Live Sound PA questions

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Mjespo125

Member
Jan 3, 2010
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I'm in the market for a new PA system, I'm only looking to get a board and some powered monitors (2 for now). This if for practice purposes but I want to be able to do live sound at some very small local shows around my area. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with carvin products, I'm looking into getting this board:
http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=C1648&cid=13

And then get just get these speakers as a package: http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=LM12A-2

Suggestions for similar products would also be helpful

Thanks dudes
 
Get yourself a good desk, it'll save for hassles in the future.

Soundcraft, Allen & Heath, old Midas desks or even Mackie Onyx.
You're looking for some active speakers - try Mackie SRM450s.

The 450s are clean, lightweight and sound decent.

If you cheap out you will end up blowing something up and having to spend more money, it's a difficult call - but to be honest, spend as much as possible.

Carvin amps are 'okay'. Not heard too many good, or bad, things about them. Never heard their speakers.
 
I'd get a Behringer. No joke. For how much they cost they can't be all that much worse than wackie and soundcrap (although I digress, soundcraft has made some legendary gear). I've never dealt with Carvin either.
 
Desk wise I'd really recommend you go for Allen & Heath, mainly because I've never run across one with any issues yet. Whereas I've used quite a few Mackies and Soundcrafts that have scratch pot's/faders. Been using a Soundcraft MH2 at college this year and I've gotta say I'm very unimpressed, thought the eq on my Mixwizard was much better to be honest.
 
kvoid said:
I'd get a Behringer. No joke. For how much they cost they can't be all that much worse than wackie and soundcrap (although I digress, soundcraft has made some legendary gear). I've never dealt with Carvin either.
Click to expand...

Right. :erk:

Avoid this kind of advice where possible. Like everything in life you get what you pay for. Brands like behringer are cheap for a reason. If they TRUELY were as good as speakers 3x the price everyone would use them but, no.

If you can pick up a powered speaker with one hand with ease, I would second guess the quality straight away.
 
Watch craigslist for used gear, you can get some great deals. There is absolutely no reason to buy new stuff unless you have extra money to blow. I have had good experience with yamaha, peavey, mackie, and qsc stuff. Those small mackie powered speakers are very useful, I don't think I would run a full out metal act through them, but you can do a whole lot as far as sound reinforcement goes. I prefer passive speakers and power amps, but the powered speakers are a little bit easier to deal with.

One option is to get some dirt cheap passive speakers and install plate amps in them to make your own powered speakers. I know http://www.partsexpress.com sells some cheap plate amps.
http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?srchExt=CAT&srchCat=966
For really cheap speakers I have been surprised by CGM stuff. It works and does the job.
 
We got Behringer Europower or something like that for our PA. I wasn't all about it, but I wasn't really the one spending most of the $ on it. Thing gave us shit in like the first week.....something would clip and the audio would just cut in and out. But, we did have it running off a 50 ft extension cord. Plugged it straight into the wall outlet (I've heard a lot of PA amps are VERY picky about the exact voltage they are seeing) and it seemed fine. Then a few months later, same shit started happening.

You get what you pay for, end of story. Save $ and get something nice.
 
I have been doing live sound for 20+ years and the best board I have ever used in a live situation is my Allen & Heath MixWiz 3 16 channels with a great EQ and some built in effects for some basic verbs and delays. You can hook it up to a laptop via MIDI and tweak all the effects which is really nice for a board in its price range.

For Speakes the JBL EON's are cheap and sound great. They are also expandable with a full line of Subs / Mids and Tweeters so you can expand your system as you grow.

I would go with:
Allen & Heath WZ3 - $1000
JBl Eon 515XT - $1000 (for 2)

For 2K you have yourself a GREAT PA that you can expand on as your needs get greater.

As said you get what you pay for. So if you buy Behringer gear expect to have to replace it within 2 years and wind up spending the 2K anyway in repair / replaced parts.

Save your money spend the cash ONCE and have an extremely rugged PA that sounds great.
 
There hasn't been a budget mentioned but I will assume it is small

I can vouch for the Mackie SRM450s if you're going the powered route for monitors... I have 5 of them at the radio station I work at (2 for mains and 3 for MONS, it's all acoustic performances) and I never have any complaints.

as far as Behringer goes, their power amps are alright (QSC clones) but I wouldn't buy any desk, monitors or PA from them

You'll need a 31 band eq for each monitor mix, and eventually for your mains, I like the DBX 1231

You need a crossover for your mains, DBX driverack is good

For a bangin' PA on a budget this is what I'd buy... 2 behringer ep4000's driving 2 JBL MRX 528s (4x18" subs) and 2 of the MRX525 tops (2x15" + horn).

This is a big enough system to fill most small/medium sized rooms with loud sound

and the A&H mixwizard is a great little desk assuming you will never need more than 16 channels.
 
My budget for the board and two active speakers is about 1000-1500$ USD, probably will end up spending a little extra as buy once cry once definitely holds true

Thanks for the help dudes!
 
Also: Since I'm looking to get a board that isn't powered I can always add another set of higher end speakers down the road or a sub if I wish, part of the appeal that the carvin board has in my opinion is the 6 outputs (am I reading this correctly?)
Specs
MASTER
- 4 Sub Groups + L/R (6 Outputs for potential speakers?)
- Center/Sub output
- 4 Buses Compressors
- "Link" switches for compressors
- 2 processors – 256 effects each
- Effects to monitors
- 2 9 band L/R-Moinitor EQ's
- 2 USB power ports
- USB L/R recording output
- USB L/R PC input
- Rear slots for wireless options
(up to 4 mics or beltpacks)
- Ultra low THD – less than .01%
- SwitchMode™ 90-260 VAC input
 
The number of outputs on the desk isn't that important for powering multiple speakers. The crossover you get will take L+R and split it into the different speakers outputs.
I'll also second the A+H mix wizard desks. Mixed on one for a few years doing all sorts of shows and it's never let me down. Good EQ, handy number of auxes and it's bang for buck is great.
Go for used speakers/amps and don't skimp on the cables- it's worth shelling out for hardy XLR's and Speakons and have them last.
 
Good to see so much love for the Mixwizard here! I miss mine :(

Nice pre's, good eq, 6 aux's, internal fx, ability to audition your monitor mixes through the headphones, direct out on every channel. What's not to love I guess?

I remember mine holding up pretty well against the GL2400 (love the little meters on each channel with that desk!) with the GL just sounding a little bit cleaner and clearer.
 
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