Whats needed to start a band

texhorns06 · 01-31-2004, 02:47 PM

I am trying to start and Christian Rock band with some of my friends and I. I am wondering what is really needed in starting a band. We would hope to maybe play small gigs too. Oh yeah, there is 2 guitarists and a bass player. So, my questions are:

-What kind of equipment is generally needed for gigs and practice and such-amps,mixers,etc.

**Rainer.** · 01-31-2004, 03:02 PM

Your amps need to be loud enough to do a gig...

1. You need something somewhat large. 10 watt amps or 15 watt amps really wont cut it. On the flip side, 80-100 watt amps or stacks are really not needed unless you're playing stadiums. For most gigs, 40-60 watts is good, solid state. Tube amps are different. 20-50 tube watts is plenty.

LWatford · 01-31-2004, 03:18 PM

Prayer...

Anyway:
No Drums?
Does the bass player have an amp?
Electric Guitars or Acoustics(or Acoustic electrics)?
Vocals?

texhorns06 · 01-31-2004, 03:24 PM

I am looking for a drummer.
I have a new Behringer Amp that is 30 Watts
The Bass player just has a practice amp
Electric Guitars and Acoustic/Electric

Ashleigh · 01-31-2004, 03:38 PM

Quote:

The Bass player just has a practice amp

hmm, they might need something a little bigger than a practice amp

Forever His · 01-31-2004, 04:26 PM

Prayer is very important... do you feel God's calling is the most important part. Our band has been around for a year and a half now and we started with very little. I am still using a practice amp but because we have a small Church it is enough, and I am now mic'd into the board. We started with my home stereo speakers and a radio shack mixing board to get started and upgraded as God provided.

I think that one of the most important part is to practice together and to get the feel of working as a unit. That can be done with any kind of equipement as we had to. We now have an exellent mixing board and just purchased our new speakers, but still use home speakers and amp for our monitors. But the most important thing is that we now have a "feel" for what we are doing which no amopunt of equipment can suply. So I would say, play, practice grow and add equipment as you can afford to.

God Bless
Forever His

texhorns06 · 01-31-2004, 08:52 PM

Thank you everyone for the advice

**Rainer.** · 01-31-2004, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashleigh

hmm, they might need something a little bigger than a practice amp

Yeah. When I was just jamming with a bassist on a practice amp, his sound started distorting.

Choppa™ · 01-31-2004, 09:26 PM

Yeah, a bigger amp for the bass player is KEY. Without it it's going to sound very muddy and irritating.. and you're going to find that he's got the volume cranked up and is destroying his equipment.

I'd also say talent could be a pre-requisite for starting a band.. but after hearing some band out there today that's hardly a pre-req anymore.

Forever His · 01-31-2004, 10:07 PM

but after hearing some band out there today that's hardly a pre-req anymore.

So true

Forever His

emo_boy · 02-01-2004, 01:42 PM

Are you looking for any kind of sound system? You'll need something to at least practice with. It could actually be as small as a karoake machine, just to hear the vocals. I have a sound system that my band uses that works very well. All together I'll have about $1500 in it after I buy some new mics. We have 2 behringer speakers, a mackie 1604 mixer, behringer ep1500 power amp, a hundred foot snake, a peavey powered mixer and 2 peavey monitors which I didn't include in my total because the other guitarist owns them and he got the for free from a relative of his. I'm going to either buy 3 Sennheiser 835 mics or 3 Shure SM58's, not sure yet. This works well for small to medium sized gigs and practice.

Visirale · 02-01-2004, 05:05 PM

You need a bigger bass amp.

Bass amp watts to Guitar amp watts= 3:1

texhorns06 · 02-01-2004, 05:45 PM

I have some more questions

- Floor monitors,Stage monitors, and cabs.- Whats do these do and or what is the difference between them.

-What instruments do you usually hook up to a sound board or mixer because I have a good guitar amp and I would preferably use it for my electric guitar amplification.

- How do you hook the instruments/mics into the-sound board/mixer-then into the big stage amp.

Thanks for all the help so far

Deren · 02-01-2004, 06:27 PM

Well for mixer stuff, look into getting a powered mixer or a mixer and a seperate power amp.

Floor monitors: These are the speakers that you will use to hear yourself on stage. There will always be two mixes when you play live. The stage mix and the house mix. Both mixes will different because what you hear on stage is just enough to let you hear your band and yourself clearly. The house mix is most important because that is what the audenace will here.

Main monitors: These are the speakers that you use that are placed for the audence's hearing. THe house mix will come throuh these speakers and it will gernaly be louder than floor monitors because the sound needs to reach everyone out there and not just your band who should be relitively close together.

Stacks: Refering to guitar or bass stacks. These are combo's of a head and cab. So a pre amp and power amp makes the "head" while the speakers are seperate and are in a box called a "cab". But you can also "stack" main monitors depending on how many you have.

THings that should go into the board:
Vocals are most important, so anyone singing should have a mic in front of them and send that XRL cable to the mixer, adjust to likeing. Keeping in mind there will be a seperate master volume for monitors and mains.
Acoustic guitar. The best way to do this is to D/I the acoutic, which means you send your guitar cable to a "D/I" box which changed the signal from high to low Z output (the same that the mic's use) you attach a mic cable (XRL) to the other end of the box and send it to the board.
Electric guitar can be done much the same, however if you are using your amp the best way to go is just to mic your amp a bit off axis on the speaker cone.
You can D/I the bass guitar using a line out optoin from the amp or micing it, but I find when we play shows the bassist doens't need to go into the baord because he is very loud (we use an old GBX bass rig that is insanly loud) and we usualy play small venues.

Everyting is to your own personal prefference.
-Deren

robert4xst · 03-03-2004, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Visirale

You need a bigger bass amp.

Bass amp watts to Guitar amp watts= 3:1

Don't be stealing my ratio

No offense to some of the wattages posted, I don't know how many people that posted have real gig experience... If you want to play something bigger than a coffee shop/small bar (e.g. a concert venue or a large club) your going to need at least 100 or so Solid State Watt's through a 2x12 for your guitars, and 300 SS Watt's through a 4x10 or 1x15 for your bassist. If you have a 4x12 (guitar) or 8x10 (bass) you can get by with a little less watts, becuase the doubling speakers even at lower wattage almost doubles your dB level becuase your pushing double the amount of air (example, a 120 ss watt 2x12 isnt as loud as a 80 watt ss 4x12 becuase of the speakers difference).

Another reason for the amps (this stupid reason though but a sign of the times), is becuase people (the crowd and other bands), take you more seriously when you have the stuff to back yourselves up. Apperances are a lot, I've seen quite a few excellent up and coming bands with 2x12's and 4x10's not get the respect, while mediocore bands with 4x12 and 8x10 stacks do.

At gigs, usually (not always) your acoustic goes stright to mixer via a Direct Input Box (usually supplied, though not always, by the venue), while the electric/bass amps are either miced or direct out (via direct input box) to the mixer. If anyone is playing acoustic, its always good for them to invest in a DI Box, you can get them for $20 or so.