As a performing musician, capturing, mixing, and amplifying your sound involves choosing a live sound system that’s well matched to your music, budget, and the venues in which you play. Whether you’re a singer-songwriter performing in a café, a band playing in a local bar or club or a DJ playing weddings, you’re going to need a PA system to be heard. In this guide we’ll walk you through all the live sound gear you need, tell you how it works, and help you find the right PA equipment to make your music sound its best.
As a performing musician you want a PA system that can deliver your sound with clarity and definition. But with so many different pieces of equipment designed for different live performance needs, it can be difficult to know just what it is you should be looking for.Certainly, there are a lot of variables to consider when choosing a PA. For instance, you’ll need to think about the size of your audience, where your performances will be, how portable you need your system to be and how much money you can invest.
This guide will help walk you through these and other important considerations to help you find the gear that’s right for you, whether you’re buying your first PA system or looking to add equipment to your existing system.
What is a PA System?
In short, a PA system is a public address system. Also known as a sound reinforcement system, a PA system is an electronic amplification system used to get sound from the performer(s) to the audience. It’s made up of several components, and while one system can vary greatly from the next, each one handles these same basic functions:
Different PA equipment will have different capabilities, features, and designs associated with each of these functions. Your specific needs will determine what you want out of each.
Prepackaged PA Systems
If you don’t want to get too deeply into the nuts and bolts of PA equipment, you might want to consider one of our complete, live sound PA system packages that include everything you need to get up and running. If you’re new to PA gear, these systems can help you avoid the problems that can arise from mismatched PA components. And by purchasing bundled gear, you can save a lot of money.
Sound Town Denver carries prepackaged systems from great brands like Yamaha, Fender, Behringer, JBL, Peavey and Mackie https://mackie.com/blog/production-and-rental , and many more—all at the best prices you’ll find anywhere—guaranteed. Purchase or rent! Call, visit or go on-line today! www.SoundTown.us
]]>Being a musician and an apartment dweller, especially during this pandemic, is a pain for so many reasons. For one, your neighbors are going to be way less chill with your 11 PM drum sessions. Also, moving your gear up a fifth-floor walkup is a guaranteed trip to the emergency room.
Worst of all, you’re probably working without a basement or attic to store your various amps, cables, mixers, pedals, and actual instruments. Luckily, you don’t need to break up the band just to keep your space livable.
Try any of the below nine music instrument and equipment storage tips and you’ll fit everything in your apartment in no time. Unless you recently purchased a pipe organ. Then we don’t know what to tell you. Wait, Sound Town Denver doesn’t sell pipe organs, so there is no way you just bought one. Okay cool, carry on.
Leaning your guitar in a case against your wall might seem like the simplest option, but hanging it on the wall will free up some much-needed floor space. And honestly, it’ll look a lot cooler.
The best part: You don’t have to spend a ton of money to mount your prized Gibson. As one ingenious hacker discovered, IKEA towel hangers will do the guitar storage trick for cheap (don’t forget to add padding).
Prefer an already-made storage option?
Check out the Baltic Birch McFly LX-Candlelight from Wall-Axe (pictured at the top of this article). It’ll hang not two, but three guitars at once, and it comes with everything you need to mount it to your wall.
This vertical storage concept doesn’t just apply to guitars. If your mounted bookshelves aren’t already full of Keith Richards biographies (by the way, here’s how to decide what books to keep or get rid of), they’re an ideal place to store small pieces of equipment like cables and microphones.
Hanging your axe is a great option. But some musicians worry about leaving it out in the open since one clumsy friend at a housewarming party, or your crafty and curious cat, could do some serious damage.
For those people, go the DIY guitar rack route. As this Pinterest project shows, you can easily convert a basic wardrobe cabinet into a brilliant guitar cabinet by modifying the shelves to suit your storage needs. This is an especially great option if your collection of musical gear is far from casual.
Setting your keyboard up with its own separate stand and stool is a huge space- and money-waster. Instead, incorporate your keyboard into your desk with a sturdy sliding shelf. Or place it right up top and save that shelf for the other kind of keyboard.
A short bookcase is an ideal home for an amp, and it still leaves you with some surface space up top for your non-stereo needs. This particular storage hack used a $40 IKEA EXPEDIT bookcase (now called the KALLAX shelving unit) and a pack of RILL casters to transform the case into a freewheeling storage center for one Engl amplifier.
The pros note in the comments that you’ll probably want to take the amp out of the case when it’s time to shred, just to be safe. Also, adding some acoustic soundproofing foam isn’t a bad idea.
There are tons of creative music equipment storage ideas in this gear forum thread, but some of the more inspired choices concern cables. Hate bundling cables up because they might strangle themselves? Store them vertically on an over-the-door hanger or hooks.
Don’t mind the bundling, but running short on drawer space? Repurpose a shoe organizer to store them along with other accessories.
It’s a pretty obvious play, but a few flip-top storage bins from your preferred home improvement store can stash a lot of your small equipment.
Don’t have enough space in your closet to fit the bins?
No problem. Just jack your bed up a couple inches with some bed risers and sweep your newly-stored tambourines (or less folksy gear) underneath.
Or, you know, bubble wrap everything and effortlessly store it in climate-controlled MakeSpace.
Available at Sound Town
Velcro cable ties cost maybe $5, and they’ll keep your cables and cords from twisting into knots inside whichever bin, shoe organizer, or desk drawer you stash them in. They’re also much harder to lose than plastic twist ties!
There’s a reason rackmount shelves and drawers show up in most music supply stores. They’re great for storing all sorts of equipment, especially pedals and mixers, and they keep everything in one tidy place.
You can spring for a whole cabinet and get all sorts of staggered drawer action going, or just add a single sliding rack drawer to an existing unit. Although we should warn you that this could end up being a high-cost investment, depending on your vision.
Storing your guitar on a rack or hanging it on the wall saves space, since you’re forgoing those bulky cases. But it also exposes your instrument to the elements — and depending on your central air situation, those could be killer.
Temperature swings can cause instruments, particularly wooden ones, to crack, expand, or warp. So if your instruments are living outside their original packaging, make sure to use a humidifier to help them survive the seasons, and your small apartment.
Sound Town Denver carries prepackaged systems from great brands like Yamaha, Fender, Behringer, JBL, Peavey and Mackie, and many more—all at the best prices you’ll find anywhere—guaranteed. Purchase or rent! Call, visit or go on-line today! www.SoundTown.us
]]>Learning to use an audio mixer might initially seem like a daunting task, with all the buttons, knobs, and faders. But keep in mind that every channel has the same controls. Once you learn how to control one channel, you’ll know how to control every channel.
Every channel on a mixer is either mono or stereo with an XLR, 1/4” or RCA connection. (Some inputs are designed to handle both XLR plugs from microphones as well as 1/4” inputs.)
A channel strip is a group of circuits and controls that function together on a given mixer channel to affect the audio signals that pass through it. These usually include:
If you want to be able to make quick adjustments to your mix during a live performance without throwing things out of balance, look for mixers that offer multiple buses.
Basically, once the levels of each channel are set, the signals are combined into either the main mix or into sub-mixes that can be assigned to buses. Buses can be visualized as circuit intersections where the output from several channels meet. Each mixer channel routes its signals to a specific bus or group of buses. These buses allow you to adjust signals as a group before they go into the final mix and out to the speakers. So, for instance, you can easily make adjustments to all the vocals or all the drums using a single group fader control. Also known as auxiliary sends, auxiliary buses can also be used to route mixes to headphones, external effects processors, monitor speakers, or in-ear monitors.
You can also make additional enhancements using buses. For example, two-bus mixers normally have a pan control to send a signal to the left or right bus, creating a stereo output. There also may be insert points where you can apply effects to buses before the final mix.
]]>Long time founder/owner of Sound Town, Mark McElwain, is celebrating 30 years and a new location for 2021. “This is monumental,” says McElwain, “as we’ve been at this same location on Alameda Avenue since the early nineties.” Sound Town has prospered these many years throughout all the changes in the music industry, not to mention the pandemic. Just a few weeks ago Mark came down with the COVID-19 virus and had to self-quarantine and close the store early to protect his customers. “I’m better than ever now and ready to get back to work and plan for the holiday shoppers and our big move! We are really looking forward to the new location with more space, more parking and a stage for live performances!” Sound Town’s new location at I-70 and Pecos area is slated for opening Jan. 2021.
“I started Sound Town in August of 1991 with the help of my wife, Janell, and my then partner, Bill Davis. The 90’s were exceptionally good to us as we grew into four stores. Janell has moved on to a better world after a bout with cancer, and Bill has his own store in Evergreen CO.
“Because brick & mortar retail shops have taken a big hit resulting in loss of sales as many people seem to prefer ordering online, I have consolidated into one central location at Alameda & I-25. We still believe in a handshake and personal attention. We offer automatic exchange of defective items and free loaners of equipment within one year of purchase (and sometimes longer). To compete with the internet, we have expanded our rentals, repairs, production, deliveries and everything it takes to help our customers. It seems we are becoming known as the new ‘Radio Shack’ because we offer a large selection of electronic adaptors & cables. We throw in a lifetime warranty on them all.
“We have a great crew of people including ‘Sound Town Joe’ who speaks Spanish and has been with me for 28 years. My son, Matt, who’s a drummer, now runs the store when he’s not touring.”
“Our slogan, ‘Home of the working musician’ originated because we were all playing in bands. We watched the DJ ‘phenomenon’ develop before our very eyes, so we adjusted our slogan to ‘Home of the working musician & DJ’. I was always the one in the many bands I played in to come up with a PA system, so our store is full line but has a strong emphasis on sound systems, lighting, wireless and sound installation.
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