Best live sound setup

[lhrocker]

I'm looking to put together a PA wanted to see what everyone else was using? In terms of equipment, there are 3 scenarios:

Passive mixer, power amp and passive speakers
Powered mixer and passive speakers
Passive mixer and powered speakers

I would like 16 mic in's and stereo outs. Not worried about busses at this point, just the best bang for the buck.

[Axegrinder87]

I would go with passive mixer->power amp->passive speakers.

Passive mixers are much easier to find, especially with 16 mic ins.

But my biggest reason is that the whole rig will be easier to transport. Powered mixers are heavy, as are powered speakers.

[jgcable]

Passive mixer, powered mains, powered monitors, powered subwoofer. The Mackie CFX16 has 16 channels, XLR's for the mains and an XLR for the subwoofer. Aux send for the monitors. Just bring alot of extension cords for power. It also has a very useable effects section built into the mixer. Done.

My band uses a Mackie board, Mackie powered mains and Kustom powered wedge monitors. We are using a stand alone system with a powered mixer and 15" passive mains for the drums and the bass until we get enough money for a proper 18" powered subwoofer.

Lots of local bands use that Bose system with the 2 poles, the base and the powered subwoofer. For around $1500-$2000 you can transport your entire PA in your car and be set up and ready to play in about 15 minutes. It sounds amazing too.

[roodyrocker]

Since you said the best but did not specify a budget, I would recommend the Presonus Studio Live 16.4.2 along with powered QSC boxes for the mains. Pretty much all the effects you need are built it that board, you can store the settings and recall them later to use again when you're back at the same venue again, its light considering it eliminates a rack full of outboard gear, you can record with it, and on and on. Setup and tear down times at gigs is cut nearly in half. We use the QSC powered subs as well as three way top boxes. For monitors we use powered Behringer boxes. The Presonus board and QSC powered boxes are not cheap but sound great!
The above is not what my band started with. Initially we bought a Carvin powered 16 channel board. It came in a Carvin Road Warrior road case which is nice. You can run either the built in power amp or, later we went to external QSC power amps for the mains with Crown for the monitors. The board came from Carvin with poles and two way top boxes as well as cables. The whole Carvin system was around $1400 at the time. We used Samson passive monitors picked up from Sam Ash. So there you have two extremes, one cheap the other pretty sophisticated. I still keep the Carvin board as a backup and for practice. It depends how much you want to spend. Also keep in mind its nice to have headroom in the system. So buying just the bare minimum and having to really push the system is not going to sound as good as a better system that you don't have to push as hard. At one point we did eventually blow the horn drivers in the Carvin top boxes and replaced them with better drivers. We were using those two pole mounted Carvin boxes for ALL the mains. And we pushed them hard!

[horns666]

I got ageda.

[chrisolson]

Good for you, Horns...huh??

[clifffclaven]

what are you using it for? rehearsal? small clubs (under 100) or medium to larger (2-400)? how many in the band? 2 guitars? keys? What kind of music? Tons of variables involved.

[catzodellamarina]

Lots of local bands use that Bose system with the 2 poles, the base and the powered subwoofer. For around $1500-$2000 you can transport your entire PA in your car and be set up and ready to play in about 15 minutes. It sounds amazing too.

We've owned the Bose PAS for about 8 years. We got tired of lugging traditional wedges, mains, 18's, board and amps. Bose is built tough inside and out. Our's are well worn and a true testament to how reliable they are. Our band plays loud, hard rock with a metal edge. The little Bose subs add depth but won't get you that thump that everyone in the club can feel. Over the years of trial/error we've recently added 2 QSC powered subs to the entire Bose system of 4 "sticks" we call them.

They are a breeze to setup, teardown, store, and carry. Best investment we ever made in the band. They are also less intimidating when you walk into bars that cringe at the sight of stacks of PA equipment. A note about the Bose: they are designed for indoors. The PAS likes to be surrounded by walls. The sound gets lost outdoors if you're trying to go for large area coverage. If your playing a backyard function OK, anything bigger - rent a big PA.

[lhrocker]

Question on the Bose - do you still need a mixer or does each person plug into their own unit?

[catzodellamarina]

Our Bose units are PAS 1. Each unit comes with handheld remote control mixers attached by midi cables. Each remote has EQ and level controls for Channel 1 and 2, and an overall master. I believe there is another channel that has no EQ. We use it for drums and a MP3 player. All channels have an output level on the base as well.

[catzodellamarina]

Each "stick" is supposed to be for 1 musician. For example: I sing in CH1 and my amp is mic'd through CH2. My stick 3rd channel is used with a splitter probably for one of the MP3 channels.
I think our lead singer uses a splitter to sing through 2 sticks on Eq'd channels.

I wish I knew exactly how things are hooked up but I just carry the stuff and teardown. The singer hooks everything up.