PA-purchase - need advice

[mwm70]

My band has a Behringer PMH 5000

I play in a classic /modern rock band with 1 guitar, bass, drums and female singer. We use a Behringer PMH5000 through 2 Peavey SP 5X (15s and a horn) on stands as mains and 2 kustom 12" monitors. The built in power amps are fine for rehearsal, but as soon as you mic drums and run bass through the mixer you suck up most of the power. We run everything through the PA at gigs (4 vocals, guitar, bass and 4 drum mics). We bought a Behringer EP2500 power amp to power the mains and use the built in amps to power the monitors. All in all the system works well. Not the best but fits our needs. Behringer stuff gets slammed, but I have had good luck with it. I have their 300 watt bass head as well. Both products have been used pretty extensively for well over a year without any problems. I treat everything with kid gloves though. If you tend to beat things up, you might want to look into spending more for a Peavey or Mackie. With 12 xlr inputs and two built in effects processors the Behringer had everything we were looking for as a "bar band".
Good luck

[micha]

Re: My band has a Behringer PMH 5000

hey everyone,
thx for your replies first!

@hammer; browsing the catalogs and online shops of the stores I'm in reachable distance to, I figure going active might be more expensive for me.
I did have a look for the soundtech stuff, but all I find is JBL, yamaha, HK, dynacord and a couple of others. but I think getting the amplification out of the mixer should be less expensive. the speakers active are about 200euros up, and for the same price I get speakers with not even half the power.


so far I got my eye on the EMX512SC, which is a powermixer with 2x500 watts, couple of effects, mic-compressors etc...
speaker wise I'd like to go with 2x yamaha 15" of the AX series (400w RMS, 8Ohm) or the Peavy 15" (500w RMS, 4Ohm), which is actually a little cheaper than the yamaha.

but quite a hard decision it is.
especially since the rest of my band expects me to know about all this shit (I have no idea what made them think this way...), and I'm afraid I'm the one to get the feedback once things go wrong with the PA... [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]



but I doubt we will be using this for gigs often, since there's only a couple of clubs here with gigging bands, and all of these do have a PA-system installed.
but I think once we have a PA my drummer would like to get at least his basedrums miced, since he's not satisfied with the sound. we all have problems to hear the base-drum, allthough he's beating it really hard.

the guitar and bass section should get away with their amps, so I think the system should be able to handle 1-2 vocals and a couple of drums. maybe we will mice the rest later when we are able to get some monitors (what I'd really love).



@mwm; to be honest I'm more of a "kid-glove-guy" too. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
but on the other hand I'm in a band with a drummer, and we all know you have to take care of these guys... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
for home recordings I use a small behringer mixer too, but it's just laying on the table and has a pretty easy beeing there.
I think it won't hurt if the rehearsal-room-system would be able to talk a slight abuse once in a while. shit happens. that's what I learned so far...

[mwm70]

Re: My band has a Behringer PMH 5000

Micha

Is your drummer using a plastic or wooden mallet? If he is, they sell a small plastic disc that you place on the bass drum head where the mallet contacts the head. Gives it a "click" and helps define the bass drum sound.

[micha]

Re: My band has a Behringer PMH 5000

I've got no idea of drummer-stuff.
I just know this guy is swearing all day and always busy with all these screws and whatnot he's got, I gave up to understand all this stuff.... [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
but I will forward to him what you said, maybe he knows what it is.


but what do you guys think of this thingy;
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...MakeTrack=true

it's going for 799euros new over here, and from what I can tell of the pics it's been only used in a bar for music, so I doubt it has seen many miles on the road or has been set-up and down a lot. the seller replied within minutes and he says it's in excellent shape.
I think I might give this one a try. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


oh and @zeegler; I didn't find the time to try it out yet, I'll let you know if I get it working again!! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
but thx for your ask! [img]/images/graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[micha]

Re: My band has a Behringer PMH 5000

I think I made it! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I went with a yamaha power mixer like stukaju87 recommended
and some peavey 15" like justin said.
I'm glad I found both on german ebay for reasonable prices.
the speakers are 500w each at 4Ohm and the mixer is also 2x500 @ 4Ohm.
should work well I think.

here's some pics;





everything seems to be in great shape. I'll let you know of the result once it arrived if you want me to.


thx a lot for your support everyone///micha

[hippietim]

Re: My band has a Behringer PMH 5000

the behringer PA head is a piece of shit. but if you don't believe me, i'll gladly sell you mine.

[hammer84]

Re: My band has a Behringer PMH 5000

You got a good mixer !! That is one of the nicer ones. Which PV speakers are those ??

One rule of thumb for power amp to speaker ratio is that you power shoud be double the speaker rating. That give you the good head room. This does not apply to active speakers.

With the system you bought remember not to push it too hard or you'll get some distortion/clipping.

[StukaJU87]

Re: My band has a Behringer PMH 5000

Yes, please let us know how it worked out for you.

[micha]

Re: My band has a Behringer PMH 5000

I think the speakers are messenger 15pro.
here's some information on them;
http://www.thomann.de/thoiw2_peavey_..._prodinfo.html
now I got two of them for 199 in great shape, sounded like a good deal for me beeing a little in a hurry... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

seems like they're 250RMS, so your thumb rule should fit pretty well. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
I hope it's enough to get our vocalist heard again...

but it's weird to see the power amp should be twice the wattage of the speakers, I know it just the other way round from guitar amps?!
but those are tubes usually, could explain it.