r/livesoundgear

Coming from a Soundcraft 22 big mixing board to this x32 rack and I'm tripping out over how good the responsiveness is to the x32 edit app! Like basically instant when I turn the channel level knob. So dope!

As I want to bring my live experience to the next level, I suggested to my core band members of 3 years to invest in a personal in-ear monitor system (transmitter and receiver ranging from $250-$350) so that we can mitigate the issues in the past where we had issues with playing tracks (not being able to hear what we need). I usually give my personal IEMs to my drummer to prioritize keeping tempo.

They felt that it's not their investment to make and that either:

• I, as the leader, need to provide them
• The in-house sound engineers of said venue or festival need to provide them
• Or that I hire a sound person to fit our needs for the show (currently no budget for

I look at having our own personal IEMs as backup to situations that can't fit our needs.

I believe that this investment would be good for the band, but also for the other bands they play with. However, they told me IEMs aren't a requirement for them outside of working with me, and they will rely on them being provided for them or using the wedge monitor. But I don't want us to continue complaining when the sound isn't right or having the inability to hear the track, vocals, etc. All I can do is lead by example and show how helpful they can be in the long run.

What is the standard? Does the leader provide the entire in-ear monitor system, or should this be a shared investment? Seen a few forums/videos saying that it should be a shared investment. Should i find a solid team willing to make the investment?

EDIT: forgive my misuse of the term "backline." I guess I just mean "stage equipment."

I'm advising a local theater as they transition from a cinema to include live performance (~400 cap, all seated with a floor and balcony level). They have a great new Martin system being installed, but no backline included in the project scope. The theater is run by a small management team and they don't know anything about live event production.

The project planner said that the plan was for touring acts to bring or rent their own backline. But, I want to make the case to management that this isn't feasible for smaller local acts they're already scheduling, or midsize national tours they hope to attract. Like, they probably don't need a bass amp or a full set of drum mics. But they absolutely need mic stands, a few 58s, XLRs, etc.

What would you say is the minimum amount of backline you'd expect a venue to have? Here's my list:

- Mixer and stage box with Dante (this is a must as the FOH will not have a permanent position – the Martin amplifier is Dante). I might recommend a SQ5 or DM3.

- At least 4 regular boom mic stands and 2 short boom stands

- 3-4 SM58s or e835s

- a pair of condensers like NT-5s or similar

- Power strips and extension cords, CAT5E cable for stage box

- 2-3 stereo DI boxes

- 2 powered monitor wedges (this theater owns 2 K10s we can repurpose)

What else?

hello there!

if i’m looking to do super extreme autotune like T-Pain or 100 Gecs, what should i be looking into? i have a couple songs with my current project that on record have vocals with very exaggerated autotune on them, and i’d really like to replicate that for live shows.

the simpler the better! i’d prefer to stay away from laptops/DAWs to avoid latency and to keep the setup easy for smaller venues like bars and DIY spaces. maybe a vocal fx pedal or something like that? i’ve looked into a few of those but none of them seem quite like they’re built to do what i’m looking for. any recommendations or suggestions would be much appreciated!

thanks!

Hi all. hope you’re well:) I am looking to buy a full audio system for live concerts of around 400-500 people- or even more.

I have my own live band- one that I’ve put together over a period of the last 5 years- and have hosted my own live music shows at my own expense (twice in the past 6 months with crowds of 200 and 400 people respectively).

I’ve noticed that the cost to hire the equipment was quite expensive ( some may even call it exorbitant)- around ZAR 15 000(Rand) per show- roughly 1000 USD. I am thinking of buying my own equipment to use for my live shows and to hire out when not in use (I have another company with bakkies/ pickup trucks to transport and staff to assist and safe storage space) so infrastructure is already in place.

I would like to ask for any good advice/suggestions on the types live concert style audio equipment that would be suitable for this purpose- before I go to the audio shop- and would really appreciate any tips on what to look out for/be wary/careful of.

My budget is around ZAR 400 000 or 30K USD. Would really appreciate any tips/advice. Thanks!

Hey all, first time posting so apologies if this is the wrong sub, I'd be happy to delete/re-post somewhere else if appropriate. For some context:

I'm hoping some front of house engineers (that use their own in-house mixer/PA equipment) can provide some feedback on a rig I'm trying to put together. I'm trying to create an IEM rig for both the band I play with and to potentially rent out to other smaller bands so they can have a high quality monitoring setup without having to foot the bill upfront themselves.

This rig would include a digital rack mixer, wireless IEM transmitters (with one wired for the drummer hooked up to a separate stage box, I'm paranoid about a dead battery killing a show), wireless mic/instrument receivers, and some I/O panels/storage.

Now the question:

As a front of house engineer, if you were given full remote control of the mixer (via tablet, 2-in-1 laptop, etc.) would you be okay only getting a main L/R out (and potentially sub) to send to your in-house setup?

The main reasoning behind this is really just to not have to acquire and carry around another stage box and short snake for getting individual channel signal to FoH or increasing the main rack size and having to carry around an even longer snake to do the same thing.

Any input would be appreciated.

Hey all! Was hoping to get some help with an RF setup I'm running for my band. I think I'm in my head on this. I recently side-graded to Audio Technica ATW 3255's (5 channels) from the PSM900's. Main reason was wideband. I'm noticing the AT's are more prone to dropout where the PSM900's would hold connection. We're doing bar gigs and occasionally do some crowd interaction so we'll go out into the crowd. Definitely a challenging RF situation but I think its my setup not the ATs

Right now I'm running 4 channels (the 5th is spare we run on a whip if needed in a pinch) into an active phenyx pro combiner with gain compensation. a 25 foot amazon BNC cable to a Shure LPDA paddle antenna I typically run about 7 feet high pointing toward stage and crowd (so behind us stage left usually). The show last weekend we got a hard drop from our guitar player in crowd. This was a total blackout until he got back on stage. I was running the combiner at 0 compensation so I'm thinking the BNC cable quality and length might have been the culprit.

Just tested at home with the combiner gain set to +4 and it seems to get a noticeable more stable connection. Tested in basement and walk tested putting it out of sight and making have to punch through walls etc. (obviously a stress test as line of sight is always priority at shows).

The other members on stage btw had no dropouts the entire night.

Our PSM900's have been rock solid for the most part. Occasional drops here and there but we put them through some pretty interesting scenarios and they come through. I run those at 10mW on a PA411 combiner with the same paddle and cable.

Am I expecting too much from this wireless gear? The AT's have some great reviews, and again with clear line of sight they are REALLY great, but I'm thinking I can push them a bit more for our crowd interactions and just wasn't compensating for the cable length and quality.

Any help would be super appreciated!

Hey, so about 7 years ago I picked up an inexpensive PA system for speaking events and background music at weddings for friends and such. For value and ease of transport etc I ended up with Gemini ES-210MXBLU-ST 600W 10" Portable PA System. I know its not even really a mid tier system but it has done what has been needed of it so far.

I now have a really nice shure wireless mic system (Shure SLXD24/SM58 Digital Wireless Handheld Microphone System - J52 Band) based on past recommendations and that has been great for officiating weddings and announcing at events.

I am trying to figure out what the next upgrade would be as we have quite a bit of speaker equipment going up in our local used marketplace for good prices. And one of the community theater groups I help with is starting to ask to borrow my kit.

I am thinking short term to get better and longer cables for the speakers... and perhaps some type of powered sub woofer? which I think I could send a signal from one of the line outs on the mixer...

probably give me the most immediate improvement... however I know powered subs can go for about twice what I paid for the whole PA system...

But I also realize upgrading the speakers will likely mean upgrading the mixer too, would love to keep all the features If I go that way, bluetooth connection etc.

Hoping to upgrade a piece at a time rather than just replace everything in one go... hoping to spend $200-$300 at a time (which in some instances in the local market means I could get a set of 2 X 15" peavy speakers and 3 X floor monitors with an amp)

I was also wanting to ask about the wireless system with regards to connection. again with a mind to the theater group, with the mic system I have the receiver has 1 XLR out... but I believe multiple mics can connect to the same receiver... I am guessing there is no way to separate signals to control volumes of individual mics with this setup as it is...

If I wanted to setup for multiple mics (say I have 6 actors that we end up getting face mics and shure transmitters for - this would be way down the road as it is cost prohibitive at the moment, but doesn't hurt to keep it in mind now)... how would I best plan for that in the future, so we can control each actors volume individually?

This is all out of pocket and I am not really making money from these events, I am doing weddings for friends, volunteering at conventions and bringing it with me to help, and the community theater is essentially a non proffit, so cost is a big factor for any recommendations.

Finally I do hobby voice acting at home with a Scarlett 2i2 and an AT2035 setup with a sound proofed space, if any recommendations can pull double duty to improve that setup too then it is a definite bonus!

Thanks in advance!

Moin erstmal,
ich mixe seit 2 Jahren an meinem Flx-4-Pioneer.
Ich habe bereits einige Geburtstage mit großen JBL-Partyboxen musikalisch begleiten dürfen. Ich lege regelmäßig in einer Bowlinghalle auf, wobei ich dort lediglich meine Cinch-Kabel in den XLR-zu-Cinch-Anschluss einstecken muss.

Ich bin im Mai 2027 erstmal für eine Hochzeit (200 Personen) gebucht worden. Dort wird jedoch nichts an Equipment vorliegen. An der Musik/dem Mixen wird’s nicht scheitern, jedoch habe ich 1. kein weiteres Equipment und 2. kein technisches Know-How.

Ich habe bereits überlegt, 2 JBL-Partyboxen 320 zu mieten, jedoch bin ich mir über die Soundstärke nicht sicher. Hier wäre das Setup wahrscheinlich auch nicht problematisch.

Besonders schwer tue ich mich mit den Begriffen Subwoofer, welche anscheinend wichtig für mein Setup ist. Auch ist Cinch zu XLR grundsätzlich ,,unsymmetrisch‘‘(?!). Zuletzt soll für dieses Problem jedoch ein kleines extra Gerät helfen, was die Verbindung von Boxen zu Mischpult regulieren kann(?)

Da ich jetzt noch genug Zeit habe um alles zu planen, denke ich, dass ich mit guter Vorbereitung das rocken kann. Ich würde mich über eure Expertise sehr freuen!

Liebe Grüße

Hello friends!

Last week my band played a gig on a very small stage, which is common for us. I have a flute player with an SM57 a few feet behind a fiddle player. When reviewing the multitracks from the evening, the -57 was picking up a lot of fiddle, which I don't want.

Here are the options I've considered:

- I don't think moving the people around is feasible; we're kind of locked into our spots for various logistical reasons.

- I was thinking of switching the -57 for a Beta58, but I feel like the small pickup field at 180 degrees would be a lateral move at best and more of a problem at worst.

- The flute player alternates between several instruments, so I don't think clip-ons or head-jointed solutions are a viable option. I also want the player to have the volume control available from being able to move relative to the mic.

- I was wondering if a clear isolation shield might be helpful, like the kind used for horns?

- Other mics I've seen recommended are the SM81 or the KSM8; that might be a hair out of my/our budget, but I'm not rejecting the idea out of hand.

- I've also seen the SM137 recommended (small-diaphragm condenser), that seems like it would fit my use-case.

I'm not too worried about feedback as all the instruments run direct and we run in-ears on most gigs of this nature.

Thoughts and suggestions welcome! Thank you.

Im looking for a powered pa set up for dj gigs for small venues/remote locations. Im trying to find like a package deal with at least one subwoofer (preferably 2) it has to be powered I dont want to lug around a separate amp to power the set up. I've been researching online and im just so overwhelmed with all the options out there. Theres so many brands at so many price points, I want a decent set up but I don't want to empty my pockets for it either. I also don't want them to be super cheap with bad sound or construction. If anyone has brands/ systems to check out that would be awesome thank you
EDIT:I'm not looking for brand name stuff. I'm aware JBL, mackie and brands as such are out of my price ranges, I'm looking for a BUGET set up thanks. Yall aren't even trying to help me :,(

I have an active Mackie PA system and have been running sound for primarily DJ focused events. I’m looking to expand into being able to run sound for bands and curious about recommendations.

My first question is are there any recommended reading sources or YouTube channels to get me pointed in the right direction for educating myself?

Secondly what in your experience do bands typically expect the sound man to provide?

Beyond the sound system and a mixing console, what would you consider standard equipment load out to run bands effectively?

Is it conceivable to run some type of mixing console that can integrate with ableton as a means of mixing to avoid needing to build out a full fx rack from jump?

I’m sure more questions will come up through discussion, I’m guessing that’s enough to at least get me started in the right direction. Thanks a bunch in advance for any help 🙏

L Acoustics released L2 in 2023, now 3 years later 2026 releases L1. What your opinions on this move to this format. Do you think there will be a complete shift from the K- series? I have my opinions but curious what the rest of the industry thinks about this. Do you feel other manufacturers will follow a similar formats ?

anyone have any opinions on these “new” mixers from Allen and Heath? is it worth looking at these over the older SQ consoles? are you swapping from a regular SQ or some other mixer to try this out?

I can get a pair for dirt cheap. Everyone I know still uses them. Reading mixed reviews. I currently use SRX815P but they’re too heavy.

I'm trying to decide whether to use the house PA or attempt to hire in some speakers

This is the *house* tech info I have

Sound Desk - X32 (although I might drop in my WING compact instead, shouldn't be too difficult)

2 x Dynacord PSD 3200W subs

2 x Dynacord TS-400 tops

2 x JBL Control 1 centre infills

I'd be tempted to just turn off the Control 1s, I've been unlucky enough to use that model before

my question is about those Dynacords. are they decent? or should I look at hiring a better PA? (I'd know what to get if I was hiring something, I've just not used those Dynacords before and I've got no idea if they're actually decent or not)

anyone able to shed some light?

Hello all! I've recently (naïvely) taken on coordinating a big live music event at my uni. There's going to be a big outdoor stage and a bunch of bands, and the head-honcho guy has told me he needs a list of required equipment– mainly, a drum kit, and what we need for the backline.

I've never done this before, so I was wondering what would constitute as a backline in this setting, what that might look like (do we need subs? a mixer? do cables count?), and anything else y'all can think of that I should request for this thing.

I'm definitely in over my head but confident in my ability to Ask Questions and Figure Shit Out so any help would be much much appreciated!