PA gear: What brands do you like? Dislike? Why?

[Charlie Bernstein]

Should have known. Strong J here with a history of frustration with P's. I did a lot of modeling and simulation professionally and there is a popular observation that "All models are wrong. Some models are useful." That applies to Myers-Briggs especially when people think it is an absolute description and not just a preference.

Nevertheless I am hearing a lot of love for a line array and/or Bose

Yup. No one is 100% any Myers-Briggs type. When I was a manager with a board of dirctors, I learned that all types are good for something. The profiles just help you figure out what.

 

[awagner]

Re playing cocktail hour at a holiday party. I did that as an duo and then my entire electric band played a couple of dance sets.

It's an impossible gig and I would not do it again. We had a more powerful PA but there is so much chatter that anyone will be drowned out... and should be really because it's a holiday party and people want to talk. And then after dinner they want to dance.

We did it because it was my firm’s holiday party, and I lobbied for the gig.

I still had to send sample videos for approval by the Executive Committee, and we were then only approved for 20 minutes before the DJ took over.

But it was fun, at least for us and the people within 20 feet of us.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Re playing cocktail hour at a holiday party. I did that as an duo and then my entire electric band played a couple of dance sets.

It's an impossible gig and I would not do it again. We had a more powerful PA but there is so much chatter that anyone will be drowned out... and should be really because it's a holiday party and people want to talk. And then after dinner they want to dance.

Yeah, I used to organize an annual awards night that about three hundred people came to. I always hired a band for the social hour. I had five rules: No amps. No PAs. No singers. No drums. No horns.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

. . . I have at least 3 amps (main, mon, subs) If 1 amp crapped out, I'd just . . . .

Yup. That's why my stereo is a component system (although the amp is integrated because I don't care enough to shell out for a Mcintosh power tube amp).

But for the pubs and whatnot I play, if the rig craps out I'll just play unamped. Done it before. Don't use effects, so I'm just not as loud. No one seems to mind. Which would hurt a lesser player's feelings if there were any lesser players. There aren't — at least, not around here.

Other folks I play with have bigger rigs, like for electric full-band gigs, so I don't need it.

 

[crank]

We frequent a local brew pub that often has an acoustic solo or duo act. probably 4 out of 5 times we've been the act is too loud. Management has gotten good about telling them to turn the volume down. I want to hear the live music, but I also want to converse with my wife and friends. It's a balancing act for sure. One out of the 5 acts asked if the sound was ok. Since he asked, I went up and told him the volume was good but he could dial the reverb way back because the pub was a smallish room with all hard surfaces and there was more than enough reverb naturally. He did turn the effect way down and thanked me.

I always ask, " Is the sound OK, can you hear everyone in the band? are we too loud? One time when playing a restaurant with its own sound system and the owner running it he lectured me that one never does that. BTW, the sound sucked that gig.

Another thing I like about powered speaker systems is the manufacturer's engineers do all the matching up work for you.