Hello there.

As part of my uni course I'm supposed to be organising a gig for a 5 piece band (say bass, guitar, keyboard, vocals and drummer) for 200 people. I am supposed to list the microphones, cables, mixers, PA speakers and the like and why I have chosen those specific things. It all has to be justified - i.e. by a normal budget for this kind of show etc.

Any where you can start me off? I don't know much about specific makes of speakers or why they'd be good for this for instance.

Any help is appreciated....

this is hypothetical by the way.

Hi Luke -

Welcome to the SOS forum! How do you imagine this gig in terms of music style and venue...? Will it be recorded...? There are various considerations but I'm not sure how much you know already. Are you on a music production course...? Do you know an SM58 from a DI box...? I don't think the manufacturer makes a lot of difference, but you might start by researching some basics like an estimate for what you think would be a suitable power rating...you'll probably get more useful answers for specific questions than general scenarios...

Homework .. this near Xmas! Do these lecturers think you've got nothing better to do? Just ignore it, say you've been too busy putting up tinsel.

Go to a gig in a 200 person venue and see what they do. That's really the easiest way to get an idea of what goes on. Before I started out doing live work, I mostly just turned up to gigs and listened. Now I pay much more attention to what's going on technically...especially if I think it's being done badly

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www.exaviormusic.com
www.manninmusic.com Music Teacher, Isle of Man

hey BJG145,

its sound engineering and production - and i know the basics. sm58's and di boxes are easy enough. the style will be say, rock. and it wont be recorded. it's easy enough for me to say - sm58 for vox, 2 57's for guitarists amps, di the keyboard and a 57 on snare with akg d112 on bass drum.

so thats all easy enough. but in terms of PA and mixer and things - i'm a bit out of my depth.

Does the uni question say whether you are hiring in for it?

If hiring in, then take 200 people, multiply it by how much you think is a reasonable door charge, and there's the budget for the gig. Also bear in mind an allowance for if the gig doesn't sell out.

Once you've decided on that, list what you'll need. Are you going to mic the whole kit? 2 guitars, bass, keys, vocals? How many channels on the mixer is that going to take? How many monitors are you going to provide, and therefore how many auxes are you going to need?

Also, trawl through the threads in this forum. Most of the questions you'll need to think about have been dealt with before. Then once you've got some ideas, post a list of what you think you need, and we can make suggestions of stuff you might not have thought about. Most people on here aren't going to list a whole load of stuff without evidence that you've at least had a try, given that this is a homework question!

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www.exaviormusic.com
www.manninmusic.com Music Teacher, Isle of Man

Hire companies are another avenue of research. There's some stuff here on power ratings and PA types.

http://www.crownaudio.com/amp_htm/amp_info/how_much_power.htm
http://www.audiorent.co.uk/PA-Hire-Equipment.aspx

Get to a gig early, buy the soundman a pint. It's the cheapest education in live sound.

Check my post in the Readers Rigs area. I cover that many people most of the time.

4600W FOH
1500W monitors.

Luke, hopefully your course has already covered off the very basics, specifically that you can't specify a system based on "number of watts". You cannot hear watts, yet people insist on quoting meaningless "w" figures...

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http://www.eventpahire.co.uk