A question about PA Packages.

[Tuomas]

So, me and my so called band-mixup have come to the point, that we finally found a place to hide and practice from Tampere - Finland, the city that is known for musician discrimination. And, we fooled them by saying we have a band called The Essential Love Group and that we play art rock. Which is true in a way. The fact is, that our Love Group consists of 3 bands, one called Death Motör Oil, which was my band originally, but they started to play heavy. THen there are my bands Jazz Cauldron and Proge Harem, that play some jazz-prog-fusion-RIO stuff. But the chances to get a cellar from the city are bigger with a decent name other than Death Motör Oil or such.

Now we can finally drag our amps from the corners of our flats and really play with them. And the rent isn't bad either, about 40e per month. But what I'm here for is to inquire if any of you would know anything about PA sets, like microphones and such, just to give me a hint of what is a)worth buying, b)affordable, and c)something that I will think of later. And mixers too. I'll be watching for used ones in the Thomann web sale and lots of places myself too.

Were but a starting group, so we have no real money of our own But if it should happen so, whe might get some tracks to be spread over the web for you to listen to as well. Thanks.

[Proskrito]

in the b) affordable category, i think you could take at two behringer products:
pmh 3000, its a powered 16 channels mixer with a built-in effects unit, 400+400w, you can get it at about 400â,¬, at least here in spain.
Also, for choruses or second voices or whatever its said, there is a behringer pack of 3 microphones at 30â,¬ that could do their work decently(?). you probably know what most people thinks about behringer products, but i think for the price they work reasonably well.
Also, matching the powered mixer i said, you could check a pair of peavey pro 12 boxes, 400w progam at 4 ohm, around 145â,¬ each one
In the a) worth buying , and not too expensive, i'd go for the standard sm58 for main vocals, little above 100â,¬
These are the things me and my band have seen as the cheapest option for playing live in small places.
Last thing, buy the connectors and wires separately and make all the cables yourself : P
Hope it helps : )

[Tuomas]

Yeah, I know what I think of Behringers... but we might go for those, I've heard of a lot that are cheap, as in 500e. I once tried the Behringer microphones in that very set, and they were kind of luosy so I bought a Philips mike for 35 e. Just to make something enough expensive. Though my friends were thinking of this: http://www.thomann.de/thoiw3_artikel-169587.html?sn=89fbaa0d1aa149c9bb9aee4227f7d104

As for the PA, we found this at Thomann's. Seems rather fine to me: http://www.thomann.de/thoiw3_artikel-184965.html?sn=696a74f29e8f8382da71951a11a45f46
not too expensive, but we have to look a bit more.

You said you did the cables yourself, is that cheaper? knowing my handicraft skills we would probably burn the building down, but I guess the guys could do it. Thanks for the advice.

[Anarcho]

I actually just bought a PA set up for my band.  What we ended up doing was buying a used Yamaha powered amp and getting a little Behringer 10 channel mixer.  The amp was $120 US and the mixer was about $70 US.  It's loud as hell (the speaker is bigger than my 4x12 guitar amp).  I suggest trying to find a used instrument store...so long as they're honest, you can usually get a great deal.

[voh]

I have an Alesis 16-track analogue mixer, a London City 100W tube amp with 4 inputs (yay! our entire band on the same amp ), a Novanex 60W transistor amp and an Epiphone Electar 30W tube amp.

I've been utterly unable to hook up the mixer to my soundcard to record stuff without using a mic to the amp, and I can't figure out why. The line out on the mixer works perfectly - no hissing, no popping. When I plug it into my soundcard, no signal. I plug it out and attach my stereo, perfect signal.

I am so pissed off about this. If any of you have an idea of what's going on, I'd be more than helpful - I'll write and record you a thank you song

[Gregjazz]

This is what I think would work:

Yamaha EMX 66M Powered Mixer:

http://www.dv247.com/invt/6020

For one of my bands I bought the Yamaha EMX 66M along with two speakers, nearly brand new (never had been played outside some guy's home), for the total of $356. This was one of those "too good to be true" deals that should never have worked out so well.

So check out this PA, you might not even need a mixer since it has multiple channels and stuff. I've used it without a separate mixer many times.

For a vocal mic, you can't go wrong with a Shure SM58. They run around $90-100, but they're used even in the most professional studios. For stands check out the AKG boom stands (I like boom stands because they're more versatile than the straight stands). You can get them new for around $40.

If you want to check out what kinds of things make up an entire PA system, basically everything you'll need for practice and shows, check out this page: http://www.ontariostaging.com/audio_1.htm