is I have separate tone controls over keyboards and band as well as volume of course.

It took me a while to get used to in-ear but I love it now.

Geo

Joe Gerardi · Post by **Joe Gerardi** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:22 pm

The question I would ask is:
Are you using this only for on-stage monitoring, or are you using it for front-end as well?

Monitors vs. FOH sound are completely different beasts: A monitor is needed only to hear what you're playing; FOH has to have all the nuances of the sound for the audience.

Two different situations, two different solutions.

..Joe

JPWC · Post by **JPWC** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:49 pm

I am looking to build a scaleable system.

Solo Performance
Rock Band Performance
Indoors and Outdoors
100 to 500+ people

Kronos Solo or full band.

Need system that cuts through 3 loud Marshall amplified guitars.

Need system that can support just keyboard, acoustic Guitar and vocals.

Need stereo, because I like it.

Currently for live applications I use two SRM 450's, they sound great and cut well, except you need about 10 feet between the performer and the speaker.

At 5-6 feet the SRM seem to have sweet spot about 16 inches wide. Can't dance around or bob head around too much.

In-ear maybe the best option, just seems strange for only the keyboard player to be in-ear and the rest of the band not.

I find the Kronos to be more demanding of the Sound-reinforcement system, lot of low end material and highly dynamic, specially with karma.

PLEASE SHARE YOUR SYSTEM AND APPLICATIONS

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 2:11 pm

I agree with stereo sound being the best option, I handle my in-ears the same way geoelectro does; I get a mono mix of the band to my own mixer and have my Kronos in stereo.

I also agree with Joe Gerardi that there is a huge difference between needs for monitoring and FOH.

Since the OP's question is about monitoring, that's what I'm addressing. Speaking from that perspective, I would say that if you need to "cut through" 3 loud Marshall amplifiers, by FAR the best solution is in-ears because you automatically mute a bunch of their crap. The alternative is getting something really powerful to blow them away, which will lead to them turning their amplifiers up even more and everybody going home with hearing damage. Or wearing earplugs, which defeats the point of bringing a huge system for maximum fidelity in the first place.

Really, I'm not a fan of in-ears for small gigs or duo type setups, but for medium to large, it's the only way to go.

ronnfigg · Post by **ronnfigg** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 6:27 pm

Once again, Sander makes sense. Geo- why are you using the headphone output on the Kronos. surely there is an impedance mismatch between that output and the input on your mixer. Why not just use the line out on the back of the Krono?. That's what they were made for.

NuSkoolTone · Post by **NuSkoolTone** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 6:56 pm

I use a QSC K12 and it's been great. The three bass modes and high boost lets me choose what's appropriate to the venue. In ears would be cool, but my bandleader calls songs on the fly across the stage depending on what's happening. No Set Lists ever. So unless I get them a separate mic just for song calling (Mixer is about full) IEMs are not really a good solution.

If you had the room and wanted to lug/set them up a pair of K12s on opposing foldback stands on each end of the keyboard would be pretty killer!

JPWC · Post by **JPWC** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 1:34 am

Hey NuSkoolTone,

What style or genre or you doing? What's the other instruments? Are you just running mono?

People who own K's seem to love them as much as people who own Kronos.