$1000 or less PA System

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Carbonius

Consider digital mixers. My mind was blown by the Behringer XR12 yesterday. I may buy one rather than buying an acoustic eq pedal that only does eq. This is double the money and does hundreds times more!

There's a learning curve, but the price point is shocking. It just looks like a small patch bay, in a physical sense that's all it is. There isn't one physical slider or mixing strip, so costs are way down. You run it from whatever device you have. Apple, Android, laptop, PC, whatever. It comes with it's own router to. You can set it so that everyone in the band has access to their own monitor mix and can adjust it as they want to. You can set it so only own person has access to the house mix and channel eq's. A soundman can now just be walking around and adjust the sound from multiple points. That's ideal as often the soundman is stuck in less then optimal places sound wise.

With the Behringer you get;
-Midas mic preamps
-Noisegate for each channel
-4 band eq with option as to how it works; 4 parametric, graphic, shelving
-6 band parametric or traditional dual 31 band EQ for the mains
-Desser
-5 types of reverb
-3 types of delay
-Chorus, flanger, phaser, mood, rotary, tremolo, octave, etc...
-Many types of compression
-Several amp emulators
-many buses, effects blocks, etc, etc, etc...
-And of course, they can add to this in the future.

These retail for only $250 USD!!!

My local store gave up on Behringer years ago. Then Behringer bought Midas and he decided to wait and see. A year after Behringer put out the X32 console, he started bringing them in. He couldn't keep them in the store and NOT ONE came back for repair. This XR12 unit has everything that the X32 does digitally speaking, at a fraction of the price and size.

Soundcraft ui12 is a similar unit but it currently doesn't do as much. I'm sure it's great, I just haven't looked into it much. More physical mic inputs on their 12 channel

I like having actual buttons, but to get all this with actual buttons is thousands upon thousands of dollars. Not to mention. you aren't going to haul it to every gig. This unit and ALL your cables would fit in a small backpack.

Wow! That is impressive. If you can get over the learning curve and get your presets right, it would replace a lot of additional outboard gear. Nice find! Available for $209 from ProAudioStar. That's the same price as a Zoom A3. You've just got to be prepared to work with it.

[Carbonius]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

Wow! That is impressive. If you can get over the learning curve and get your presets right, it would replace a lot of additional outboard gear. Nice find! Available for $209 from ProAudioStar. That's the same price as a Zoom A3. You've just got to be prepared to work with it.

It's a complete game changer!! I was shocked when the product was explained to me. I really trust this store owner. I've dealt with him for 20 years. When gear is bad, he dumps it and doesn't let it back in the store. That's why there were no Behringer boards in his store for years. Now the only reason they aren't there is because he sells them so fast. The question a few years ago was, will the Midas purchase raise Behringer up, or will Behringer drag Midas down. According to my local guy, Midas has raised Behringer up. They were smart to acquire Midas and not mess with it's success.

Here is a video by Behringer the explains their digital line. The video is not meant to be exhaustive, more general. However he does get into all the features... it's crazy! The last 15 minutes or so is Q&A, so the video isn't as long as it seems.



Behringer has done a great job producing MANY videos that explain the more in depth functions of the units, on a topic by topic basis. Click the video below to see video 1 of 52 in their current playlist

[Turp]

We've been using a Fishman SA220 in my guitar duo for years. We've play mid sized restaurants and ballrooms/meeting rooms (100 people and less) and it fills the room well.

Since the SA220 is my partner's, I use a Yamaha DBR10 and TC Voice Solo with a 6 channel mixer for an Open Mic I do in a medium sized and usually loud restaurant. The TC Voice Solo is used as monitor and in simplicity scenarios is can be used as the mixer since it has 3 inputs.

That said, IMHO the SA220 can't be beat for practicality if the size works. It can be set up(or torn down) in about 10min max, it's light, and travels like a small piece of rolling luggage.