Purchase Help

flowalex999

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I was informed that I can pick $10000 USD worth of sound equipment for our gymatorium to make it sound better, but I cannot have anything that is permanent. We have a soundboard that is in great condition and eight lav mics. One of the issues with our space is that everything has to be portable and not stay in the gym because of classes and sporting events. I was thinking of getting this http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/raxxess-ert-st-steel-roll-top-desk for storing everything and making clean up easier when we have to make sure there is nothing in the gym at the end of the night. If I got that I would add this to it as well http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/furman-pl-8c-power-conditioner to make cord managemant better. Right now what happens is that it gets stored on the stage in the box it came in an assortment of powerstrips and extension cords that get used stored in a tub. I was going to get this as well for our wired mics because there seems to be an issue with them when running them through the built in snake http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/presonus-digimax-d8-8-channel-preamplifier . My question is did I miss anything, other than mounting equipment.
 
With that type of money, the first think I would look at is your existing setup and requirements. Can you tell us the following so we can get started with suggestions:

1.. What make/model of equipment do you have?
2. Is there any equipment permanently mounted in the space (i.e. ceiling hung speakers)?
3. Can you give us dimensions, stage size and layout, and seating capacity of the venue? Pics and/or URLs would also be helpful here.
3. What are you going to be doing in there? Lectures, plays, musicals, rock bands, instrumental music concerts?

Fyi --

I wouldn't invest in a rolling cart (especially one for $2k) until the signal-carrying equipment was all set. Every school has flatbed carts to help you move stuff around.

A Furman power conditioner is never a bad choice. Not sure why you would want to spend $90 on a mesh panel though ... if you look at MisiciansFriend the PL8C is just over $100 now with no tax and free shipping, and the mesh panel should be only ten bucks or so.
 
With that type of money, the first think I would look at is your existing setup and requirements. Can you tell us the following so we can get started with suggestions:

1.. What make/model of equipment do you have?
2. Is there any equipment permanently mounted in the space (i.e. ceiling hung speakers)?
3. Can you give us dimensions, stage size and layout, and seating capacity of the venue? Pics and/or URLs would also be helpful here.
3. What are you going to be doing in there? Lectures, plays, musicals, rock bands, instrumental music concerts?

Fyi --

I wouldn't invest in a rolling cart (especially one for $2k) until the signal-carrying equipment was all set. Every school has flatbed carts to help you move stuff around.

A Furman power conditioner is never a bad choice. Not sure why you would want to spend $90 on a mesh panel though ... if you look at MisiciansFriend the PL8C is just over $100 now with no tax and free shipping, and the mesh panel should be only ten bucks or so.

1) We have a Behringer Eurodesk SX2442FX Mixer, Behringer Europower PMP4000 (not used as much), two Yamaha unpowered monitors, the Lav mics are Shure SLX Countryman B6, and an amplifier which I believe is a nady
2) There are speakers hung in the ceiling
3) I am getting the dimensions of the gymnasium and stage, but I believe the stage opening is about 30 feet. Seating capacity varies with the amount of chairs that they grab from the classrooms with the folding chairs
4) The stage is only used for theater performances three times a year since it is a hole in the wall otherwise they just use the space in the gym itself.

The rolling cart would make it so that everything could be mounted together and save time with setup it wouldn't be that one for sure I may just get someone to build one and put the mounting brackets in it was just an example, and I believe that nothing else can be mounted in the gym because of the athletic director barely wanting us to use the gym.
 
1) you have a pretty low end analog board there, so I would suggest you take a look at some of the newer equipment available. I suggest you move to a digital board with hard fader bank -- they are becoming quite mature in the past few years, both Behringer x32 and Presonus Live are popular models. The Behringer x32 system can be expanded with a digital snake which might be really convenient to wrap around the gym walls from the board to the stage. And the digital boards all but eliminate all outboard equipment needs -- really simplifies your rack.

Your wireless is probably fine. Countryman is great -- and relatively economical for the quality. I would consider getting a set of B3s (loose cord) so you can hide mics in the hair vs over the ear and taped to the cheek. And have you considered going up to 16 channels?

2) "Speakers hung in the ceiling" always sounds like a bad omen. you might consider buying extra speakers to set at stage level to use as downfills and side fills, to pull the sound down from the ceiling. Speakers in general are a hugely debated topic. With the amount of money you have to spend, will they allow you to upgrade the ceiling hung speakers if appropriate?

* Do you have a good playback system for special effects? Another good investment, usually involves a Mac or PC.

* Unless you can get a rolling cart for a few hundred, I would suggest waiting until last on that, or getting the kids in the wood shop to build one that fits your needs. Between boards, playback mic receivers you may need a 6 foot or wider top surface to work with.
 
For cue playback software it depends on the person, the director uses cue lab for everything including music and I use SCS. I was recently thinking that our ceiling mics are shotgun and they don't really pick anything up so I was thinking of replacing them with hanging mics. The speakers are in banks that can be controlled depending on what the event is and they fill the room well, but the acoustical design makes the whole room sound weird if you don't have time to set up the EQ on the board. Also What about purchasing 4 more of the SLX's for backups and if we need more than 8 because we had two shows this year that needed a few more and the mic changes were not that quick and it was hard to get it so that everyone could be heard properly
 
More wireless for sure (npi). Mic changes are a pain, especially if the mics are hidden in the hair and the transmitters under layers of costumes. I would seriously look up forehead/hairline mic mounting, learn how to do it, and get those B3s (brown & black only). If you have any questions on this I'd be happy to offer additional help offline.

I suggest the investment in the digital board, and now that you've reminded me, acoustic call treatments for the gym. Something that can be hung up during shows and stored in a back room afterwards.

Then I would focus on getting the sound from the actors on stage to sound like it is actually coming from the actors, not the top or sides of the stage. This is a bit tricky but you should be able to apply the 80/20 rule and get 80% of the way there with 20% effort and cost.

You will end up with Broadway sounding stage (albeit probably not with Broadway sounding actors ...!)
 
I'm glad @jkowtko mentioned acoustics. I'd honestly invest in that before I replaced a working mixer. The gym acoustics are really the weakest link in this situation. You can have a Meyer sound system sound like total crap in a gymnasium.
 
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What I like about my digital boards is that you get a much smoother response overall. Each channel has full dynamics, so at a minimum you have compression on each channel to soften the spikes when an actor yells, gets slapped, etc. The fading and mixing seems to be a bit smoother too. And you have the GEQ built in for the outputs so you can take care of hot frequencies in the house. And you get multiple (usually 4) reverb units built in. Really hard to turn back once you've had all of these convenience features. And I've just hit the tip of the iceberg here. The X32 has DCAs, so if you want to run a show with snapshot, much simpler!

But yet, poor acoustics will make everything else futile!

I've attached a simple click track that I made. Next time you're in the gym, play this on all speakers and see how it sounds.
 

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