Show us your amplification system!

Bo Eder

Platinum Member
Funny thing when you're sort of locked up in the house trying to get your heel to heal for the last four days....you start taking pictures of stuff. Anyway, I know the title of the thread is a little pretentious, not everyone has their own PA system or has ambitions of ever getting one. But, I've been saying that usually for what I do, I have to have my own system, so I thought I'd share it here in case some of you are entertaining thoughts of getting into your own sound system for your drums.

I consider this a pretty simple system. It centers around a Mackie 1604VLZ mixing console (16 channels), a Lexicon MX200 effects module, two Crown amps (XLS 202D and 402D), and one pair of Yamaha A15 speakers (15" woofer), and one pair of Peavey PR12 speakers (12" woofer). Depending on what I'm doing determines which speakers I bring. Since I use Shure E2c in-ear monitors, I don't really need speakers for monitoring, but the Peaveys make great wedge monitors. If I'm doing sound for an entire band, then yes, I'm using all four speakers: the Yamaha's are the stereo mains, and the Peaveys are for monitoring. The Yamaha's get mounted on their own stands at the front.

I do love digital consoles, and you'll notice I'm not using one here. Digital consoles, like the Yamaha O1v, are great, but they are not set-and-forget consoles. You really need a front of house mixing guy to really utilize a digital console correctly. With the analog Mackie, I can set it up and get levels, and then leave it alone. I have a knob for every little thing on the console so navigating it doesn't take two hands to scroll through screens. So in a live situation when it's just me, the Mackie wins just because I can set it and leave it. The Lexicon effects box is cool. It's actually two effects boxes in one. So I can set two effects, like one reverb, and the other delay, and when I route those two sends back into the console on their own channels, I can mix the two or take one or the other out if I don't need it. There's also a foot pedal by-pass switch on the unit itself. When I finish a song, I cut the effects when I talk to the audience so they can understand what I'm saying. Very aggravating when the reverb stays on through the whole show!

But anyway, that's what I use, along with an array of mics, when I go out and do the solo act. This plus the Tama kit, now you understand why I need a Ford pickup truck, just for myself! Enjoy!
 

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Haven't got any pictures Bo (mainly because pictures of drums are far more interesting), but here's a brief description of our small gig rig (largely owned by me). All high quality gear but super compact.

DB Technologies Opera 3 way tri amp active speaker system 1.5Kw(split into subs & tops).

Allen & Heath ZED 20 board with Lexicon tap & go effects. 2 x Yamaha sub mixers for additional keys & drums inputs when needed.

About 1Kw of DB monitoring + the usual multicore, selection of AKG & EV mic's, etc.

& just for effect, 2 x bar stand banks of LED PAR 64's, DMX controlled, & a good old smoke machine.
 
My work horses, three Roland PM-1's ... and two Roland KC-100
 

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Dude - I've got one of these ...


Roland_PM10_Personal_Monitor_Amp_for_V_Drums_.jpg



I feel under-powered now ...

Davo
 
Actually, if I always use the in-ears, I could eliminate the Yamaha speakers and replace them with a subwoofer since I have two amplifiers. That might be a nice Christmas present...

Maybe a truck with a lift gate will suddenly appear too ;)
 
I'm saving for new stuff.
 

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I don't have all this stuff anymore since this corporate band broke up, but here is a system I built. This is at some corporate event in the local Fairmont.

Here is a pic of the stage. The subs are 18Sound LW1400s in cabs I built. Singles are much easier to move around than double 18s, and in a club, I would just bring in a pair. I also built the small line arrays. Lots of good feedback on the design decisions from the folks on the ProSoundWeb, including some pro level manufactures that are on that board. They have 8" P-Audio neo mids and ribbon tweeters. Critical distance for line array behavior was about 100', where the air loss on the highs came in and they sounded balanced as conventional 90 degree radiators from there on out. I used them outdoors and they threw fairly evenly down the block. I also built the stands from scratch.

FMI%20Setup%20sm.jpg


Here is the FOH from that party. A&H GL board, rack with various compressors, limiters, eqs, a BSS gate for the snare and kick, TC and Lexi FX.

FMI%20Mix%20sm.jpg


Here is the amp rack that ran it all. All lightweight 3u things. Crest Pro9200 (6500W) for the subs, a PLX3402 for the mids and a 2402 for the highs. Then two PLX1602s to run monitors (which were a collection of 10 odd EV S100 and S300s, and/or the JBL M415s that belonged to the leader). The power was run off Neutrik PowerCons. The panel in the bottom of the rack served as a poor man's distro or I could directly feed things running parallel cables from my proper distro when I could get a 50A connection.

Ampracksm.jpg


It all fit in a 5x8 ramp trailer along with trunks for the audio and AC cabling.

Now I'm down to a MixWiz with the TC and large Ashley eg in a case, two of those subs, a pair of QSC K10s, the two bigger QSC amps and a few of the EV's for monitors.
 
Here are pics of my PA. Bought it all together, now I am saving for a rack to mount it in. I also have a monitor that I have Frankensteined together that looks like crap but sounds great. Slowly gettting there.

68921247483421802.jpg


Mackie-SWA1801-subwoofer_93011-360x480.jpg
 
I don't have all this stuff anymore since this corporate band broke up, but here is a system I built. This is at some corporate event in the local Fairmont.

Here is a pic of the stage. The subs are 18Sound LW1400s in cabs I built. Singles are much easier to move around than double 18s, and in a club, I would just bring in a pair. I also built the small line arrays. Lots of good feedback on the design decisions from the folks on the ProSoundWeb, including some pro level manufactures that are on that board. They have 8" P-Audio neo mids and ribbon tweeters. Critical distance for line array behavior was about 100', where the air loss on the highs came in and they sounded balanced as conventional 90 degree radiators from there on out. I used them outdoors and they threw fairly evenly down the block. I also built the stands from scratch.

FMI%20Setup%20sm.jpg


Here is the FOH from that party. A&H GL board, rack with various compressors, limiters, eqs, a BSS gate for the snare and kick, TC and Lexi FX.

FMI%20Mix%20sm.jpg


Here is the amp rack that ran it all. All lightweight 3u things. Crest Pro9200 (6500W) for the subs, a PLX3402 for the mids and a 2402 for the highs. Then two PLX1602s to run monitors (which were a collection of 10 odd EV S100 and S300s, and/or the JBL M415s that belonged to the leader). The power was run off Neutrik PowerCons. The panel in the bottom of the rack served as a poor man's distro or I could directly feed things running parallel cables from my proper distro when I could get a 50A connection.

Ampracksm.jpg


It all fit in a 5x8 ramp trailer along with trunks for the audio and AC cabling.

Now I'm down to a MixWiz with the TC and large Ashley eg in a case, two of those subs, a pair of QSC K10s, the two bigger QSC amps and a few of the EV's for monitors.
You built your own line arrays! Wow, that's impressive.
 
Not to resurrect this thread, but I did a gig a week ago and found out I could go smaller! I've found I could eliminate my big Yamaha speakers, and go with the little Peaveys. I used my in-ear monitors so that eliminated one of the power amps.

To make it even easier to carry around, I put the bigger power amp in a 4-space rack with the rack mounted power strip, and velcro'd the FX unit to that open space on top of the Mackie mixer (well, the FX unit now travels with the cabling in a plastic case). I was able to fill a small restaurant with sound, and that's with the three mics on the kit too. I'm lovin' carrying around less as much as the other guy!
 
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