I need Help designing a small FOH System

[Audio Hombre]

Hi there,

While I started in live sound like so many of us, I haven't had a FOH gig in like 12yrs and am way out of the loop. All I'm doing these days is a bit of studio stuff, which is obviously quite different.

Someone that I've worked with quite a bit, is opening up a cafe that is going to specialize in live music and I've been charged with helping him source out a live PA and all the peripherals and hopefully a price for it all, as it needs to be submitted to the investors. While Mackie gets a bad rap at times, I think for what we'd need, something like an Onyx 24-4 would work out great. I personally like the Onyx pre's for eg and have used the 800r in recording apps. The board looks very easy to use and as is, is probably a little overkill, as the cafe is going to mostly host singer songwriters and very small bands, but there will be times that a full rock act will be in there, so I'd rather go high than low. The owner also wants the ability to record right off the stage and I like the D-SUB out option on the Onyx.

So I thought I'd work out from the Onyx 24-4. For eg, I have no idea of what sort of poweramps I should be using. Knowing that clarity and headroom come from lots of horsepower, I'd again rather error on the high side opposed to under powered. The stage will only require 3 or 4 monitors, tops and again, I have no idea what sort of power I'd need (watts) for my monitors and mains.

While on Mackie's site, the "Quad Comp" and Digital EQ kinda caught my eye, too . After that, I'll need mics, (pretty sure I have an idea of the usual suspects here.) Then snake mains and any other periphs.

As for the budget, I'm sure it's going to be decent, but I don't want - or feel we need - a bunch of Midas and Martinsound etc.

Any ideas or suggestions from people doing this would be appreciated. While I'm a little nervous about tackling FOH again, it's a real opportunity for me to augment my recording gigs, which have been slow lately so this would be a cool, 3 night a week gig for halfway decent cash from what I'm told.

Any ideas, suggestions? thanks!

[bishopthomas]

Where are you located? It sounds like you need to hire a local company to check out the venue, put together a system that works for your space, quote you a price, and install it. Otherwise you're going to get a lot of general opinions on a lot of random gear from some knowledgable people here.

[nathanvacha]

the first thing that comes to mind is qsc rmx series amps. i've been very pleased with them and they're very affordable.

if you want help on g.s. though, you're gonna have to give us more info about the size/shape of the place (sq. ft.age and ceiling height) and really a more specific budget wouldn't hurt.

oh, and i'd personally save a few bones and switch the onyx for an a&h mix wiz.

[Jim vanBergen]

Also I would not rule out a small format but affordable digital mixing console, such as the Yamaha 01V/96 or similar competitor's models. It's well worth your time and effore to be able to have DSP such as compressors, gates, monitor mixes with EQ on the auxes, and reverbs. Better yet, it takes up less room and can be recalled.

As far as the rest of it goes, do we play 20 questions or do you give us more info on what kind of program, how many people, size of bands, goals, space, budget.... you know, minor stuff to help us help you make some decisions?

Hope this helps..

JvB

[Audio Hombre]

thank you guys. i'll try and dig up more info. as for size all i know at this time is that the venue is pretty small. i like the idea of a digi console for the recall alone. typically, there's 5-6 acts playing a night and a soundcheck that occurs a couple of hours before hand, so recall would come in handy for sure.

the a&h mix wiz doesn't look to be large enough. i was hoping for 20-24 ch's.