Best Live Sound? P.A or Dedicated Amp

The venue you will be performing can make a big difference in the way you monitor your rig. For instance, in a small intimate type of club, you may not have a choice but to bring your own monitor if the PA is only dedicated to vocals.

In mid sized rooms, you may have a suitable PA system, where you would be able to get by without a monitor system.

In Larger rooms, like most hotel grandballrooms, you should have both a stage monitor and a send to the house PA.

But, again, depends on how you will use it. Do you use patches that require a stereo mix such a B3 with leslie effect? or does your general sound get by in Mono?

This is kinda hard to answer as there is so much to consider. Personally, I have been giggin for over 20 years. I have used many different monitoring configurations. I have always sent a send to the house PA when possible. I started with a mini PA for my system, which consisted of a separate components like a 8 channel sub mixer, 400W amp, 18" 3way Cerwin Vega cabinet. This was sometimes louder than the main PA...Through the years, it only made sense to compact my stage setup. (1. I was not getting younger and everything seemed heavier. 2. I wanted to setup and breakdown within an hour or at least before the drummer.)

I only switched to a combo amp the last 2-3 years. I got a KC-550 to replace my mini PA, and even bought a second unit, the KC-350 for smaller venues. Honestly, I have not used my KC-550 for over a year now and have played some pretty big rooms. The KC-350 was plenty for my stage mix.

And yes, I am always set up and going home before the drummer now..........my rig consist of the Fantom X6, Roland RS-50, Roland A-37 and Roland AX-7, both controlling a Korg X5DR. With the KC-350 ease of set up, I now have more time to also set up a wireless midi system for the AX-7, and a wireless headset microphone. Most of the rhythm section is wireless as well as our horn section, so now, the WHOLE venue is our stage.

Good luck with your choices..

Hi Erf2u,

Thanks for detailed response. Most of the time the X-6 will be in sequencer mode as I will be fronting the band with a guitar and singing. My main concern is that the audience get good definition of the sounds coming out of the X-6 and it doesn't become a wash of sound that adds little or nothing.

I tried through a 2K PA in the studio and it was ok. I was hoping for the piano to cut through a little more but I suppose I'll need to look at my mix.

Most of my sounds will be mono.

Thanks again for your help.

Regards
Dave.

Hi Dave,

I did not consider your configuration. In this case, I would go through the PA. Although, your sequence mix will surely need fine tuning to make sure the different sounds cut through, like you mentioned.

At least you will not be fighting the stage mix with others....

Erf

I perform with a Fantom X7 and a Fatar 900. Our band plays rock and pop covers from current to mid-60s, so I play a lot of different sounds, attempting to emulate the originals. I have yet to find any keyboard amp that beats a "PA" - type rig. Depending on the size of the venue, I will either play stereo through my 2 powered Mackies (I've done JBLs, too) which provide sound to both the stage and the crowd, or I will connect stereo with the front-of-house PAs via a Behringer mini-mixer, with a mono feed from that mixer to one Mackie/JBL. The powered PA speakers provide a range that I can't match via standard keyboard amps. Took me a lot of trial and error to come to this conclusion; hope things work out for you faster and at least as succesfully, if not moreso.

I used to play keys in a band and always played my synths through a 2k P.A rig and used my Calsboro keyboard amp as a monitor. If you want more definition out of a certain sound try routing that sound out of the individual outputs. I.E; Drums and bass out of the 1+2 outs so you can give these sounds more defnition and bass response. take the rest of your mix out of 3+4 and finally try routing your piano track through the Fantoms enhancer or EQ effects to make it more prominent in the rest of the mix. Don't forget to DI the Fantom before you enter the main mixer thus saving a major overload of signal.
Hope this helps.

In my band (two guitarists, one percussion, all three singing) we put the X6 through a Yamaha mixer-amp. We EQ out the bottom end and take a feed out from the amp to a Mackie 1501 sub. This way the bass sounds come nicely from the sub and sounds like we have a real bass player. We mute the drum sounds from the X6 so no drums go through the PA. Instead we feed the X6's midi out to a separate drum machine which has its own amplifier behind us, where a real drummer would usually sit. This makes the drums sound far more realistic, both to us and the audience. More details can be found on our band web site here

John

Click and drop by my site!

Hi Dave,
I was happy with my amp untill I purchased a fantom and now I am searching for a powered speaker -desk set up .
A.c piano sounds are the ones that I notice sound so much better through a pa type rig . With my old RD500 it did'nt matter that much. There are heaps of powered speakers to pick from , brands such as E.V , Mackie , JBl and Yamaha etc .I will probably go with one of these myself . I play in bands from 3 to 10pce inc many styles of music so it will be a couple of 15'' speakers for me.

Hi Dave
I'm using the Yamaha Stagepas 300 as monitoring system and its also pretty decent as PA for small gigs. I fount its performance better than any keyboard-amp I have ever played through - especially concerning piano sounds.

Greetz,
Manuel

Hi all,

Thanks very much for the kind responses. A lot to consider!!!!

My main issue now is getting all my individual songs to play at the same level (normalize?) as my mixes tend to vary from song to song.

Any advice?

Cheers
Dave

I'm also using a yamaha stagepas 300 pa system and i agree its a great little system. It's really portable and has a great sound to it.

Dave,

I just ordered 2x FBT MaxX4A + 2x FBT MaxX10SA active speakers. It's a leap of faith because I didn't get a chance to audition them first but I've heard so many great things about that plus I can get a killer deal on them by ordering direct from Italy where they're made.

They've been discussed on prosoundweb and it seems that everybody who has heard them thinks they sound way better than JBL eons or Mackie SRM 450. Here's one review on them:

http://srforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/90896/0#msg_90896

I'll let you know how they sound when I get them. I can compare them side by side with the old (1st generation) JBL EON15 (active) in our rehearsal room (ok I know that's not the same as an actual venue but it has paper thin walls and roof so we're practically playing outdoors). I will compare them without the subs as well because that wouldn't be fair.

This is the FBT website btw:

http://www.fbt.it/intranet/Inglese/pae/speaker/index.asp

L8r,
Arjan

Listen to http://www.toyz-web.com/mp3/Remember_verse.mp3