Speaker 1: Today we're going to talk about setting up a PA system for a band either rehearsing or playing a gig. Our band consists of bass, guitar, keyboard, and drums. The bass, the guitar, and the keyboards each have their own amplifiers. We'll also be setting up a stereo PA system and three monitors as well. Now to begin, I've got all my gear for my PA system here in the center of the stage. I've got the instruments already set up and ready to go. So we'll need to set up our speakers, we'll need to connect our mixer, we'll need to run our microphones. All those kind of things will happen in order to get ready for the gig to take place. I've set up power drops behind the amplifiers for connecting the amplifiers. And I've also run power drops to each side of the stage. This will allow us to connect our PA stacks as well as route power out to our monitor system. And in fact, you could also use those if the guitar player, for example, has a pedal board. We could run power for that over to one of these power drops as well. For our PA system today, we're using JBL speakers. I have a pair of PRX-800 subwoofers. A pair of IRX-112s, which will be our tops for the PA system. Then I have three IRX-108s, which are used as our monitors. We'll position two of those in front and we'll put one in back for the keyboard player and the drummer to hear. Our mixer today is a DL-16S from Mackie. And the nice thing about this is that it's controllable using an iPad. So we can run sound right from the stage. We don't have to have a separate sound engineer. I've got a Sweetwater duffel bag and that holds all of my cables as well as my microphones. And one other essential, a roll of gaff tape for ensuring that our cables are taped down and nobody's going to trip and fall on stage. Now our PA system could be configured in different ways. As I mentioned, I have two subwoofers and two tops. If you only have one subwoofer, that's fine. Just put it on one side of the stage or at the back of the stage. If you have no subwoofers, just use a pair of speaker stands and put the tops on those. So we're very flexible as far as setting things up. Positioning our fronts is very easy. First of all, I set my subwoofers into place. I've got them right at the front of the stage so that they're in front of where the microphones will be. This will help to control feedback. They're symmetrical around the band and I've kept them a little bit away from the walls just to cut down on reflections. Each of the subwoofers has a receptacle on the top and we'll screw the mounting poles into those. There's a corresponding mount on the bottom of each speaker. We simply slide the speaker onto the pole and then there's a set screw on the back that tightens down to hold the speaker in place to make sure that it's not going to fall down accidentally. The JBL speakers we're using are very lightweight so one person can easily put them into position. If you're using heavier speakers or you're using really tall speaker stands, it may be easier with two people helping. Next up, we'll position our monitors. I have three monitors available so we'll put two of those at the front of the stage and that's really going to give us good coverage for all the musicians at the front and the keyboard player and the drummer will also hear that as well. But since I have a third one available, we'll put that at the back of the stage and that'll help cover the keyboards and the drums. Now we can experiment with the positioning of that if we need to move it in, move it out, change the angle of it so it's hitting both of them. We also want to be careful that we're not sending that too directly into the microphone and causing feedback problems. What I like to do next is run my power cabling for my speakers and monitors. When I do this, I have my power strip turned off. I don't want any power flowing into my monitors or my speakers until I have my mixer set up and everything else connected. We'll turn the power on last. I'll connect my subwoofer and then power up the top on that subwoofer. Next, we'll wire up the monitor. Another thing you'll notice is that I've tried to keep the space on the stage itself clear of cabling. I've run the cables as much as I can to the outside and I'll go through when I'm completely finished up and gaff tape those down onto the stage so no one trips. With my power connected to the speakers, I've also set up my mixer. Now in this case, I've put it on a stand right here on stage. You could actually put that behind the stage, off the stage. Since we're controlling it with an iPad, it doesn't need to be on the stage itself. But for the sake of our demonstration, I've got it right here where we can see everything. We'll now start running our audio connections. So we'll be connecting from the mixer to our fronts as well as to our monitors. I'll begin by running a line from the left out of the mixer to the subwoofer on the left side of the stage. Next up, we'll connect from the top down to the subwoofer on the left side. Now I'll want to connect to the high pass output on my subwoofer because it's actually controlling the low frequencies that are being fed to the top. We'll repeat the process with the stack on the right side using the right output from our mixer. Now we'll connect our monitors. I have six outputs on the front of the mixer. We'll connect the first one of those to the first of our monitors. Now we'll continue connecting output two to our second monitor and output three to our third monitor which is at the back of the stage. At this point, our mixer and speakers are ready to go. What we need to do is connect our sources in. This means a direct out from the bass amp, microphone on the guitar amp, microphone on the kick drum and the snare drum, and finally two line outputs from the keyboard into the mixer. Now the way I like to set things up is, I'll begin with my vocal mic. I'll place that in channel one. If I have additional vocal mics, I'll run those next. Once I have my vocal mics connected, I'll start connecting my instruments, and I like to do that from left to right on the stage as you're facing the stage. So I'll begin with the bass amp. In this case, our bass amp has a direct output, so we can connect it straight from the bass amp right into the mixer. We don't need a microphone. For our guitar amplifier, we'll be hanging a microphone in front of the amplifier, so I'll go ahead and run the cable. I'll wrap it around the handle so that'll help secure that microphone in place when we plug it in. In channel four, we'll connect our kick drum. I'll wrap the cable around the stand so it stays in place and isn't getting in anyone's way. In a similar fashion, I'll wrap the cable for the snare drum microphone up the stand. Now we're using a triad orbit stand in this case. It has two arms, so it's very convenient, very low profile, and doesn't get in the way. For our final instrument connections, I've got two outputs coming from my keyboard, and again, these are XLR direct outputs, so I can route those straight into the mixer, no microphone required. This gives us a total of seven input connections, one vocal microphone, six instruments. The final step in our stage setup is to connect our microphones. We'll begin with the guitar amplifier. I'm using a Sennheiser E906, which is very convenient because we don't have to have a stand. Connect it to the cable and hang it over the front of the amp, and you're ready to go. Next up, we've got a kick drum. I've got a V-kick mic from SE Electronics. I'll get it basically positioned where I want it, and then we can move that around when we're checking things out during sound check. For snare drum, we're using a tried and true Shure SM57 dynamic microphone. Once again, I'll get it roughly positioned, and then I'll fine-tune it when I'm doing sound check. Our final microphone is the lead vocal microphone, and we've got a Shure SM58. The key to an easy, efficient stage setup is having a plan in advance and an order that you follow every time you set things up. I begin with my fronts, then I do my monitors, run my power cables, connect up my monitors and fronts to my mixer, run my instrument microphones, my vocal microphone lines, and then come back and plug the microphones in as my final step. Now I can power everything up and begin my sound check. If you have questions about how to set up a PA or any of the products we've talked about here today, contact your Sweetwater sales engineer or visit Sweetwater.com. Thanks for watching, and be sure to like, comment, and subscribe. Click here for more videos like these, or start at Sweetwater.com for all your music instrument and pro audio needs. Fortunately, our subwoofers are lightweight, and I'm very mighty. So we can... no, I don't want to say that. But you'll probably need two people.