i've always been unsatisfied with the sound of keyboard amps. to me
they sound boomy, coloured, and lacking in faithful high end. of
course, if you want rawk, fair enough.
for the last 3 years or so, my band has been using a QSC MX2000a amp
driving a pair of Yamaha S115IV 2-way passives for LOUD onstage
monitoring, and as mains for playing parties etc. we also have a
Mackie 15" powered sub, which kicks nicely for parties but isn't
strictly necessary for simple monitoring.
we have beaten the shit out of this system and it holds up really
well. the Yamahas are bulletproof and pretty faithful. we took on a
drummer last october (and earplugs in the practice space!) - i was
concerned that i wouldn't be able to hear anything over him when we
played out, but thanks to the Yamahas it's not been a problem.
a more portable system would be the monitor versions of these
speakers (SM15V or somesuch) which have a more sharply cut cabinet
for parking on the floor. Yamaha also make 12" versions of these
cabs, though i've no direct experience with them.
hth
j
>Well since I delurked, I'll post one more before I relurk. :) Like
>many of you, I'm in a band, and we have recently started playing bigger
>shows (with an actual stage, as opposed to a ridiculously small corner
>in a bar). Up to now I have used a 100W combo amp as a monitor, and
>sent a DI signal to the house PA. This doesn't work anymore, since I
>have to have that amp practically strapped to my head to hear over the
>drums 10 feet away and the Marshall half stack behind me. We are not
>to the level yet where we play places that actually have capable sound
>engineers, let alone separate stage mixes, so I cannot rely on the
>house monitors at all. So, my question to all you gigging vets: What
>have you found to be a good solution for medium to large size venues
>for amplifying (i.e. being able to hear onstage) high bandwidth synth
>music? I'm playing organ, piano and analog synth, fwiw. (The organ
>uses a stereo leslie sim for now.) I bought a Roland KC 550, which is
>180W, and much, much louder than my 100W Carvin amp (though for those,
>like I used to be, who wonder if Carvin gear is any good, this is a
>great little amp - excellent feature set and sound for the price). The
>Roland has a line out that sends all of the left sides of each channel
>to another amp, for a stereo set up. Paired with my Carvin, it is a
>100% improvement - way louder and stereo to boot. But I realize to be
>really satisfied with such a set up, I'd want a pair of KC 550s, which
>would be roughly $1200 altogether. Besides the fact that they weigh a
>ton and are bulky, that is a lot of cash to me, and I'm wondering if I
>wouldn't do better with a small PA system. I already have a nice JBL
>12" passive monitor (that I use on another gig with a bar duo) and I
>figured I could get a matching one and a small powered mixer for as
>much or less than the 2 KC 550s. I'm old (according to my bandmates
>who are all at least 10 yrs younger than me :) and set up/tear down
>ease, and schlepping factor are important to me - almost as much as
>sound quality (it's punk rock, after all).
>
>So what do you guys use to amplify your MOTM based, analog synth rigs
>at rock shows? <on-topic content> :-)
>
>Thanks,
>Larry D.
>
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>Yahoo! Groups Links
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