[allthumbs56]

So much talk about active systems and subs that it's got me thinking about upgrades to our current rig. Anybody using an active system? With or without a sub or two? Whatcha got and how's it working out?

Currently we use a Yorkville M1610 powered mixer and 2 Yorkville 15" Elites for FOH and 3 powered 10's for monitors. Only mic the kick and my DRRI (to spread the sound a bit). Never used a sub. I'm thinking of going active FOH and maybe adding a sub and micing more. We're playing small to medium bars mostly 50 - 100 patrons.

Thoughts?

 

[bw66]

We don't gig a lot, and it's usually for about 150. We run 2 Yorkville YX15s with a mix of 10 & 12 inch monitors - all passive (active speakers are too heavy IMHO). We have a Crown XS500 for mains and a Yorkville AP800 for monitors all run with a Mackie CFX20 mixer. Bass, keys, acoustic and electric guitars are all direct and we use a kick and o/h mic on the drums. (Our drummer has a nice light touch.) Vocal mics are Sennheisers - mostly 835s, except where people have bought their own - which 3 of us have. We have a small rack with 2 additional channels of EQ (there are two on the board), an effects processor, and a crappy compressor that we never use. We have a snake in the unlikely event that we have a sound tech. The next thing I'd like to add is a sub and a crossover - also a descent compressor would be nice.

 

[hollowbody]

I run a pair of Yorkville NX55Ps off a Mackie DL1608. Nice and compact system that has plenty of power for most rooms. We normally rent a pair of E10Ps or NX10Cs for monitors.

I love the flexibility of using an active system. Don't have to worry about impedance or current draw, just make sure you have enough outlets and plug everything in. I have a rack case that has 2 power conditioners in it and I use one for the band and the other for the PA.

I've wanted to add a pair of subs for the longest time, but can't justify the price since we're mostly playing places that have an on-site system. But if I could, I'd add a pair of Yorkville NX720S or LS720P and do away with the tripod stands!

 

[High/Deaf]

Last weekend for a 100 seat pub gig, we used the lead singer's PA, which was JBL active Eon's on posts mounted to Yorkville powered subs.

We also used a pair of those for keyboard and drum monitors and a two smaller 10" version of for floor monitors for myself and the other guitarist / lead singer. A Mackie 16 channel passive mixer through a rack with a couple compressors and 6 EQ's, two for FOH and one for each monitor mix. Perhaps a bit of overkill but it was all racked and pre-wired so easier to use it as-is than change it. Sounded really good - and it would have been way to easy to be way to loud. But that system will work in bars 4X that big - good to know.

My system is a Mackie Onyx through a Behringer Speaker processors (for x-over, EQ and compression) into 3 QSC power amps and then my Meyer UPA-1A's and a passive 18" Yorkville sub. I prefer not to take it out because 1) the Meyer's have fly-rig attachment points and aren't really meant to be pole mounted (no holes) and 2) those Meyer passive 112 boxes weight significantly more than those JBL active boxes. Maybe it we were to play outside, I could justify using the Meyer system with the 2000+ watts, but other than that, it's not worth the hassle.

And the last time I played an outdoor gig, we just rented 4 Yorkville Paralines with a pair of matching subs and used my Mackie Onyx. That system killed it in a park with about 500 people as far as 200 feet away. Wonderful, well dispersed sound and more than enough SPL for what we were doing.

 

[hollowbody]

And the last time I played an outdoor gig, we just rented 4 Yorkville Paralines with a pair of matching subs and used my Mackie Onyx. That system killed it in a park with about 500 people as far as 200 feet away. Wonderful, well dispersed sound and more than enough SPL for what we were doing.

I have huge GAS for a pair of Paraline 12s and their matching subs!

 

[bzrkrage]

We use my 2 Yorkville NX55's for rehearsal & FOH.
I rent an NX720 sub for gigs & 2 powered "cheap" powered for monitors.
Into a basic Soundcraft 10 mixer, goes quite well.
@hollowbody, yeah, I hear you on the Paraline PS12P's...... just waiting until the right price comes in.


Best mediocre guitarist in Calgary.

 

[ronmac]

My main festival rig:

FOH 4- QSCHPR152i 2 way 15" powered mains
2- Yorkville LS800p subs

Monitors 4-QSC HPR122i 2 way 12"
2-QSC K10 2 way 10"
2-Yorkville EF800 2 way 15" (side fills)

Lots of power and it can be scaled down or up depending on the gig.

I often use the following for bar gigs:

FOH 2 - QSC Hpr122i
1 - Yorkville LS880p

Monitors 2 - QSC HPR122i
2 - QSC K10

Folk Duo or Trio:

FOH 2 - QSC Hpr122i

Monitors 2 - QSC K10

I have owned Mackie, Yorkville, Elite and Yamaha/EV rigs in the past and find the QSC product to be much better, for a little extra money.

 

[robare99]

My rig:


FOH: Yorkville Unity15's over LS800p's
Monitors: YX12's, YX15 for bass, NX750p for the drummer


Mixer, power amps etc.

Presonus RM32AI
Presonus CS18AI

Power:
Peavey Distro
IPR3000 for the Unity15's
IPR1600 for the YX12's & YS15's

Mics:
SM58's vocals
sM57, e609 guitars
e902, e906, 90°sm57 for drums
Radial DI's for acoustic guitar and keys

Lights:
Top: 4 - Chauvet Intimidator Spot Duos
Middle: Blizzard 3NX wash lights
Bottom: Martin Minimac Profiles
Antari HZ300 hazer
2 ADJ Fury Fog Jetts
DMXIS controller

Why I don't go all active? This stuff is all paid for.

 

[allthumbs56]

This is some great stuff!

Overkill for my humble little bar pursuits and my poor back perhaps. How about the weekend warriors?

 

[robare99]

This is some great stuff!

Overkill for my humble little bar pursuits and my poor back perhaps. How about the weekend warriors?

No doubt. We go all out since we are mainly an event band. It's nice having individual monitor mixes etc. For bars we scale back the setup depending on the gig. This one had a low overhead roof so we skipped the top movers:



We skip the movers for outside gigs. Don't want to get any insects in them, shorting them out or anything.


This gig was on the road so we skipped the lights and filled the trailer with drums, guitar amp, bass amp etc.

 

[robare99]

It all loads into my 5x12 gear trailer that fits into my garage so I can leave it all loaded up for the next gig., safe & sound. It's quite the trailer pack. 3D Tetris.

 

[hollowbody]

@robare99 That's a hell of a rig. I have new goals for gear, now! Except I would hate having to lug all that around!

How long is your average set-up/sound check/tear-down???

 

[robare99]

I think 4 hours from tailgate down to sound check. It usually takes 3 hours to tear down. We usually have the luxury of setting up the night before, and tearing down the morning after the gig. (Weddings etc)

I started with the FOH and a Yorkie Powermax16 mixer. I bought the gear to do all ages shows for my kids. I would rent monitors & a snake until it became a better idea to buy them.

Later I started a small company. Moved to an original Presonus StudioLive24 with QSC power amps. Slowly bought road Cases for everything. The gear trailer was next, then started I to update my light rig.

We started with home made lights I had from being in another band in the 90's. They worked out pretty good and really didn't owe me anything by the end. They looked half decent.


Then I upgraded to this:
6 pinspot 360's on top
8 blizzard 3NX
4 Chauvet Intimidator 1.0 scanners
Radio antenna truss


Upgraded to 11 blizzard 3NX and 4 Martin Minimac Profiles to replac the intimidator 1.0's


Looked great but the truss was now the weak point. I didn't want to take any chances so I replaced it with 2" diameter 11" triangle aluminum truss & better stands.


Then finally bought the spot duos for the top.

 

[robare99]

Everything is stored in trunks


All loaded up


Blizzard 3NX's and Fab5's


Spot duos


Minimacs


I do sound on the side with my small side company. Mainly bars in town, a bit in the next town. Bigger gigs like prom, Canada day, rodeo etc etc.

 

[allthumbs56]

Everything is stored in trunks


Blizzard 3NX's and Fab5's


Spot duos


Minimacs


I do sound on the side with my small side company. Mainly bars in town, a bit in the next town. Bigger gigs like prom, Canada day, rodeo etc etc.

Equal parts amazing and daunting.

We gig smaller places - the kind that you have to move tables to make room for the band. Usually a postage stamp-sized dance floor and we get an hour to setup and after 30 minutes of tearing down the waitresses are giving us glares cause' they want to get home. Usually 2 passive 15's on lolipops and 2 4-bars for lights (sometimes only one if the space is really tight). The main reason I was looking at the ZXA-1 Sub as it was small enough to fit just about anywhere.

Here's an example of the typical space we get:

Gig 4 - 5 times a month and still a working-stiff so time and efficiency are important and I'm not getting any younger so size and weight are big factors too.

 

[robare99]

Man 4 or 5 times a month playing. I think we have 8 gigs so far, for the year. But I'm busy into August doing sound as well

 

[allthumbs56]

Man 4 or 5 times a month playing. I think we have 8 gigs so far, for the year. But I'm busy into August doing sound as well

But I'm thinking that yours are spectacular! Me? Sometimes it's just six old drunks in the joint ............... and four of them are in the band

 

[greco]

....Sometimes it's just six old drunks in the joint ............... and four of them are in the band

Nominated for "Best Post of 2017"

Thanks for the my laugh for the day!!

 

[High/Deaf]

Equal parts amazing and daunting.

We gig smaller places - the kind that you have to move tables to make room for the band. Usually a postage stamp-sized dance floor and we get an hour to setup and after 30 minutes of tearing down the waitresses are giving us glares cause' they want to get home. Usually 2 passive 15's on lolipops and 2 4-bars for lights (sometimes only one if the space is really tight). The main reason I was looking at the ZXA-1 Sub as it was small enough to fit just about anywhere.

Here's an example of the typical space we get:

Gig 4 - 5 times a month and still a working-stiff so time and efficiency are important and I'm not getting any younger so size and weight are big factors too.

Epic Fail on the bar's part. One of you can still get out!

_____________
Wicked system, @robare99 . I've used those Unities a few times and they are a great box. Highly desired in the Home Theatre world as well - as are the Danley's that their tech is licensed from.

Q: Do you have a light guy / LD or do you have them all programmed for the show? I've never seen so many lights without a dedicated operator - but it's been a couple decades since I did anything that extravagant.

 

[robare99]

Epic Fail on the bar's part. One of you can still get out!

_____________
Wicked system, @robare99 . I've used those Unities a few times and they are a great box. Highly desired in the Home Theatre world as well - as are the Danley's that their tech is licensed from.

Q: Do you have a light guy / LD or do you have them all programmed for the show? I've never seen so many lights without a dedicated operator - but it's been a couple decades since I did anything that extravagant.

I run it myself. I've done the programming in my basement, using DMXIS. I then use a behringer FCB1010 to control it. That has 10 foot switches, bank up and bank down foot switches and 2 "volume" pedals. There's 10 banks so you get 100 available scenes per bank on DMXIS.

I organize them in the following way:

1: verse
2: verse
3: chorus
4: chorus
5: chorus
5: solo
7: solo
8: solo
9: finish
10: big finish

There's the odd variation. One volume pedal controls the hazer and the other depending on the gig will either control the lights shining on the band, or the Fog Fury Jetts which are a pyro style effect. Basically a smoke machine with led's around the nozzle.

Here's a couple examples.

It would be better with a light guy & sound guy but that's just more mouths to feed.