Hey all,
I’ve got a – perhaps – strange and specific question. I’m looking for experience / suggestions for a micro-portable PA for house concerts. It will be for very small (intimate) gatherings of 10-20 people in normal size living rooms. It will be the electronic music equivalent of a singer-songwriter setting. The musical setup is very minimal: Vocals through an SM-58, OP-1, Ipad mini 2 running samples and drums, and at times, a Seagull electric/acoustic. A sound approximation would be The Books’ “Lemon of Pink.”
Here’s the problem: I don’t know which route to go with speakers. With such a small setting, I don’t want the speaker to feel totally out of place for such a small audience. I’ve used a EV ZLX-12P as a stripped down PA for just acoustic guitar and vocals before and it worked great in this setting. The unknown though, is how “full-sounding” that kind of setup would be for vocals, synths, and a drum machine track.
I’ve thought about everything from a pair of 5’’ studio monitors, to 2 minirigs + minirig sub, to LD Systems Dave 8, to a single Yamaha DXR12…
Thanks for any thoughts!
i used ot have a mackie thump 12 that was great for small to medium sized places. very full sounding speaker for electronic stuff (good bass response too) w/ a nice lil 3 band eq on the back to compensate for the room. plug in a lil mixer if u have a bunch of stuff u are going to use.
the other advantage is that its powered by itself, so u don't need any power amps or have to worry about ohms or watts or special speaker cables.
Years and years ago I bought a Samson 160W amp and a pair of JBL Monitor 4208 speakers to do house parties and they rocked. 8" woofers and solid speaker design.
Two weeks ago I took them from beside my fireplace and they rocked a party of about 75 people in a cafe/bar in town!
You don’t need to go wild with huge speakers unless you don’t want people to be able to talk to each other lol
A pair of cheap 5" monitors that are made for DJ’s (bass heavy rather than true flat monitors) would be a good shout.
Still going to be a fair cost though.
Why not try get your hands on one of these little micro hifi systems that pack a punch?
you might already have one!
It doesn’t sound like you need massive wattage and 20-40w stereo with oomph may suffice
i’ve toured for 2 years using only 2 minirigs. now i have the sub and its even better. we usually play shows for 50-100 people in small rooms. the best thing about the minirigs is that you can easily hide them out of sight for some nice sound design (for example, place them under a stool your gear is sitting on). we’ve done 300+ shows in 2 years and never had a problem with them or with volume…
i've toured for 2 years using only 2 minirigs. now i have the sub and its even better. we usually play shows for 50-100 people in small rooms. the best thing about the minirigs is that you can easily hide them out of sight for some nice sound design (for example, place them under a stool your gear is sitting on). we've done 300+ shows in 2 years and never had a problem with them or with volume...
Thanks for the feedback everyone! @instantjuggler – can I more specifics about your setup? I’ve thought about the minirigs as an option. What all do you run through the 2 minirigs + sub?
My only experience w/ small bluetooth speakers have been w/ speakers like the JBL Charge…it seemed hyped in the highs and lows, but not super clear, and sort of one-dimensional (not filling the space of the room – more like background music).
I’ve heard good things about the minirigs…I’m just curious how they get on as a micro-micro-PA.
my current setup is a folktek luminist garden, laptop + push, and iPhone running to a Roland M10-MX battery powered mixer which then goes to the minirigs. but previously, last summer, i toured iceland with 2 op-1’s, nord drum 2, ipad, tenori-on, and laptop + monome going into the same mixer and then to the 'rigs.
for the iceland tour that starts next week i have a total battery powered setup with a volca sample, and the PO trilogy running through
@darenager 's passive mixer (and using his 4 channel splitter for sync) and into 1 minirig.
Man those minirigs look really cool… Seems super expensive for Canadians if your looking for the 2.1 setup. Unfortunately I feel I need to hear one of these before I fork out probably $1000 to get it to my door. Kinda wish they had a ‘bare bones’ version w/o Bluetooth to bring cost down slightly.
However, I haven’t ‘heard-of’ anything that size having such great sound/battery operated so I’m very intrigued.
Pasce Minirig, great sound, USB chargeable & easily portable too. You can chain them together & the latest versions are Bluetooth compatible.
Gotta love Sonicstate & Gaz Williams:
http://youtu.be/lKK4U5sPac8
It’s near the end, but they are talking about the previous model. Some great info on the minirigs.
I sense my bank account getting slammed in the future!