FORUMS

Welcome to the shannoncurtis.net forum community, Guest! Log In or Sign Up
My PA Solution
#1
Hello everyone!


I've spent the last couple of years experimenting and simplifying in the gear department. I've found that, because I'm doing everything by myself, it's very important to be as simple and prepared as possible. I need to be focused on communicating with the host and guests - not on fiddling with gear! 

Why have a PA at all? - This is a good question. I've heard that purely acoustic shows work well for some people.
My music has a large dynamic range - from whisper soft to quite loud. It works much better if the guests can hear the quiet parts and feel the (very brief) loud parts. Also, my voice has a breathy quality that can be lost without amplification. And, in terms of self care, why sing louder than you have to? I save my voice, and let the PA help me. That creates intimacy.

Effects or no effects? - This is a very personal decision, based on the style of music and the instrumentation. There's no "right" answer, just our own experiences and experimentation. I have jettisoned all sound processing and effects. I no longer even use reverb. There are many reasons for this - ease of set up, purer sound, etc. But the biggest reason came from a show I did about a year ago.
My reverb guitar pedal stopped working at sound-check, so I was trying to get a good compromise reverb on my mixer. But when the guitar reverb sounded nice, the vocal reverb was too bright. So, I started fiddling with the EQ, etc. Finally, I got frustrated and just thought, "Who needs this?!" I turned it off. When I started the show, it felt like a curtain had lifted between myself and the guests! Playing without reverb felt so natural, real and intimate. I even turned down the PA volume because I could finally hear the sound of the real room I was in.
So, if your style allows it, I would suggest trying to play without reverb, or other effects, just to see how it affects you. It never occurred to me to play without until I had that experience. Sometimes we just don't realize how wide our options are...

Volume and equalization - In my experience, these two things are the most important when setting up sound for a house concert. I used to play much too loud - not for the neighbors or the host, but for the sound quality in the room. It's also much easier to dial in the equalization when the volume is right.
We humans have a built in bias that "loud" equals "better". But, loud is really just loud. Only balanced is "better".
I usually have the host turn on a stereo at the volume he/she normally listens - when music is the focus of the moment. I match that overall volume, and then we adjust from there. That involves the host in the sound-check experience (which is fun!), and lets them know that I am doing my best to create a perfect atmosphere for the concert.

My PA - My PA is the tiny but mighty little Kustom PA50. This little box has 2 four inch speakers and a small high frequency driver, with 50 watts through an old-school A/B amplifier. (It's loud like an old 50 watt guitar amp - not like the new class D amps!)
It also has a three channel mixer on the back - one channel for the ipod (pre-show music), one for my vocal mic, and one for my guitar. The two-band EQ (bass and treble) is very musical, with a wide and intuitive frequency curve. It plays very nice with Shure vocal mics (I use a Beta 58).
It weighs about 15 pounds, and is all I have needed in the last two years for gigs - from small living-rooms to venues for 300 or more. I've never had the master volume over 12 o'clock. It's a little beast! Best of all, you can get them for $79 several times a year - when they are "on sale". It's easily the best $79 I've ever spent on performance gear.
Reply


Forum Jump: