Setting up equipment for live band

[RG2820]

I have a question abt setting up a live band in the context of a small church...

As we recently started using some PA system during our worship session we don noe how to set up the place... we have a mixer n 2 peavey speakers n 2 monitors... we have a crap drum set but have no intendsions of micing it...

My question is to DI the guitar n bass into the PA system or to DI it after plugging it into the amps or simply mic the amps?

ur comments will help us very much thanx...

 

[soft]

firstly, try to move the band as far away from the audience as possible. why is this so? cause we dont want to torture those in the front. if you have decent amps, use it and mic it up for the PA. the amps (gtr/bass) is good for other musicians to hear you too. use the keyboard amp too.

the monitor speaker can be use to feed vocals or drum machine playback/sequencer. if you try to feed every instrument into the 2 monitor speakers, it will not be effective.

for the main speakers, raise it high and project the sound to where the source sound roll-off. dont aim it at the front row people.

might want to consider getting a transparent shield to minimise the sound from the band spilling to the audience.

play, dont wack!

 

[atee]

From what I know I think you should mic the guitar amps, because the amps can produce sounds that the PA can't process(or something like that).

However, for bass, try to have them plugged into the PA (with or without amp), because then the 'bassiness' will be stronger.

Yep.

 

[RG2820]

thanx for the input will convience them to mic it.... haha... cuz we tried DI from the instrument n i sounded like crap one week... then i made the lead use my zoom mulit effect pedal it helped.... n last week we tried DI after the plugging into the amps... i felt that there really is not much improvement to the sound.....

anyone else wif more input??

 

[mikemann]

Well. Objectively, we should look at how big is the 'Hall' in question. Because it will determine the setup of your sound system very much.

Small church can mean in a semi-D house (<500Sqft), shophouse kind space (500-1000Sqft) or a commercial building office space (1000-2000Sqft) or even bigger....etc

Also depend on the intensity of your sessions, be it quiet, singalong, or hyper session.

No real rule to do it. You may need professional help to tweak your sound to suit the session.

Micing of instrument is also subjective too. Very easy to overdo it and have a messy overall sound.

You need a decision maker on what is the sound you really want, and the rest of the musician MUST follow that guide, no question. Mean you fix the sound settings and stick to that for good. This is the best way. Too many opinions will spoil the broth. You don't need Egoistic musician always cranking his own part and spoiling the overall sound. So something like a band or choir leader.

Bottomline, is you need someone experienced enough to help you get a good final set of equipments to be used permanently. DIY is highly less hit and more miss. Peace. 8)