Do i need an amp anymore?

[roceci]

Awesome mate, cheers. It'll be a few gigs & a holiday before I can stump up for em but the price seems well reasonable.

One dumbass question - they're wired yeah? Not clear from what I can see, but it's been a long day at work...

[chris_b]

I'd do away with my rig if I was guaranteed a decent PA system and a sound engineer with good ears on every gig.

The singer in the cover band has been using in-ears for his vocal which was an improvement for him, but as he is also the guitarist and the guitar wasn't in his in-ears he was "disconnected" from the guitar and the balance was "problematic" between the instruments.

The other problem was, they ate batteries.

[Twincam]

Oh I'm not poo pooing IEM at all really. And the no amp thing looking pants was more tongue in cheek lol.
I just think why not take both.

Ok if a pa goes down it might be an issue where you still have a channel you could use it for vocals, again a backline depending on what size gig etc etc could get you through.
Or maybe you can run the vocals through an instrument amp.
Or if a smaller pub gig you may get away with no pa for vocals and go acoustic but the bass will still need an amp.
And you can always do an instrumental or get the crowd to sing along etc.
Can't just pack up because there's no singer.
I know there all what ifs and with today's electrics less likely to happen but it still could.

[Muzz]

I've got an in-ears setup, and it's a very very good solution, but, like an SVT and 810, not practical for an awful lot of my bands/gigs. If you've got all the angles covered, great, go for it, but even when we've used the X18, there's always been a faff somewhere along the line: it takes the whole band to be onboard (hah) with it, and with us there always seems to be some compromise somewhere, so I've always taken my rig 'just in case'... It might just be the people I play with...:/

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1469640875' post='3099996']
I'd do away with my rig if I was guaranteed a decent PA system and a sound engineer with good ears on every gig.

The singer in the cover band has been using in-ears for his vocal which was an improvement for him, but as he is also the guitarist and the guitar wasn't in his in-ears he was "disconnected" from the guitar and the balance was "problematic" between the instruments.

The other problem was, they ate batteries.
[/quote]

So he puts his vocals in the in ear mix but not his guitar? How do you do one of those head bang wall emoji things?! Lol

[chris_b]

I know.

Some technology shouldn't be sold to just anyone.

[stingrayPete1977]

Lol

[FuNkShUi]

Hahaha I was going to ask why he didn't just mix guitars in ears as well.

Joe- you can get both types, wired and wireless. Wired is far cheaper to get a good working solution.
I'm by no means an authority on this though. Check out the thread that's about 17 pages long titled "in ear monitors, help needed..." Or something along those lines. Plenty of good info and options in there! Like I said though, I'll bring them up next time

[FuNkShUi]

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1469645998' post='3100057']
Oh I'm not poo pooing IEM at all really. And the no amp thing looking pants was more tongue in cheek lol.
I just think why not take both.

Ok if a pa goes down it might be an issue where you still have a channel you could use it for vocals, again a backline depending on what size gig etc etc could get you through.
Or maybe you can run the vocals through an instrument amp.
Or if a smaller pub gig you may get away with no pa for vocals and go acoustic but the bass will still need an amp.
And you can always do an instrumental or get the crowd to sing along etc.
Can't just pack up because there's no singer.
I know there all what ifs and with today's electrics less likely to happen but it still could.
[/quote]

I think the difference here is you're talking all ifs and buts.
If the PA goes down I could have my amp, but what am I going to power if the PA has gone down anyway?
Bottom line for me is this, we are primarily a wedding band, we've got good kit, and have to rely on that. Can't be finishing a set with no singer or asking the crowd to sing along instead. Doesn't work like that. Not for us anyway. We do our utmost to look after our kit, and if something does happen to blow up, there ain't a lot that can be done. My plan is eventually go straight into the desk and I'll take a DI pedal in my bag.
Muzz how is it not practical for some situations? Do you use different PAs depending on the gig size? We have got our PA that we use in all our gigs. Might be overkill for some, but it looks the part, and that's what a volume slider is for right

[Twincam]

[quote name='FuNkShUi' timestamp='1469654537' post='3100158']


I think the difference here is you're talking all ifs and buts.
If the PA goes down I could have my amp, but what am I going to power if the PA has gone down anyway?
Bottom line for me is this, we are primarily a wedding band, we've got good kit, and have to rely on that. Can't be finishing a set with no singer or asking the crowd to sing along instead. Doesn't work like that. Not for us anyway. We do our utmost to look after our kit, and if something does happen to blow up, there ain't a lot that can be done. My plan is eventually go straight into the desk and I'll take a DI pedal in my bag.
Muzz how is it not practical for some situations? Do you use different PAs depending on the gig size? We have got our PA that we use in all our gigs. Might be overkill for some, but it looks the part, and that's what a volume slider is for right
[/quote]

The thing is a professional band or any band that get paid to do a job. Should have all angles covered. Yes pa, yes iem if that's giving you what you want. But why not everyone have a small amp, bar drums (if acoustic) and singer included. Just to finish a gig. You wouldn't take just one Mic or one instrument cable.

"If something does blow up, there ain't a lot to be done"
I really don't like that statement if I hired you and something went wrong. I would be like so is that it? Don't you have like another amp etc?
So if something went wrong that's it just pack up?

[roceci]

Be interesting to know how many function bands go out with a backup PA. We certainly don't & I suspect most outfits don't either, just too impractical. But happy to be proved wrong.

Anyway back on topic, looking forward to giving those then once over Kert, cheers.

[SubsonicSimpleton]

I've seen functions bands duplicate their active tops for monitoring, so if one of the FOH cabs goes down they can rotate in one of the monitors with minimal downtime.

[6v6]

[quote name='roceci' timestamp='1469661731' post='3100221']
Be interesting to know how many function bands go out with a backup PA. We certainly don't & I suspect most outfits don't either, just too impractical. But happy to be proved wrong.
[/quote]

This is one advantage of traditional backline and a pa that uses active speakers with floor wedges.

If my amp fails I can DI, if a PA speaker fails (has happened to us before) we can put one of the similar active floor wedges on the stand instead to get through the gig.

Bands should have a plan b imo, especially those selling services for one-off events like weddings?

[FuNkShUi]

We've got active monitors so that is what we would do.
But we don't take a spare mixing desk
So if the mixing desk goes, what then?
We don't take spare P.A because like has been said, it's just too impractical.
You say "you get paid to do a job"...yes and we do that job to the best of our ability.
Our PA with lights and all the extra bits takes up the space in a transit van as it is. So whether we wanted to take more or not we couldn't, there's no room. Unless you think we should do two trips?
Like i said, I've been gigging 17 years, and we've not ever had an issue where we couldn't finish the gig because the PA has completely blown up. Snapped strings and other minor issues- yes. But we can deal with them.
If for some reason something did happen where we couldn't finish the gig, we wouldn't expect to be paid.

[roceci]

Having recently flipped over to using an X18, our biggest fear is forgetting to bring the iPad. That really would be a show stopper!

[stingrayPete1977]

We take a spare marquee and electricity generator to every gig including a fully stocked bar, tables and chairs etc, we set up two stages and take duplicate instruments for each tent plus a spare PA for each tent, come on you are being paid guys!

[FuNkShUi]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1469688764' post='3100261']
We take a spare marquee and electricity generator to every gig including a fully stocked bar, tables and chairs etc, we set up two stages and take duplicate instruments for each tent plus a spare PA for each tent, come on you are being paid guys!
[/quote]

Fair enough. Time to up our game.
Next investment will be an Articulated Lorry to carry all our extra gear.

[FuNkShUi]

[quote name='roceci' timestamp='1469688623' post='3100259']
Having recently flipped over to using an X18, our biggest fear is forgetting to bring the iPad. That really would be a show stopper!
[/quote]

That would be a nightmare. Similar to forgetting the iPad charger because that app chews through charge.
One thing though, incase you didn't know, it will still run if the app is off.
Aslong as you don't have to make any changes, it'll still go.
We set up for a practice, soundchecked, then left the ipad aside somewhere.
3 hours later, end of practice comes and we realise the ipad has lost charge and turned off! At what point i don't know, but it didn't stop it working.

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='FuNkShUi' timestamp='1469653941' post='3100153']
I'm by no means an authority on this though. Check out the thread that's about 17 pages long titled "in ear monitors, help needed..." Or something along those lines. Plenty of good info and options in there!
[/quote]

Link to thread - http://basschat.co.uk/topic/205633-in-ear-monitors-help-needed/

I know it's a long read - but well worthwhile. It'll give you a great idea of exactly what's possible.

[FuNkShUi]

Yup, that's the one. Cheers Russ

[Muzz]

[quote name='FuNkShUi' timestamp='1469654537' post='3100158']
Muzz how is it not practical for some situations? Do you use different PAs depending on the gig size? We have got our PA that we use in all our gigs. Might be overkill for some, but it looks the part, and that's what a volume slider is for right
[/quote]
Yeah, we play a range of gigs, from acoustic duo and trio to three and four piece setups, some with keyboards, some not, so we use more or less PA depending. We also use a range of deps, and getting everyone on board and sorted out can be more hassle than it's frankly worth. With a stable band lineup (hah!) and a more fixed infrastructure it'd be great, but that's just not where we (I) am at the moment. To reiterate, though, it's a great way to play, and if you can get the technology ducks in a row, it's very good indeed.

[FuNkShUi]

Ah that's fair enough. Can understand where you're coming from.

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1469694618' post='3100312']
Yeah, we play a range of gigs, from acoustic duo and trio to three and four piece setups, some with keyboards, some not, so we use more or less PA depending. We also use a range of deps, and getting everyone on board and sorted out can be more hassle than it's frankly worth. With a stable band lineup (hah!) and a more fixed infrastructure it'd be great, but that's just not where we (I) am at the moment. To reiterate, though, it's a great way to play, and if you can get the technology ducks in a row, it's very good indeed.
[/quote]

Funnily enough, I depped with a band two weekends ago and I turned up and I was handed a Fischer headphone amp and a pair of 215s. Not really keen on used 215s but I used my inears with the headphone amp and it sounded great. A couple of weeks before that, I depped for a band that I hadn't even met before and they had invested in 4 PSM200s... the bass player simply left me his wireless pack to use for the gig...

I think if it's seen as a component of the PA (a monitor replacement) IEMs are set to become more popular.

My inears rig for example (housed in a shallow 6u rack case) - replaces 12 monitor wedges.

[Muzz]

Oh, I've no doubt it's the way forward, it's just some of us aren't there yet...

Having said that, I doubt Ampeg are quaking in their boots just yet...they still seem to be selling plenty of SVT stacks...

Edited July 28, 2016 by Muzz

[stingrayPete1977]

You can always log into the xair mixers with any smart phone up to four users at once, being the bass player and organised I take my phone charger as well as my tablet and charger!

I've actually got a Mackie pro fx mixer that I throw in for proper paying gigs as it doesn't take up much room and would work fine with our powered PA, I also take a spare micro head and all my amps have a di to go through the PA in an emergency if it wasn't already.

I can't understand why people think a modern PA with powered speakers is more of a liability than a conventional PA, worst case scenario we could use amps as back line, lead vocals straight into a powered wedge pointing at the audience and finish the gig with the damaged speakers.