I feed a mono mix to a single Mackie SRM450, either on the floor or a stand about headhigh. I'm not listening for pleasure so I don't need stereo. Clean sound (I a/b tested against the comparable JBL powered speaker & it was no contest), which helps cut thru--for me, muddy is harder to hear. This will get about as loud as I can stand in close proximity.
bbob
>Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 15:52:03 -0400
>From: Larry David <ldavid777@...>
>Subject: Amps/PAs for live synth music
>
>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.
>