We're a band with a synthesizer, guitar, electric cello, drum machine and three vocalists.

We have amps for the synth and guitar.

My thought is it might be more efficient/effective to get a PA head and cabinet to run the cello and drum machine through than to either buy amps or depend on "house sound" to provide a line.

This way we also have our own PA to play smaller spaces, house shows, etc. and it can be used as a glorified amp at clubs.

Is this a bad idea?

It could be done. Whether it is a good or bad idea would change depending on the situation. For doing your own basement shows it makes sense. Bringing a PA to a club that has a PA does not make sense.

how loud are you?

but regardless,
if you're going to do it, lean on the more (much more) powerful side of the equation.

that and a really powerful set of speakers.

it's a bitch to move, but you won't pop speakers and you won't end up with the beatbox just crushing everything and taking all the headroom.

and then any suggestions on what the ideal live setup for these instruments would be?

jimmylacy wrote:and then any suggestions on what the ideal live setup for these instruments would be?

Budget?

Budget is around $500, but I would be interested in hearing anyone's "pie in the sky" setup as well, just for ideas.

Peavey Bandits all around. Maybe a harmonia amp for the drum box.

Your setup is probably best in an acoustic setting, but yer using all electrics.

Oh, are you using midi stuff? What box are you using?

I'm thinking your best sound will come from a small room, so I'm thinking guerilla.

Box and synth di into the PA.

Yeah, we're just using an Alesis SR16 Drum Machine. So amps for everything? cello, guitar, synth and drum machine? It would be nice to double up the drum machine with something, probably the cello, since each sounds good clean with a little reverb. And here's our music if it gives any ideas as to a good live setup. www.myspace.com/theblackmath

Hmm.

Thread paging Kerble. Kerble to the thread please.

I can tell you now - if you double up on any of the instruments you'll get nuttin but mush. I listened to the song loaded on your MS page, and I think your band would find it ESPECIALLY difficult to get a good sound through a PA only. If you double up on anything it'll all go mush.

ubercat wrote:If you double up on anything it'll all go mush.

Im not sure what you EDIT: both mean by "double up?" One of the points of a PA is to have a mixer so you can run multiple things through fewer speakers/amps and (if you do things right) hear everything.

Of course, if by "double up" you mean plugging say a drum machine and a cello into a guitar amp at the same time (two holes means two instruments, right?) without a mixer, then I agree with you re: the "mush."