Isaiah Furrow

If at all possible, check out what gear is in place ahead of time, to know what you’ll need to hook to, RCA, XLR, etc… I try to start with volumes down fully, EQs at 12 o’clock, and then bring up gains and volumes after we’re playing music, keeping things near 0dB max through the chain. Also, knowing what is available might let you know if you’d like to bring an additional speaker or something along for a booth monitor or to add to what is there. I have no club experience but I was able to play in a venue with a PA setup one time so far, and checking out the installed setup ahead of time was very important. I ended up using my setup for FOH and their installed setup as fill as it was four 12″ speakers at the corners of a large, long room and I was on one end.

I have an Obey3 that came with my starter uplighting set… but I would say that the larger DMX controllers like the one I linked and the Obey40 are in fact small, simple, and portable… the ones meant for uplighting and stuff aren’t going to do what I need, and the big rack mounted desk ones are less portable, more expensive, and more involved than I need or want to be when it comes to lighting… I think something that can handle a dozen or so fixture addresses and let me set up a show with some custom scenes and chases will do nicely with the kind of lighting that I have planned… For now, due to cost and current lighting setup, I may add the Obey 40 next, with a couple more par lights and go from there, adding wireless later on…

What about taking his $300-400 budget and choosing a set of PA speakers, getting one and doing a couple parties to earn the second, then as his music seems like it would benefit from it, maybe add a sub…. or the other way around, one top, then a sub, then second top… I have a pair of ZLX12P speakers and a ZXA-1 Sub, and one top sounds decent, one with a sub sounds pretty good, and all 3 rock pretty nicely… just a thought. Looking to pick up a second ZXA1 Sub, more ZLX12P tops, and later an ETX 15″ sub or something similar, for large/outdoor venues…

I’m having a hard time choosing between the KRK 6 and the similar Pioneer 6″ monitor, I like the standby feature on the Pioneers, and like the non-Yellow drivers… Would they be similar enough to do the same job… these will be for practice in my mancave, a very small room, and for listening to music I’m working on in Maschine. I currently have a pair of ’70s Sansui 12″ cabinets and a pair of late ’90s Pioneer 12″ towers, driven off of a Sansui 6060. Having the monitors would give me 3 different sounds easily without leaving my music area, 4 if I cart one of my ZLX 12″ tops upstairs. Between those and an assortment of headphones I should be able to get a good range to preview.
I would also agree, that you could get a single PA speaker that would work well for a “house party”, and you could add a second later, it would suffice for practicing as well until you could get monitors. One of the 12″ speakers I’ve recently picked up, is pretty loud in my house and would do OK until you could add a second and maybe a sub later too… I used one for a recent benefit auction and it did well for playing music and was used by the auctioneer as well and worked for that nicely.
Back to monitors, are the KRKs and Pioneers close enough that I could choose either and be getting close to the same result? I’m pretty sure Phil had reviewed some from both series of speakers so maybe he could give us a little more insight into differences, or just how similar they are. Look forward to any more insight, and follow up from the OP would be great as well…

update….. we need an update….. let us know how it’s all working out for you, and how you like the MC2000. Welcome to DDJT!

I’m just getting into DMX and will likely get an Obey40 or similar controller soon, since it looks like the wireless one isn’t happening…. I may go for software later, once the light show gets more complicated, and I have more lighting, but for just over $100 I think it will be a decent start. Still looking into controllers in the $200 and under range, possibly with wireless transmit feature. Just my personal outlook at the moment. Let us know what you end up starting with…

I would support the advice that a/b/c comparison listening is important… I would suggest preparing yourself to spend about $300-400 for a 12″ Powered PA speaker, more $ for high end stuff, slightly more for a 15″ speaker. I personally didn’t listen to any 10″ tops, but I would not go any smaller than that. I have recently picked up a pair of 12″ powered PA speakers, one would likely do quite well in a “house party” situation, just be mindful of clipping. I would suggest starting with even just one quality speaker if cost is a big factor, and add the second one later. The speakers I’m using now are $400 each and sound good to me, but as stated, listen for yourself if at all possible. I listened to Alto 12″ speakers, and it was on my list for a while. I would say that what you listed should do well in small events, but I would urge you to go to 12″ speakers if you can, my 12″ tops are about 35 lbs. and plenty portable. Make sure whatever mixer you choose, will work as you intend to use it, with an S4 you shouldn’t need a mixer though. Let us know where you’re at with things now…..

I have a Mixtrack Pro 2, which isn’t particularly loud, the cue volume is very low in a loud environment… I use an analog mixer to get some more OOMPH out of it… gaining it to about 0DB with the mixer gain, then the mixer can put out a strong signal to the PA… I use another input on the other side of the mixer to amplify my cue output and plug my phones into the mixer to get loud volume in the phones… I would suspect that through gain staging, you should be able to get good sound into the PA from a decent analog mixer, and won’t need any other bits of gear. I don’t push the NTP2 to the limits anymore and use the gain and master volume on the mixer to get what I need. Hope this helps….. Moonshadow