Korg Forums

Hello again,

Me & my band are having a bit of an issue with our keys/vocals setup and I would appreciate it if you folks could share your opinion on the matter.

Our initial configuration was mic and keyboard through same mixer and then through same PA.

The tweeter in our PA kept breaking - either a frequency overload or a volume burst - so we decided to stick in a limiter set at -2dB.

The issue now is that the limiter is regulating the final volume for the PA so that when the singer sings loud the keyboard volume sinks and viceversa so we can't really sound decent.

So currently going through my mind is: do I get myself my own PA? or do we get a better PA and keep sharing it?

From what I know there should not be a problem routing everything through the same PA. An extra PA means extra equipment to carry around for smaller gigs however it might give me more independence.

How do you guys set up your gear when rehearsing/playing live?

Cheers ppl

how about selling the PA that you have now and buying a new one that has more power? This way you would have same amount of stuff to carry around, and it would take the same amount of space and you could also save some money

Yea Synastikki, that would b the most economic plan if we were to continue sharing, I just wanted to know if anyone out there thinks having your own PA system is more advantageous or whether it is nonsense.

Having your own is always the best.

Sugizo, you haven't provided any details about your existing PA, so it's difficult to know what to recommend when you don't say what you have. A good PA system won't do what you describe when set up properly. So you either have a bad PA system or a bad setup.

If your speakers have dome or piezzo tweeters, then you probably have very cheap, poor grade speakers. Most high quality PA speakers use horns with compression drivers for mid and HF output. If you total up the cost of all the equipment that the band uses, guitars, amps, lights, and everything, the PA should account for about 50-75% percent of the whole cost. Most bands spend less than 10% on their PA. The PA gear is the second most important part to get good sound. The first most important part is an experienced soundman/person.

xmlguy, we are obvisouly being limted by the quality of our PA - if you still need to know the details we have behringer B300 active speakers (http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/B300.aspx) with Stageline MHD120 horn tweeters (http://www.europe-audio.com/Product.asp?Product_ID=2706). Setup-wise, our guitarman deals with that and he knows what he is doing.

Anyhow my question to the keyboardist community still remains, if you could have an expensive but shared PA system which gives you no problems at all or your very own PA system, is the independence of having your own PA worth the extra bulk in equipment? are there any advantages disadvantages I'm not seeing?

ta

The B300 can only handle very small venues, with little crowd noise, and only relatively low power music, like folk music to amplify acoustic instruments and vocals. They are not much use for any situation where power amplification is needed.

Whether you share gear or have it for yourself makes no difference to what situations the gear is designed to handle. If you can only afford to have better gear by sharing it, then I guess that's what you'll have to do to have good sound. A B300 isn't worth sharing. They are probably the cheapest powered speakers you could find. You didn't really expect the cheapest speakers to be very good, did you? You need to spend much more to get good PA speakers that can handle higher power and still last for many years. The QSC K12 are an example of good speakers. I don't say this to put down your choice, as I understand the situation when you can't afford more expensive gear. But you still have to recognize the limitations of cheap gear to handle what you need to do. I would rather have one good QSC K12 than two B300. A single good, powerful, reliable speaker will sound great.

Cheers xmlguy, your advice is very much appreciated. What you just described matches what we in fact observe: slow, acoustic songs sound brill, however when we start going rock/metal, problems start kicking in.

I totally agree with what you said in your earlier post about the PA being the best part of any band's equipment; ironically it is quite the opposite for us right now.

I shall take your advice - backed by other more experienced folk than me I have asked - and try to get the whole band to do a bit of an effort and get hold of quality speakers.

Anyhow cheers folks!