Al Krow

I guess my key learning point having had a similar £800 to £900 budget for a PA, is that if you want something that can deal with vocals really well then get one with a decent voice coil on the compression driver e.g. RCF 732A which has a 3.0" voice coil neodymium compression driver and "offers a unique vocal clarity and sound projection" (according to RCF, anyway, haha) but actually they're pretty decent. I think you can hear the difference quite clearly in this little A/B If you can find a pair of RCF 732As used they may just about be within your target budget. We ended up stretching the budget (shared between me and the singer) to get a pair of new 732As for the band - singer is now definitely sold on 732As justifying the extra we spent over the 912As I'd bought.

So particularly noticeable for female vox even more so than male vox?

8 months in and our singer is now actively preferring the RCF 732As band PA over my 912As for her vocals. It seems we've ruined her ability to put up with "budget" PA speakers! And amusing that my previous line up were content with 310As for years (although the drummer did comment that the 912As were a massive step up from those, first time he heard me using them). Just thinking aloud: if I upgraded just one of my 912As for a 932A so I had 912A + 932A, I'm guessing that should significantly eliminate the gap between a pair of 912As and a pair of 732As?

@Kiwi @Silvia Bluejay grateful if one of you could move this to the new PA sub forum please?

@Kiwi @Silvia Bluejay grateful if one of you could move this to the new PA sub forum please.

100% !

Haha yes, very aware it exists Jack - I post in there pretty regularly! 🙂 It was more tht if we did a similar straw poll asking whether we should have an "Accessories and Misc" thread we'd likely get far less enthusiasm for setting that up than we've already had for a dedicated "PA and related" thread, but hasn't stopped one being set up.

I wonder how many votes you would get if you asked the same question about starting a thread called "Accessories and Misc"? 😊

Is your mate still within the return period (if he bought new)?

£700 for CQ12T, £900 for CQ18T - that doesn't seem outrageous for the level of quality A&H are renowned for, plus the innovation and compact form factor these offer? I suspect this is going to be on the radar for quite a lot of folk when they next think about upgrading their current kit!

Was at a main stage at a festival gig tonight, listening to the support act to the headliners. Awful drowning rumble from the bass through FoH, I could see the poor fella fiddling about with his on board EQ controls and then stopping playing. Their sound engineer should be sacked - clearly not all of them have incorporated hpf into their workflow!

Ok cool - and if I remember correctly your guitarist is using backline rather than going through the PA. We've similarly got everything other than the kick drum hpf'd. Seems to work well: the bass and kick are consequently not in competition for the 50Hz to 80Hz range which gives a really good unmuddy mix with the kick laying the foundation for the band.

On absolutely everything, including the kick drum?

Count me in! 🙂

Worth mentioning the Soundcraft Sig MTK if multi-channel recording is a must have (and doesn't have quite such a weird monitoring set up). But you're then into the £300 to £600 price bracket... But, yup, for around £100 the Debra is ridiculously well featured, and there are 4 and 8 channel versions for a little £less / £more.

Just came across this desk - no idea what the quality is like, but it's pretty feature heavy e.g. 3 band EQ, hpf at 80Hz, FX, and XLR out. Independent volume control for both monitor and headphone. And all for a little over £100! Could be an interesting option if you're on a budget or if you want a spare desk to have around for home use.

Not every band going amp-less has the benefit of a FoH technician though, and if you are going amp-less as a bass player surely the reasons are pretty much the same as someone using a rig i.e. it clears up the mush and protects the PA drivers from over exertion?

Would you bother at all with hpf for your bass eg by using a separate hpf pedal if you're not making use of the hpf on the desk? If so, what frequency level do you kick it in and how steep a cut? Just as a fyi for any other Soundcraft Signature desk users, the hpf on these desks cuts at 18dB/oct from 100Hz - so it's decently steep.

No disagreement from me, that all makes good sense. My point was more a "both/and" i.e. if you want a big low end sound then some decent subs are going to help - we would still have hpf on all channels on our desk apart from the kick drum.

@Paul S actually I think you've just saved me £93 on getting that excellent looking Sine Effect H24 by reminding me that we've already got hpf sorted via our Soundtrack desk and I can also take the hpf off on my Zoom B1-4 gigging patches and just leave a few on for home use. That's a nice start to the day! 😊

Hi Paul - in short, yes. We have a Soundcraft Signature 12MTK and the hpf kicks in at 100Hz. We've got hpf engaged for all the channels, including bass, apart from the kick drum which has key frequencies in the 50Hz to 80Hz range and is not being hpf'd.