So Basically, My Band Needs A New Vocal PA

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

That strange looking thing on the left is our current rig...

SM58 for main vox
Nady SP5's for kick and backup vox (x1)
Behringer U602A mixer
Vintage Kenwood 100W SS poweramp (my Dad used this to power his record player in college)
2x oldass yamaha speakers
Fender 2x12SL with Black Shadows


It works... to an extent. We really just need this for garage practice, as all the venue's we play/will be playing supply the PA, but it would be nice to have something for smaller gigs. We can't hear the vocals very well, during practice. The kick sounds fine, but the vocals are a bit low. I don't mind at all running the kick through this current setup, and just using another one for vocals.


For my situation, would it be best to go Mixer->Poweramp->Cabinets, or get a powered mixer head and cabinets, or a powered monitor like the JBL EON or Behringer B300? Our budget is going to be low; 400-500 low. I'm not at all opposed to going used, and have a very nice hookup at Guitar Center that I'd love to take advantage of. What have you guys used that works well in this price range?

It'd have to compete against 2 4x12's and a 1x15, possibly with a 4x10 added to the bass rig on rare occaisions. The drummer isn't obscenely loud, but we do mic the kick, as it gets lost in the mix otherwise.

 

[muttonchopsrule]

Re: So Basically, My Band Needs A New Vocal PA

EONS!!!!

our singer recently acuired a pair of the eon 15's for about $400, and those suckers are LOUD!!! IIRC, each one is 400 watts driving the 15" speaker.

if you can find that good of a deal, then do it! otherwise, you could probably get by with just one of them (they really are that loud).

other than that, i'm not too firmiliar with PA gear, so hopefully others will chime in with some more suggestions

 

[AmirH]

Re: So Basically, My Band Needs A New Vocal PA

haha, do you believe I still haven't gotten around to selling mine? :smack:

 

[tone4days]

Re: So Basically, My Band Needs A New Vocal PA

i'd say a powered speaker like the jbl eon would do you well if it is for vocals-only at rehearsals and maybe smallish gigs ... put it up on a speaker pole at ear level pointing back towards the band at rehearsals for even better results ... you already have the mixer, so you can feed the vocals to the powered speaker and the kick to the existing rig just by panning the outputs (vocals hard left, out the mixer's left output to the powered speaker, kick panned hard right, out the mixer's right output to the rig pictured)

good luck
t4d

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: So Basically, My Band Needs A New Vocal PA

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I'm going to see how much we make at this gig we have comming up, and then after X-mas, and get either those EON's or the Behringer, and run it how Tone4Days suggested.


I did just find out, however, exactly why we can't ever hear him...

My poweramp only puts out 60W per side.

I also found out my speakers are Yamaha NS-670 monitors, so I'm going to use those as studio monitors for a while.