Outboard Gear If you could only bring in one thing...

Okay, so here's the situation. You move into a space for a show and you're using all in-house equipment, the list of which will follow. If you could only bring in ONE piece of your own equipment, what would it be? Would you bring a specific mic, outboard processing, or what? An RTA wouldn't count as your one item, but if you were given that as a freebie, would you even use one?

The space has in it:
Yamaha GA 32/12 analog board
DBX 1231 31-band EQ (enough for main mix + 4 available monitor mixes)
DBX 160A limiter (two, one on each channel of stereo mains)
PreSonus ACP88 (8 channels patchable compression/gate)
Yamaha SPX900 effects
Lexicon MPX1 effects

Mics- SM58, SM57, SM81, Beta52, e604.
Assume sufficient actor mics for a theatre production.
 
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What capacity is the audio system being used in for this event?
 
What type if event is it? An RTA can be helpful to some people who have trouble picking out frequencies when ringing out monitors. I would say it certainly could not hurt to have one handy if you are in that boat.

Off the top of my head, maybe some playback equipment for effects, or some nice condenser mics depending on what you are micing. Again, it all depends on what the gig is.

~Dave
 
I was pretty much going for a hypothetical using a space I'm familiar with as a basis just to say that the room has EQ, compressors, and effects, but... Erm... If we were to keep it going using those specs, we'll say ~600 person capacity standing, ~300 in seats (I know, odd numbers, but it's a funky and really awkward space). Mains are just about right for the space to either be very comfortable or completely blow the audience away depending on the mix. I don't have specifics since I'm 800 miles away from the room, but it's QSC amps going to Clair mains with JBL subs on an aux feed. I typically do concerts in there, but I've mixed a couple of plays and musicals in the room, as well.

I guess I could also rephrase as "What's the one piece of gear you won't do a show without", but I thought that would be a little too generic. Guess I was wrong. *headdesk*
 
If it was a concert I'd start with some good earplugs, for theatre maybe a good flashlight and/or multi-tool.

Seriously, without knowing the condition of the existing gear, what is needed to support the performance, what you have available, whether they will have a tech there to work with you or much else, it is a little difficult to offer suggestions beyond truly generic aspects.

As far as an RTA, I wouldn't because if tuning was needed I'd bring my own Smaart and SysTune rig. But again, is system tuning appropriate or have they already done a good job of getting the house system optimized or perhaps don't want you modifying the existing system tuning? Are you using monitors where you'd need to EQ them?
 

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