dtscape Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 Hi, I will soon be selling of my pa system. I am looking at down sizing my gear to save on back pain and old age !!!!!** laughs out loud **. I am a keyboard player playing mainly rock/heavy rock and maybe looking to play progressive rock within the next couple of years(if all goes to plan).What I'm after is either a keyboard combo that will give me a nice powerfull but clean sound or a couple of stage monitors (or small pa) that will give me the same clarity but also a stereo sound (which would be lovely as I've always had mono up till now!!!). Either of these will need to be flexible systems. They will either be used as a stage monitor for myself, on larger gigs, or my backline system(that will be heard by the audience as well) at smaller venues. I would probably just stack the small pa system behind me if needed in this case.I'm looking at spending around £500-£700 Can anyone recommend some good quality products that would cover my needs? Forgot to mention that I will need a minimum of 4 stereo inputs as, at the moment, I have 3 keyboards and a drum machine that I use. I am looking to change this to a one keyboard rig that controls a macbook pro (running Mainstage 2). I will probably split the signals from this so I can record individual parts externally.... But thats a different story!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revbobuk Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 If you need those inputs, then powered speakers would have to be supplemented by a small mixer, or passive speakers pus mixer plus amp - so why not take a look at the Yamaha StagePAS 500? It's in your price bracket, has plenty of inputs, and could double up as you describe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Alcock Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 You say you're playing keys alongside a rock/heavy rock band. To even stand a chance of hearing yourself above that you're going to need something fairly substantial. (Certainly more than a stagepas 500, I respectfully suggest!). What did your PA system consist of? There must be something from that (mixer? Amps? Speakers?) that you can retain to form the basis of your new "cut-down" system. If you want to keep the weight down and the volume up, you can easily spend £500-700 on a single speaker. ALternatively, a starting point could be a pair of these from Adam Hall: LD Systems Powered 12 You'd still need a small stereo mixer to feed your keyboards into them, but at least they're light and loud. Any help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundiesam Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 the guy didnt say he was playing next to a heavy rock band he says he plays heavy rock!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revbobuk Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 Those LD systems units look nice - good catch, Pete. And I agree, they are a lot louder than the Yamaha - just depends what the OP wants to do with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billy jim Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 Completely irrelevant to the thread topic, but can I just mention reliability issues I've encountered with Mainstage? Twice it's been used on a show I've worked on- the first time, it died just before opening night and refused to do anything. The second it died halfway through the night, between songs. I'm not a Mac user, I'm not a keyboard player, but I just wanted to mention that so that the OP was aware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimmyP1955 Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 Get some Grado open air headphones. You'll hear yourself with the best possible fidelity, and still be able to hear everything happening on stage. Let the monitors take care of the rest of the band, and the PA take care of the audience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sound In Gloucestershire Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 im curious as to why stereo is so important, arent Keyboards mono? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 Right question, wrong reason, Sound in Gloucestershire. Many/most keyboards are stereo, trying to simulate a real acoustic piano or whatever with the left hand coming from the left speaker and right hand from the right, both meeting in the middle. Depending on the keyboard, they can also do special effects that move from one side to another. However, I agree with your question about "why stereo". Even though the keyboards can DO stereo, no speaker arrangement on stage is going to deliver true stereo to the audience. While it might sound fun to the musician, surely what the audience hears should be more important and this might be handled better by not playing with stereo. However, only the OP can know why he wants stereo... Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Ross Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 I always try to go mono with keyboards etc as Bobbsy quite rightly said it might be great listening to yourself back at home and have the delay pan from left to right but the poor saps stood close to the right speaker stack in the audience will just hear part of it. Only a small fraction of the audience will hear the true effect you are going for. The only reason I still run my PAs in stereo is if I have a very loud piece of backline on the right I might pan the mic for that a bit more to the left to balance it out when walking about. For your earlier question I would go for a small rack mount mixer (a flat rack one if that makes sense i.e. not a mix wizard) with a suitable power amp below that and below that a rack drawer with all your other cables and nick nacks. Then get one or more un powered boxes to run off that. Do a nice neat job with a patch panel with all the keyboards going in (plus a spare or two) and speakon outs. That way all of your gear is nice and tidy and ready to gig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtscape Posted March 11, 2010 Author Share Posted March 11, 2010 Thanks guys.... Some nice suggestions in there. Pete - My current pa is 4 large passive speakers that weigh a fair bit. I will be keeping a small behringer (it does the job) mixer that I currently use when I don't use my pa. I just want something nice and compact that can be setup quickly with very little fuss. My current pa is a pain to setup and I just want a simple life!!!! Concentrate on my playing rather than worrying about sound. The LD system looks very promising... definatley a better choice than the StagePas 500 (I've seen a lot of people suggest them as a keyboard rig in other forums but they might not be in the same situation as me) but thank you for the suggestion... Its definately flexible but not sure the StagePas would be powerfull enough (as said already). As far as playing in stereo.... It's just something I've always done. I usually request a stereo signal to be sent to FOH and I am fully aware that this can effect what the audience hear but, to be fair, who would notice?!! I have always heard a mono signal on stage and I just thought it would be nice for me to hear the stereo signal ... they always say if you've got a great sound on stage it makes you play better and I believe that to be true. It's not a major factor but it's just something I thought would be nice!!!! ;-)Headphones would be a good idea but I'm not sure it would look that good... I'd look like a dj!!!!! ** laughs out loud **. Keep coming with the suggestions as I'm open for ideas...Just seen the weight of the LD active speakers(LDEB122A)... 36kg... They're a bit heavy!!!! Price is good though.. and flexible!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtscape Posted March 11, 2010 Author Share Posted March 11, 2010 Billy Jim - Thanks for the info.... I've been reading up on this stuff for the past few months. A good friend of mine uses this rig (macbook pro 13, logic mainstage 2 and a midi keyboard). He has had no problems what so ever... so far. He tours with TOYAH and says it's a brilliant system. I have heard bad things about it.. but also good things. On YouTube there are a few bands that use it as well (Earth Wind & Fire being one of them) so it can't be bad... I was looking at workstations originally(Korg M3, Roland G7, Kurzweil PC3) but finally decided soft synth route would be more flexible... especially as the majority of things are pc/mac based these days!!! Expandable.. thats what I liked!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 Keep coming with the suggestions as I'm open for ideas...Just seen the weight of the LD active speakers(LDEB122A)... 36kg... They're a bit heavy!!!! Price is good though.. and flexible!!!!! Sure you weren't checking the weight of the 12" sub? The spec on LD Systems website says 21kg. Also, BTW, if you could concede the need for stereo, you could get a single active and slave a second passive from it - a quick google indicates that you might save a further £140-ish from the price, compared with a pair of actives. Though you would lose the resilience of having two active speakers (i.e., if one fails, you've still got the other one). Wouldn't mind hearing these speakers, as they're really quite cheap for what they appear to be! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pgpro2 Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 I am a keyboard player in a similar predicament, where I have a monitor setup for playing with band, which can then double as a small PA. I agree that it is great to have the stereo inputs from the keyboards, and imo the only way to do this is route them through a small desk in a rack. Then the options are yours: 1. Take a mono output to a keyboard combo - whilst sending a DI'd output to FOH (my personal setup)2. Have an amp in the rack, which serves your monitors (in stereo!) and also sends a DI'd output to the FOH. Your monitors also provide the small PA as required.3. Take a stereo out to a pair of powered monitors - whilst sending a DI'd output to FOH Kevin - the suggestion of putting in an input/ouput patchbay on the rack is a great way of keeping things really simple and neat. It also allows you to put a lid on your rack to keep off interfering fingers when you are away from your rig. I wish I had thought about the rack drawer to keep stuff in - great suggestion! I have not gone down the softsynth route yet, but know a few people who have. Most of the time realiability doesn't seem to be an issue, however I would always recommend having a hard synth backup (JV1080 module or similar) that can always be instantly called upon when the computer has its inevitable 'blond' moment. There seem to be a number of suggestions for speaker options - I will leave this to those who know more than I. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtscape Posted March 16, 2010 Author Share Posted March 16, 2010 Thank you.... I've looked at a few forums and there are so many options available. I'm looking at getting a pair of powered speakers that will give me stereo monitoring, if I fancy it, and a good powerfull system to play as a backline at smaller gigs. Yet again I need some advice... I'm looking at the LD system (as stated earlier in this thread), JBL EON15 G2s, Mackies SRM450, FBT Maxx 4a or QSC K12s and I don't have the facility to go and listen to these in a shop (not locally anyway) Can anyone state what the best choice would be... or better??? (No more than £800 for 2 powered cabs) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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