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Amp suggestions for Touring Band


Goochie

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Hi Guys,

friends of mine are a Pro Cabaret Show band touring the UK every week, Big Holiday parks, hotel and the like. They run a Logic 1290 Six cab system 18' subs 2 x15' (push n pull config) Mids and a 15' with horn tops,

they are currently using Crown Amcron amps 3600 on Subs 7 Mids and 1200 on tops.

They would like to maybe change amps for the lighter electronic touring types, MC2's or similar.

So heres the question, which amps would you guys recommend? Which amps are currently used on the big tours?

Any help and any links to Amp sites would be very much appreciated..

 

many thanks Guys

 

Goochie

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What do you mean by big tours? On the big Rock 'n Roll stuff the amps will most likely be specific to the PA, D&B amps for D&B speakers likewise for L'acoustics, meyer have their own inbuilt amps for the most part. The list goes on in the same vein with some exceptions.

 

What is the problem with the current amps? Is the weight causing a transport issue or is it just because they don't want to hand-ball all that weight into the venue?

 

Ian

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What do you mean by big tours? On the big Rock 'n Roll stuff the amps will most likely be specific to the PA, D&B amps for D&B speakers likewise for L'acoustics, meyer have their own inbuilt amps for the most part. The list goes on in the same vein with some exceptions.

 

What is the problem with the current amps? Is the weight causing a transport issue or is it just because they don't want to hand-ball all that weight into the venue?

 

Ian

 

Correct Ian, they just want to try and cut down the weight of hand balling these very heavy amps in & out of venues and are investigating the alternatives

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What Ian said. For most common touring rigs (particularly Line Arrays), they have their own amp systems.

 

On the rigs that do still use other people's amps, there are a lot of options out there. At the top end of the market there is LAB GRUPPEN, MC2, VOID INFINITE-X, FULL FAT AUDIO etc. But they will cost you a serious amount of money and do not assume that because they are more expensive they will be lighter! An MC2 E90 is pretty frikkin heavy.

 

For lightweight touring amps you are looking at Powersoft but do not expect them to come cheap. It is probably cheaper to ring Stage Miracles and hire a couple of locals for all your shows!

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Logic Systems PAs regularly used to be sold with Chevin amps (that might have just been an academy of sound thing though). They're considerably lighter than the Crowns and have always worked well for me.
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(that might have just been an academy of sound thing though)

 

seeing this written, I then saw your location.

 

academy was the only music shop there thats actually been open for any length of time!

was it soundpad after that, and then onto sound control? or am I getting confused with where academy was?

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It was definitely sound control for a while and I'm sure it was something else too although I don't remember what. It's a shame it closed; there were some good folks working there and I used to spend a lot of money with them...
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It was definitely sound control for a while and I'm sure it was something else too although I don't remember what. It's a shame it closed; there were some good folks working there and I used to spend a lot of money with them...

thinking about it, im sure it was called reverb after sound control.

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(that might have just been an academy of sound thing though)

 

seeing this written, I then saw your location.

 

academy was the only music shop there thats actually been open for any length of time!

was it soundpad after that, and then onto sound control? or am I getting confused with where academy was?

 

 

Have a word with APR Audio just up the road from you. My choice would be labs, have had a bad experience with powersoft, great when they work nightmare when they go wrong. I hadn't heard of MC2 reliabilty problems but as per my opinion on Powersoft (and Crown for that matter) all amps can go wrong and its the backup which you pay for which is worth its weight in gold

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I'll echo Doug's recommendation for Powersoft. We managed to cut some amp racks from a 12U two person lift down to a 4U case that can be lifted with one hand.

 

Powersoft amps tend to be 1U (as opposed to 2U for Lab and FFA) so if space is a big concern that might put them ahead.

 

Of course, moving up to this calibre of amp is going to be a pretty major investment, but on the other hand the touring schedule would seem to indicate that it will be possible to get a decent return on them. Plus the old pig-iron amps could still be worth good money to someone, especially if they are going into an install and won't need to be moved.

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But they will cost you a serious amount of money and do not assume that because they are more expensive they will be lighter! An MC2 E90 is pretty frikkin heavy.

I would say that 12kg is about average for a 2U amp of that power. Equivalents from QSC, FFA, Camco etc are all about 10-12kg and even the equivalent 1U Powersoft is 12kg.

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