stingrayPete1977

Has it got a 'boxy' sound?

They are but then they pose in front of the stacks in magazines or online adverts to sell the old school stuff to the dinosaurs

I think I can just about cope with the "my sound" guys but I wouldn't stay in a band with a "got to have this volume to get my sound" guy anymore.

It sounds like one solution and a good one to me.

But you can go the other way, one of those trace Elf boxes into the p.a. giving you the same stage sound and volume at every gig. Volume bass middle and treble for you to play with, myriad of stuff for the person doing the desk.

The thing is because the stage volume is much reduced you'll hear some of the foh anyway so a third RCF isn't needed, I played my upright for a few songs at a wedding gig with the bass fed through the singers small powered wedge, it sounded fine with the bottom end coming from around the room and the detail from the wedge, I'll be doing it that way in future as it was a quick change over, unmute the double bass on the tablet and away!

Baby milk?

The biggest difference not mentioned in the comparisons is the fact that yes both systems will work in a pub but the full range PA and small/no backline option can go bigger without hiring/buying/borrowing/storing/transporting more kit, I've never been in a band that rigidly sticks to one size of venue, large function room, marquee, small pub, big pub and outdoors have all been done on the last few years, sometimes at short notice, two RCF tops and a bag with the mixer and leads in combined with a combo for monitoring and I'm set for anything from the tickled trout to a 500 capacity marquee.

The options are both endless or actually really simple, I'd sell my rig and keep my RCFs if the band folded, xair and the RCFs stacked using the mixer as my head would out perform virtually anything, one speaker and my bdi or Genz head di would be portable and an ampeg slayer anyway, lol.

You could display a 31 band EQ on a tablet next to your drink with a real time analysis graph jumping around during your gig of you want, how much more adaptability could you want?

yes

I wouldn't even need the helix, I gig pre eq most of the time, that's £730 saved, the xair digital mixers have guitar and bass amps built in too, I'd never go back now.

As end says it depends on the speakers, my full range PA (735s) is no larger physically than yours but we could leave the guitar and bass amps/cabinets at home or as I said if starting from scratch not even buy them, that's cheaper and less storage space, stage space, quicker setup etc etc, to top it off it will sound better and be more controllable volume wise. There's a reason professional function bands operate that way.

I'd seriously consider selling my Genz 2x12 and Shuttlemax 9.2 to fund a nice wedge, I rarely use them anyway these days.

There's a lot of pub bands with a great guitar amp, bass amp, drum kit and great vocalists who then put the vocals through a Tandy PA because it's "just for vocals", if you were starting from scratch a good pa and modern desk complete with good wedges facing the players instead of backline would be perfect.

If you've got a TC head you can have double without question.

Fwiw I can read fly stinky poo, it doesn't stop me enjoying technically flawed or simple pop and rock songs.

I agree, I'm sure plenty of educated people would disagree with jaywalker's posts, Goodhall for a start, there's only one person here trying to make this an us and them thread.

Wem dominator!? One man's trash is another man's treasure as they say Musical exchange in brum had a tunnel full of 'interesting' stuff, I always wondered why they didn't junk it to make more room, probably worth a few quid now.

The secret is to use a smaller boutique amp then crank that to stage monitoring volume, micd up at head height spread across the room sounds lovely compared to a massive amp blaring at everyone's ankles, which is also why the guitarist can't hear it and turns it up as the gig goes on.

It actually makes loads of sense, you've got much more control over the band mix out front and more control over the volume, as soon as the bass player turns up with his 2000 Watt Matamp you're screwed and inevitably it turns into a volume war and a pub too loud. Small amps, wedges or in ears behind the FOH, full range pa system out front for the win regardless of the venue size, these rock stars running around in front of six Marshall stacks whilst wearing in ears aren't fooling me. ☺

So what about very well educated musicians that still think Jaco is widdley nonsense, just not as clever as jaywalker yet?

And likewise loads of music technically incorrect that people love, ie Bob Dylan wtf

Original Grange Hill theme was a good un.