There was no feedback. Is there a trick to this?

Has anyone else tried it? It's been suggested in one of my bands, but I'm not sure.

Does anyone use a large car/SUV for transporting 18 inch subs?

I'm upgrading my current system to 18 inch subs (2) and 15 inch tops (2).

I'm wondering does anyone transport a similar rig in a regular car, before I think about buying a van also.  I'd like to have one vehicle only for obvious reasons.  Make and model not important.  Pics also a bonus if you have them!

TIA

Danny

Anyone got any experience? Im aware of the downsides, in theory. 

I've watched a good few videos and am drawn to the Behringer C112 - alongside the DI signal. Any other ideas/thoughts?

This thing is so small, light and easy to use out of the box that even old hands like me can manage... when you get used to navigation.  Nothing unusual in that but I do still find myself toggling through screens trying to remember where the send fader is for something or which screen is the one that allows adjustment all of all of a certain setting in one place.  

The various PEQs (parametric graph type) are handy and easy to use and I quickly found myself converting the quick/simple channel set ups to the advanced mode, which I didn't think I would but it is quite intuitive... when I can remember which bloody screen.  

The negative... there has to be one!  The one thing that I thought was initially clever was the auto-fader feature... but it isn't!  Essentially the desk sets the input gain for you, based upon the input applied by instrument or individual voice and once initially set it will tweak the gain down if the input starts to exceed that which was initially set (guitarist anyone); fine and dandy and this works 'in isolation'!  First full band rehearsal using the desk, I went through each of the 3 vocals, bass and acoustic guitar (no drums or electric guitar through the desk at this point), all set independently and sounding good (no peaking etc and the levels looked about where I'd expect them to be if I was using a fader meter).  Band kicks into the first song and 8 bars in we are all looking at each other wondering where the hell the vocals and bass just went?  Yep, the desk had turned us down and it will not reinstate levels if it pulls them back.  

I get that with everything playing the mics may well have received extra gain/input but we weren't pointing mics at the speakers or anything but I'm puzzled as to why it pulled back the bass in the desk!  The bass was effectively DI straight from a preamp pedal.  We tried this several times and each time it did the same thing, so I had to manually reset them and disable that feature.  No big deal but a pointless exercise/feature if it won't work on a basic level.

I'll report back with new thoughts as and when but has anyone else got one of these desks and wants to chip in?  

I don't know anything about PA but I am considering proposing to the band that we replace it with something more modern, portable and easier for us to use.

My though was the array/column option looks quite a good option but I've no idea if this is correct or not. I think we would definitely need a separate mixer as there are 6 of us with a few doubling on vocals and one using 3 or sometimes 4 different instruments.

I tend to use an amp still so bass is less of a consideration. There is percussion but no kit - we tend to get away without micing this for the majority of gigs.

I think the key to all of this is that we would benefit from something, simple, easy to use and portable. We tend to play pubs and clubs mostly so I don't think we need a gazzillion terrawatts of firepower, just something to carry the vocals and reinforce the instruments.

Is anyone able to offer some thoughts on this scenario or suggestions as to a good way forward? Feel free to redirect me if there is already a thread for this scenario

Many thanks!

I am NOT interested in sooper-dooper FRFR systems ... I am after a sub that I can use with a pair of QSC CP8s in small pubs & clubs, something that weighs less than 40lbs, something that will not be used at very high volumes but needs to cope with a low B without blinking (or melting).

There is lots of chat on here about how to get a great sound with minimal kit, but if you had a budget of £5k, what would you buy? To give you a steer, I’m old school, so I don’t see us going out without subs, and I’d not rule out going back to passive cabs if it reduced the weight of each individual element as we’re all getting on these days.  

Just got these, well strictly speaking I just bought the last four. I've had two for a while that I use as static lights to illuminate the band, they come with diffusers as well as clear fronts so they don't blind you if you use the diffuser. I lent two of them to a friend for a party and he used a sound to light program I'd never tried which works like a giant sound level meter. They are sold as PureSound Pixel Bar Switch. They look white in the video but that's because my phone couldn't capture the colours as it was saturated by the light levels, you can see the colour changes in the room.

They are obviously programmed to follow the drums and seem to be fairly good at following the tempo. The plan is to use them on stands on stage so that they lift the light levels in the louder sections and fall away in any stops or quieter passages and create better dynamcs than the more usual chase sequencers. I've been trying various lights hapharzardly for a while and never been happy so this is an atteempt to up my game by actually planning the lighting.

Forgive the mess, I'd just spent an hour making up some decent length leads with UK plugs instead of the 1.5m euro leads supplied

I started thinking about this a while ago when @Phil Starrand I were working on my 8” extension cab. This was to complement my modified Ashdown After Eight combo. 
 

To cut a long story short, I started thinking about this in earnest when my band borrowed @Phil Starr‘s RCF Art 310As. Now I already had a pair of Whatfedale Pro Titan 12s plus two aging JBL 15” Subs. All were active and worked well together. However the performance of the smaller 10s in the RCF and the 8” speakers in my cab (the inspiration for the Basschat Easybuild 8” Cabinet) made me think (insert snide comments here). 
 

I knew from the 8” cabinet that a good 8” driver could go low enough and flat enough to work down to the point where a sub woofer could take over the heavy lifting. Indeed recent active speaker models from RCF,  Wharfedale and others have offered extended frequency response and what RCF call FIRPhase Whatfedale call just FIR. They both aim to maintain phase alignment at the crossover point between the woofer and tweeter. They offer 127/128dB max SPL peak (122/123dB real life) and the response extends below the 100Hz area where most subs take over. 
  
As I said earlier, I had used the RCF 310As (MK2?) and was impressed, so my initial thought was a pair of RCF Art310A MK4. A they are discontinued, and RCF did not make a MK5  10”version, I ordered a pair from my neighbourhood German Music Store. Thomann had bought RCF’s  remaining stock of the MK4 but all was not well. One was DOA so they both went back and a refund was offered. 
 

So, I looked around and Whatfedale Pro had added FIR technology to their Typhon Range. Although Whatfedale are now Chinese owned, the UK Arm still seems to do the R&D and like RCF, they make their own drivers. I love my Titan 12s so after much discussion I bought the Typhon 8 AXF and first impressions are favourable. The sound is well balanced and at just over 10Kgs reassuringly heavy for an 8”. Testing is ongoing and I will update later. 

I have no backline so I rely on my PA completely.

The problem I have is that I really like the 2 pickup mid-mid scoop type sound and while it sounds great in isolation, it's gets lost in the mix.

I also know that I should be pushing the mids to cut through and while I don't like the isolated sound, I'm sure it will cut through the band mix better.

So my question is which frequencies should I be cutting/pushing on my mixing desk(Behringer XR18).

For reference my pa speaker set up is 2x18 in bins and 2x12 tops.

Thanks in advance.

I've just stumbled upon this and it might interest people looking for a new mixer. I stress that I've not seen one yet or tried it out but it looks like a really useful addition to what is available and has a very different approach to what is already available. It skips on the touch screen and everything is 'physical' controls; note the parenthesis. You can control it with an app but that is via bluetooth not via a router. To me it is set up for live work more than a studio it only seems to allow two channel recording and it has a very physical, practical set of facilities. Andertons have it in for £499

So basically it is a 12/16 channel mixer with 10 XLR/mixed inputs and a couple of stereo inputs, standard stuff. Four main outputs, four submix outputs and three Aux outs.

Mixing is via 6 capacitative touch faders, effectively a separate touch screen for each channel, No more problems with dirt in the faders I suppose.

Faders are arranged in two banks

Everything else is accessed by touch switches and rotary knobs at the side of the screen, which is not touch sensitive it is just a display.

Eq is fully parametric with three bands and HPF on every channel.

Compression is available on each channel as is phantom power

FX is a comprehensive collection of reverb and delay, again with all the parameters adjustable by the rotary controls.

To me the facilities are pretty much all you need for a typical pub band and very similar to the offering I have on my RCF mixer. This is going to be much less flexible than the Behringer X18's but so much more intuitive than any of the current stagebox mixers. The use of physical switches and rotaries is going to be completely comfortable for anyone who has used an analogue mixer and much better/simpler for anyone mixing from on stage. All the channel fx are available with one click and completely flexible, you can do as little or as much as you want.

I have to say that this might be a game changer for many bands, physical controls are so much simpler when you are also playing. Alto have clearly looked hard at the shortcomings of other budget mixers and this looks to have come up with fixes that make sense. I've no idea of the build quality or long term reliability of all those knobs and buttons but Alto have been producing reliable and well loved speakers for a while so no reason to doubt them. I haven't found a manual yet so there are many questions I couldn't answer, primarily if you can save scenes and waht is on the app but this looks promising

Our band own and run our own PA. HK line array system, upto 8 bass units and 8 top units. They sound great, really portable and a small foot print. We've had this for about 10 years and done many, many gigs with them. Both ourselves and other bands at gigs. Myself and the drummer are both experienced sound engineers. 

However, we do occasionally get a lot of bottom end flare and can sound a bit wooly/undefined in the bass frequency. 

Of course it's very venue dependant, but my question to the collective is, does anyone use rubber feet/stand/spikes to de-couple the bass units from the floor, much the same as is used in hifi? This would seem to make sense, but I've never known it for PAs. The best sound we had recently was when we sat them in the little trollies we use for transportation. 

Anyone use or tried them? 

I'll kick off, my go to mic is a Sennheiser E935 around £155 I love this Mic tough as old boots but with a lovely clear sound, handling noise isn't too bad but mine stays in the stand anyway. Most importantly to me it is a cardioid. I can't keep still most of the time let alone when performing so I need something forgiving as far as mic technique is concerned, I know i should 'eat the mic' but something I can back off a little or be off axis so I need something forgiving. When I use floor monitors I want them down the gun barrel of the mic so cardioid works for me there. Mine was borrowed by our current lead singer at first rehearsal and she ordered on on her phone at the end of rehearsal. On the one occasion she forgot it I lost mine for the night. I tried the E945 at the time as well as the E835 and the E945 sounds just as good (the e835 is a fine mic but muffled and rather ordinary in comparison). I've a loud if unpleasant singing voice so I have no feedback problems but our lead singer isn't that loud, even so f I can persuade her not to point it into the corners or tuck it into her chest between songs it causes no problems there either.

I also have a Sontronic STC80 which is equally good, it actually sounds very similar and has a massive output which matches it's massive weight. Unfortunately it is no longer available and is replaced by the Solo which is a super-cardioid.

My spares on stage (left over from when I ran Jam sessions) are AKG D5's (£75) Super cardioids and again great sounding mic's again, build quality is fantastic these are the bargain of the moment. Feedback rejection is outstanding, really crazily good and ultimately why I don't use them. If you are off axis or backed off from the mic you get very little output which means you are wasting your breath if you haven't perfected your mic technique. If you take the trouble though they sound as good as any dynamic vocal mic under £150. Quite like the proximity effect though when you do get to hand hold the mic. I once had to swap out an SM58 for one of my D5's when i was mixing for someone else. The jump in quality was really startling as was the volume another high output mic.

Finally there's the Beta 58 which is another good mic, the most common mic if we get provided PA and my duo partner uses one of these. We've tried swapping but he prefers the Shure and I prefer my E935, and he sounds better through my 935 but don't tell him I said so  and that's the point really. Good quality mics differ slightly in sound and more so in terms of handling and the demands they place on you. The mic becomes part of your performance, there's a learning curve for any new mic and not every mic suits every voice, there is room for taste as well as practical issues.

there you go, over to you what do you use? What's good, what's not so good?

I see all the open mic / one man band looper type people using Bose L1 systems, but there are loads of cheaper alternatives out there now.  Has anyone had a particularly good experience with one of these Bose-a-like products?

https://www.thomann.co.uk/km_knebel_komplett_schwarz.htm

If anyone has any practical experience or tips to offer I'd be glad to hear them and I'll save the first post to try and pull together the best tips and build up a wiki/how to help people as new ideas are added.

Obv, a small mixer would do all this, but is there anything out there tailor made? I cannot find anything. Ta.