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Radman

Well-Known Member
Here's the challenge:

Come up with the best possible sound system for a band with the lowest possible cost!

THE RULES:

This will be for a band with a 5 piece drum set, 2 electric guitars with crappy amps, a bass with a crappy amp, 1 lead vocalist without an instrument, and 2 backgroun vocalist on the guitars.
The system will have to mic the drums, however you choose to do that os up to you.
There mus be at least 2 stage monitors and 2 mains.
You get to decide what route to take. Be it mic the amps or run from line/headphone out int a board.

PLEASE INCLUDE PRICES AND A GRAND TOTAL, AS I CANNOT WASTE MY TIME ON SIMPLE ADDITION, I HAVE LESS DIFFICULT THINS I COULD BE DOING! Like watching TV. Or eating.

THE PRIZE:
The prize will be a super amazing brand new MYSTERY PRIZE. It could be anything! A new light board, a hawaiian vacation, or something else very wonderful! You will never find out unless you enter your entry today!
 
It'd be nice to know what size venue it's to be used in. A small club might just call for a vocal PA, while a 1400-seat auditorium definitely calls for more power, subs, and miking everything. For anything too big for just a vocal PA, you'll want a sound guy with the board out in the audience... and he'll have his own ideas as to what the best sound system you can afford will look like.

John
 
Forget it, I'm too poor to afford a mixer, much less a hawaiian vacation!
 
Let me see.... You will need at least a budget of 100K$. Use 16,30 $ of that money to buy (you could "borrow" *read steal* from one of your friends, but i don't endorse that) one of Spinal Taps DVD's. Watch the dvd witht the band. AND MAKE THEM TAKE NOTES!!

Now gather up all your equipment. Set them up with the drums in the middle. Amps on both sides of the drums (in front). Remember that they must point to your ankles. Now have you drummer play something. Tell the guitarist to turn up if they can't hear. Tell the singer to start singing. If others can't hear them they must sing louder. This will make the drummer play louder, then the guitarist will turn his amp up. Continue until your volume is appropriate. Tell them to stop. Now review your notes from the spinal tap video. You did take notes? See what happened to spinal tap? Use the system at your own risk.

If you decide to use this system please send me a check made out to MR. Timoteus Ruotsalainen for the amount of 99 983,7$ US.

Oh yeah, remember to unplug the bass player's cords so you can use his amp for more guitars. You can never have too much guitar
--
Timoteus "tongue in cheek" Ruotsalainen
 
Dude I figured a starter one for under a grand. This is like a garage band, not Linkin Park!

and the $ goes before the number
 
One thing you may want to do is look into Behringer's equipment. It's extremely good value. I know here, in Canada, you can pick up one of their vocal mics (comparable to an SM58) for $39. Mixers (4 Channel/2 Aux) for less than $100.

Just my two cents...
 
Or even better... you could steer away from Behringer. I have one sitting to the left of me and there is nothing more Id like to do than get rid of the piece of crap!

Im not sure if you have these in the states, but my suggestion for FOH & monitors is to use RCF 300A or 400A Art Speakers. These are fantastic speakers, especially for the money. They are linkable, both in power and input aspects and have a 3 band parametric EQ on the unit. We have about 10 of them, and when I do outside concerts I will generally hire 4. 2 up front and 2 about mid way up the audience.
 
Yup, a Begringer miker helped me get it unger a grand. Even though I probably never end up buying it.
 
Behringer is a classic example of reverse-engineering. They take other companies' designs and make them cheaper, add 10x the noise, and flush the reliability down the toilet along with support. They have been sued by other sound companies for copying designs. Mackie was a classic example; they sued Behringer for having a console too similar to the Mackie 8-bus. Mackie won.

My word of advice, avoid Behringer. Most of their stuff isn't worth beans, and if it breaks (and it most likely will), you'll have a nice, hefty door stop.
 
The setup I'm using for the band that I run sound for (and keep in mind, this is a church band, so some isn't mine) is a Mackie DFX-12 mixer with an old Carvin studio-pro as a submix for vocal mics, that runs into a Behringer GEQ 3102 dual 31ch. EQ, through an Alesis 3630 Compressor/Limiter, and through a Carvin power-amp (not sure what model) to old JBL speakers. Moniters go through two Furman rack Rider RR-131's and a Carvin HT-150 amp, and to Carvin speakers. I use Digital refrence DRVX2 mics to mic an acustic guitarand an electric(through it's amp). For vocal mics I use 4 crown LM301A. The drums go throgh the same amp as the bass, whils I use the aux output on the amp to plug into the mixer.
 

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