We (Hit the North) need to buy a PA as the one that we currently use doesn’t have sufficient capacity for a 7 piece Ska band.

Can anybody recommend anything with an output in the region of 300W?

I was looking at this but I have no idea about such things.

We don’t want to spend a fortune.

We also need to purchase a small pertrol generator. Again, does anybody have any experience or recommendations?

get a second hand 16 channel mixer form the like of soundcraft (with built in effects if you wish). Mixer technology hasn't changed (analogue wise) much for years so you're buying nothing special by buying new. Speaker/amp wise just get the best you can afford. your budget is low and at that price range they are much of a muchness, a lot of them use similar or identical generic chinese drivers.

If it's an event you are getting it for then i'd say hire it in.

and the one you link too only has one microphone, hardly a 'gig rig' 🙂

"gig rig"… I like that.

I just need the microphone for the briefing. The band will supply everything else apart from the PA and the power supply. As they are bringing a trombone, double bass and accordion I guess that most of them won't need further amplification.

Surely for a ska band you want plenty of bass so get something with a sub.

Like this

http://www.reidys.com/index.pl?submit=View_PLU&PLU=154&utm_source=GoogleBase&utm_medium=Feed&utm_campaign=PriceComparison

HK stuff is awesome imo.

That shop you linked to is here in Lancaster – they're ok in there but the stuff is very much bargain basement imo – good for the price but not the best quality really. They also sell fireworks out of the same shop!

It's highly likely that a ska band will melt a PA like that into a puddle of gently smoking plastic, they like's their bass 😆

if it's not just for vocal reinforcement and the briefing then i'd seriously consider hiring a wee PA.

failing that, like i said just get what looks like the best (but not too good to be true) deal.

these guys are good http://www.thomann.de/gb/active_pa_sets.html

this is the minimum i would recommend (known manufacturer, readily available spares). You can plug a cheap mic directly into these (the amp is inside the speaker) http://www.dv247.com/pa-systems-and-live-sound/jbl-eon10-g2-active-pa-bundle–67830

if you buy active speakers (with the amp built in) it makes expanding the system easier.

300w…… 7 piece ska band….? I think you'll be needing nearer 4-6k to make any real impact!

Don't buy your own, hire in a proper rig and engineer, drop me an email i may be able to sort you out something. Hiring will be far cheaper and produce much (MUCH!) better results.

It's highly likely that a ska band will melt a PA like that into a puddle of gently smoking plastic, they like's their bass

Agree'd, 300W is not that much.

Do you need sound in just one area, or all over the event?

As above, look at hiring a rig, I would go with at least a 2k rig.

let's not get carried away throwing wattages around here folks.

harry – if you are after a PA for a 7 piece band to get people dancing and actually like a gig then hire in a proper band PA, buying it will inevitably end in tears and empty pockets.

If it's just to create a bit of ambience and reinforce the vocals of the band and that is all they are expecting then the other options i gave are fine.

i can probably put you in touch with people to hire, depending on where you are and how much money you are willing to spend.

Nothing wrong with more power, you dont have to use it, but a powerful rig running at 50% sounds far better than a small rig spewing its guts out.

We are a bit far south for me to send you a quote, but id definatly hire a pro rig with an engineer.

And not trying to cause offence to mrmichealwright, i would avoid those JBL's

there's no arguing that fact but i've been to very few events of this type with the budget to provide properly for a band's needs. and i've seen plenty of bands happily thrashing a £50 home made PA to death to large crowds of seemingly happy people. most corporate covers bands turn up with a couple of HK/JBL/Mackie speakers on sticks with possibly a couple of subs and happily entertain large crowds of drunken people. they also seem to get away with charging a fortune for it!

uglybassplayer

And not trying to cause offence to mrmichealwright, i would avoid those JBL's

i posted a follow up saying how i felt dirtied by using the words 'JBL' and 'recommend' in the same sentence and that i was off to flog myself with some quality mic cable but the hamsters seem to have lost the post (or i forget to click send post) 🙂

Saying you need 4-6k for a 7 piece ska band is a little silly – it entirely depends on the size of their amps, the size of the area you want to fill, how many people will be there etc etc

Many gigs you can get away with sticking the vocals and maybe a kick mic and overhead on the drums through the PA and nothing else.

I would agree that it's best to hire a PA and engineer though.

I asked them what they need for a beer tent and they said 300W.

Saying you need 4-6k for a 7 peice ska bandis perfectly sensible. Yes you would not put that much in for a pub gig where the aim is to be noisy for drunks to dance to but for something like this (reasonably large venue, in a tent, with more than a pubs worth of people) i would have thought that it was a good starting point. But stepping away from power for a moment as that is not the real issue. A 300w system will be nasty little plastic squark boxes on sticks, a larger system will actually be a system so that what you are amplifying sounds like music. A 4k rig can be run at equivilent 300w rig volume but sound significantly better…..

that 300W rig is (at best) a rehearsal room rig – for the vocalist(s) only. It might at a pinch be ok for a mobile disco, but certainly not for a live band.

We did a gig recently in a small pub with a rig not much bigger than that. you could hear my (unamplified) drums & the guitar amps, but the vocals were struggling…

I'd contact your local PA company & ask for their recommendations. If you can't find any, try your local music shop, they'll know a few

Obviously we want to have our beer tent set up like this…

However, we have taken the most sensible option and asked the band to confirm what they need in order for the singer to sound like she hasn’t got a bucket on her head.

These would do for smallish venues for putting vocals, horns and accordion, double bass might be more tricky:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/42180-mackie-thump-th-15a-pair-stands.html

They're powered, so all you need is a mixer.

The 'industry standard' (if such a thing exists) for small pub etc gigs are these:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/35798-mackie-srm450v2-pair.html

You could also pair these with a sub:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/35790-mackie-srm350v2-pair.html

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/43303-mackie-hd1501-15-powered-subwoofer.html

For a decent full range system. The bass would be fine through that.

The band are happy with our proposed little system and will bring their own too. If they can power it up they will use it.

I would love to blow an absolute wad but this thing is primarily to be used for bike race briefings and playing background music. Any money that gets spent on this is diverted from the charity pot so (unfortunately) we have to be sensible.

In which case, two powered 12" or 15"s would probably do the job – those Mackie Thumps would probably be perfectly adequate.

One with big tits and 60 words a minute typing speed.

The key thing with any PA is to run it well within its limits, and also bear in mind that to get twice as loud requires ten times as much power, so costs start increasing dramatically as you go louder. Also more power is required outdoors than indoors.

Two powered cabs on sticks will do a perfectly good job for public address, quieter recorded music and for dealing with the vocals/horns of a ska band. Try to avoid putting the bass (be it guitar or upright) through them – get the bass player to bring a reasonably large rig instead – and likewise the kick drum (instead encourage the drummer to use minimal damping on the kick so it has enough snap to punch through). If you try to get too much bottom out of small PA cabs it just kills the sound quality. Keep the volume down to the level of the acoustic drum kit and the bass rig and all should be well. There's still the monitoring challenge but let the band know and they might be able to sort out something.

Music doesn't need to be crazy loud for people to get into it, despite the deafening SPLs at most clubs and gigs.

By the way, wattage alone means next to nothing. It's like being told how many teeth on the chainring without knowing the rear sprocket size or wheel diameter.