Hi, i was wondering if you could please tell me whats the minumum wattage ii would need to fill up a small venue? It also requires being louder than the drums...
Thanks
what is a "Small" venue? 20 people 120 people... where I live a "small" venue is about 350 people..... It all depends, and Watts don't matter make sure you have enough power going to each speaker I.E. if you have a 400W speaker put 400W to it. Watts don't matter.... Mixers have a Volume Control.....LOL
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ok thats made me understand things more, thanks for the reply.
no problem I used to wonder the same thing until I finally learned it.... I now have a PA rig with 8 amps and about 12,200W of power. I played a gig the other day had about 80 people there. I didn't have a problem you can control volume as long as u dont' under power speakers... Hope this helped and if anyone else has some advice please give it because I'm no the only Sound Guy Around
No matter where you go.... There You are! Law of Location
In general, renting a sound system along with a ggod tech is your best bet because it allows you to focus on your music. But if you are in a situation where you must provide your own sound system, then it would help to know several things:
1. As already mentioned, what size venue? Tell us approximately how many people will be there and if possible, the rough dimensions of the room.
2. Do you already have a sound system? If so, tell us what components you have so that we can suggest how best to use it.
3. What type music and instrumentation do you work with?
YAY WHOO 200th post... ok anyway
keeping in mind what is mentioned above, i said make sure you have enough power going to each speaker, this being said if you are trying to play for 200 people, a pair of 200W RMS speakers at 8ohms will most likely NOT do it too well....Give me info on your gear and all I can better help You
No matter where you go.... There You are! Law of Location
ok, cool thanks, at the moment im only using a line 6 spider II 30 watts, which definatly wont be enough as i found out, but ill most likly just rent sound systems when i do gigs as im not the richest guy around, and i dont need them atm moment, congrats on your hundreth post...
Thanks for the replys, ill porbely only ever need not that much, as ill only ever do small gigs but the smaller PAs will proberly do me.
You will never need more than a good 20-30 watt amp with excellent speakers no matter what venue size you play.
Larger venues will need a sound system to augment that amp.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
really? i thought you needed at least 50 watts just to out do the drummer! How many watts minimum would be needed to be heard clearly over the drummer?
guitar amps put out more than you think.... also Mic the amp it helps, plus drummers dont' believe it but they can play dynamically
No matter where you go.... There You are! Law of Location
really? i thought you needed at least 50 watts just to out do the drummer! How many watts minimum would be needed to be heard clearly over the drummer?
All other things being equal (speakers, housing, etc.) a 50W amp will be minimally louder than a 30W amp.
I was at a concert, where the main act played his reso through a 10W Vox Pathfinder amp to a hall set out banquet style (you could eat and drink during the concert) with an audience of 300+. He was plenty loud (his secret? He miked it through the house PA).
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awsome... you guys rock thanks for all the help, i know now what i need to do before a gig with PAs etc. thankyou all!
More important than being able to be heard over the drummer is the size of everyone else's amps.
You want to be in the same percieved volume band for everyone in the band if you're going to be playing a small venue iwthout a PA.
If you have a 20 watt amp and everyone else is playing through 120 watt monsters, you'll have a hell of a time getting everything to sound right. Particularly if everyone is on all-tube amps.
Digital amps are a slightly different story . . .
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
so if everyone had 30 watts, it would sound good?
We are speaking of guitar amps only? In Live Sound the discussion is normally about PA gear.
To play gigs, you usually want a guitar amp at least 50 watts if solid state, and at least 30 watts if all tube amp. You can use smaller amps but you will run out of clean headroom. What I mean by that, is you want lots of "clean" volume. Even if you are in a Rock band, you are going to want to play some songs with clean guitar (no distortion). But if you have a loud drummer and bass player you are going to have to crank that little 20 watt solid state amp to max to get above them. The amp will distort and you will lose your clean tones. So this is why you want a powerful amp for gigging, so you can get clean tones at big volume. You can always get distortions with the amp's distortion channel or a good pedal. And as Kingpatzer said, if the other guitar player has a 100 watt amp, you are going to get drowned out. Guitar players tend to play as loud as possible no matter what. This is not good musicianship and will not make the band sound good, but they will play as loud as they can regardless. So if you have other players with powerful amps, you want something that can compete volume-wise.
You have already said your 30 watt solid state amp ain't cuttin' it, better get something like 100 watts. :wink:
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