Powered mixer suggestion for small clubs live shows

[spycam]

I'm sick of playing live shows at small clubs that do not have a mixer and speakers, so we could mike our cabs, keyboards, vocals, drums...

I thought of an idea to earn some money and buy some budget (maybe even used) powered mixer and probably a couple of loudspeakers (but most of the time clubs have loudspeakers).

So, we have 2 guitars, bass, 2 vocals, keyboards (stereo) and a drum kit (1 bass drum, 3 toms, snare, hi-hat, ride, china and a couple of crashes).
What powered mixers could you offer for this setup? We don't need FX, we need a way to plug microphones or keyboard cables, loudspeakers or monitors.

 

[Metal Overload]

Peavey Xr, or Yamaha

 

[Sloan]

If you want something easy to setup and reliable, get one of those old Peavey powered mixers.
You can find them at lots of used music shops for real cheap and most of the time, they work.

Most small clubs, you only would have run the vocals, kick, and maybe keys through your mains.
I'm used to not using monitors in small places, so if you can do that, it would reduce load in/out times a lot, but you can run monitors too.
Most of these all-in-one mixer/amps have an effects send/return and 1-2 aux sends or whatever. that can give you 3 monitor mixes if you need it.

 

[spycam]

My first concern is for listeners to hear a quality sound, that's why i would like to mix guitars and bass too
Also, at some places, sometimes it's hard for us to hear our music on stage when we play without monitors and running the instrument without mixer and loudspeakers by just the amps/cabs we use.
We play our music just as a hobby/pleasure, so if we can't have good sound at least on stage to have a pleasure to play and then we can't see listeners hear the best of the sound, it's hurting our satisfaction, if you know what i mean.

 

[Sloan]

If your playing a small place, it's up to you to balance yourselves out, it may take a while to get used to it, but try it!

 

[Metal Overload]

if you are playing small clubs, sometimes is better to not mic guitars, believe me, if you are runinig a nice guitar rig, thats enough, i done it several times, and sounds just as good, or maybe clearer and well, better, because you are hearing the amp itself, and you dont mess with processing, this leave more room for the vocals, kick, snare, and bass, to be in the mixer(a good things is to use triggers), i was pretty skeptical at first, but then i found that the club was to small and there was not the necesity to mic the cabs, and everything went smooth.

 

[Sloan]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. If you guys work as a band and get a good balance without having to mic everything up, then you'll sound good ANYWHERE. Just use the pa for vocals and kick.

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. If you guys work as a band and get a good balance without having to mic everything up, then you'll sound good ANYWHERE. Just use the pa for vocals and kick.

And keyboards!

How big is a small club? Any more than 30-40 people and I'd start to look away from powered mixers and into a passive mixer with active speakers. A Yamaha MG16/6FX would be a great start and you can pick them up used for around $250-300. After that I recommend getting two GOOD QUALITY active speakers. A pair of Yorkville NX55P will do great for your high end, and a pair of LS800P subwoofers will do great for your bass.

It isn't cheap, but it is light, compact, and it will most of all SOUND GOOD. You will want to later add things like monitors, outboard processing ( compression and EQ, most notably ), but its a good start. You can cut corners of course and get cheaper speakers, cheaper mixers, etc.... but your sound WILL suffer. And to be totally honest I'd rather gig with a $5000 PA and a Marshall MG stack than a $1000 PA and an ENGL SE stack.

 

[spycam]

I already have ENGL SE , just not stack, I'm usually not playing in large places, so i use 2x12 cab which never seemed to be not enough...