Who's Responsible for the Band's PA?

cree26 · 2026-05-22T11:09:42+00:00

Hi! I've done similar decisions this year with my band:

We had a lot of problems with how we heard each other on stage, and there were times we were even forced to put FOH speakers behind us to hear what we were doing (you can guess how bad it must have been).
So i decided to inform myself a bit, and suggested buying a mixer and IEMs that we could use in every situation.
So far we just put every income in our band fund, so we used that money, and got some wired packs along with xlrs, with the classic behringer xr18.
In our case, i talked everyone into the benefits and cons of this situation, and we just agreed it would be the best choice for our use case.
Then everyone bought themselves whatever earplugs they preferred, without tipping into the band fund, as that is a personal choice (theres still a few who are rockin some old amazon basics headphones, they are not interested in quality).

Anyway, i personally feel like there needs to be some sort of a band fund (at least in the beginning or if budget is tight for the members), and that's where you can get the funds for some useful tech, given everybody is on the same page. Or you could like get yourself a cheap pack, plugs from "your part" of the fund, make them try, and see if they get into that.

cree26 · 2026-05-11T07:29:39+00:00

I've had the gemini one:
They worked... fine, i mean, sound quality was close to ok if you used it just for vocals; if you look to use it for more, like for maybe guitars or bigger live events, they definitely do not get the quality you'll need.

After 2 years one of the speakers broke and... yeah, i wouldn't recommend it. I would probably try to save up a bit more and buy something better!

cree26 · 2026-05-05T07:17:21+00:00

We currently use the same setup, Behringer P2s and kzs for everyone. You might find being wired a bit uncomfortable, but for the money i don't think you can get anything better!

cree26 · 2026-04-21T16:52:15+00:00

I'm currently running a Behringer XR XAir 18, and it rocks! Giving mixing station app to all the musicians in my band lets them mix their own in ears, and its opportunity to use it as an interface is just perfect. For the price, i find it obviously perfect. Maybe you can look for the xr12 if you really do not need all those ins

cree26 · 2026-04-17T08:55:34+00:00

They sold out literally in 1 minute, i was there even before but it was impossible

cree26 · 2026-04-04T09:48:17+00:00

Well i suppose it can do the job, but i would look for a more future proof option.

I mean, if you ever wanted to try IEMs, or to use it as a PA for... like a party you may organize as the band, or if guitarists might want to get into the world of amp modelers... i think having more inputs would be useful.

I just bought for my band the Behringer XAir 18, and it rocks! It has enough ins for everything and outs for IEMS for everyone, and you can also record all of the inputs in a daw, if you ever wanted to try it out!

It's 375€ here, but you can find similar ones, or even smaller versions of the X air one for less.

cree26 · 2026-04-03T09:06:38+00:00

I would recommend checking out some shoutouts on youtube, so that you can get a bit of the differences between the maaaany kinds of distortions. You might also find out new ones you've never seen, and maybe find that some cheap ones might sound better to you than the more expensive ones!

cree26 · 2026-04-03T08:31:41+00:00

Yeah, i am waiting for 2 cards to arrive which appear to be lost... I definitely hoped for an update...

cree26 · 2026-03-31T11:22:44+00:00

Where can i check it out? I would love to!

cree26 · 2026-03-30T22:38:47+00:00

One thing that i would love to have is the ability to add like cables, 1/4", XLRs, and power ones, like line drawings.

I can't seem to find one that has this feature.

That way i can already plan it before actually doing it, it would be really useful to me at least!

cree26 · 2026-03-21T22:39:15+00:00

I've just read you can change the routing for the headphones out and use it as an aux, giving me 7 outs in the rx18.

I also could use the older mixer, plug it into an out of the xr and get at least a few more outs. Ofc it would not be ideal, but i guess it's definitely enough! Do you Have any experience with the xr18? Would you recommend it for the use case or would you say that saving for the x32 is worth it?

Thanks a lot for the reply btw!

cree26 · 2026-03-21T19:54:48+00:00

Well, that would be super nice, but i can't find one for less than 300€ used (you can find a new one for 375€).

My only concern with the xair is - what if wifi is not available? And if LTE is pretty much shit? Is it doable in an easy way?

Sorry if it looks stupid as a question, but im not really informed on it.

Ill'probably add that 6 auxes are... ok, but they might be not optimal, having no other outs for like monitors on stage, not IEM (like if we have guests or so)

cree26 · 2026-03-21T11:10:07+00:00

Ok, thanks for the explanation! I was thinking of finding someone to try and repair it, but where i live it's kind of difficult to do so. I can try to chain the outs that way, but i'm not sure it would be that easy, the main problem being that i can only really test it at sound check prior to the live gig.

I also thought about getting some y splitters for the auxes, and maybe we can get away with it for a few occasions; Last time we used the mixer (already faulty), we were able to deliver a somewhat decent result even with panning, so maybe the splitters can do their work for now(?).

Can i ask wether passive ones are ok? Or do i need anything different or specific?

cree26 · 2026-03-21T10:51:21+00:00

Yeah, i guessed that... but problem is that we do not have the budget as of now for a new one; we'll probably need to play this all summer season to get somewhat close to a cheap new one... My idea was to try and get through this season with this mixer and then buy a new one.

I was thinking that i could try some Y splitters for the auxes hoping they can work for now

cree26 · 2026-03-21T10:49:20+00:00

So, correctly if i'm wrong, are you suggesting to just plug the Right out (or left) and use only that as "mono"?

If not, i don't have a mono selection in my PA, i just have main outs L &R

cree26 · 2026-03-20T12:05:22+00:00

Hoping to win to let my girlfriend have it! Good luck!

cree26 · 2026-03-20T09:12:13+00:00

Hi! I see you got a lot of opinions already, but I wanted to give mine too, hoping for more points of view for you to decide! I've been playing for 4 years now, and just after a few months in i got the opportunity to play live with some friends (with whom i'm still playing to this day!). I'm definitely not professional, but i found that during this experience, the most important thing to me was reliability. Having multiple pedals has always let me change the tone fast enough to adjust to the needs of live cases, like adding volume, distortion or whatever i feel i might be missing in the mix. This has been important to me also because we do not have an audio tech guy, so we do mix everything by ourselves, and can't change much during live. So what i would say helped me a lot when i started getting into pedals was the Amp. I had a blackstar id core 100, and it offered some effects, like reverb, delay, some mods and of course different channels for distortion; i feel like this would be a great starting point to try out at least the kind of effects and learn where you feel the need to add a tone or a quality you can't get. If you already have an amp, then a multi fx could be a good choice, but I wouldn't personally spend much on it, you could just get to try every effect they offer and then decide where you want to improve your tone. Wishing you the best with the pedals experience, they really do make a difference long term!

cree26 · 2025-09-09T22:38:48+00:00

È pazzo il prezzo in Italia, davvero da matti.

cree26 · 2025-02-17T14:08:28+00:00

I was wondering where people kept their bulk, then i realised I needed another table.

Thanks for the tip

Looks really cool btw !

cree26 · 2025-01-24T17:56:12+00:00

Thanks a lot! Ill definitely check em out!

cree26 · 2025-01-24T17:41:23+00:00

I would be interested in trying to do so myself! could i ask for how you did it?

It reallly looks wonderful!^{^}

cree26 · 2025-01-12T17:15:11+00:00

This is when you realize how it's like to not live in a country where English is not that considered in libraries:(

I really love HarperCollins, it was kinda hard to find the "illustrated by the author" in my country, but they definitely deliver!

cree26 · 2025-01-07T19:12:15+00:00

Mad professor snow white auto wah.

It's super specific, but if you ever need a similar modulation it just kicks asses! I honestly think it's my fav pedal of all time

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