Cheap pro audio stuff

[Phil]

Hi can anyone reccomend a shop or a make of gear that is cheapish. Something along the lines of Behringer gear, maybe cheaper or about the same price range?

Thanks

Phil

[ian hasell]

Hi Phil

Welcome to the board, I hope you find it useful.
To be qyite honest anything new that is cheaper than Behringer is best avoided, your best bet is watch here or Ebay for secondhand stuff.
It is really better to save for the best quality you can afford. A lot of cheap gear is cheap for a reason (not good build quality, does not perform very well), Behringer is about as cheap as it gets for gear that is passable and even then some is really not up to much.
Read this board for feedback and make judgement.
I know it is difficult to start with and it does not get any easier because you will always want that new widget and as your knowledge and skill get better then there is always one more gizmo you must have!!

Any way best of luck and any questions however dumb you might think they are we will try to help.



Ian

[Phil]

Thanks Ian.

I always keep my eyes open for bargains on ebay and things like ad-mag. Infact the other day I went down to Redcar in Cleveland to get a lyonforge 250watt power amp and 2 15inch full range cabs - £40 second hand.
I guess if the bloke put them on ebay he cud have got about £100+ and he seemed was asking me if £40 was alright ;D

[shepz]

Hey mate.
I recommend checking out Class-D...
www.class-d.com

They have some great deals on their speaker cabs!
Although they're not suited to heavy wear and tear since they're constructed out of chip board... either way, they're cheap and they'll build a good basis for your first system!
p.s. Try to avoid the cabinets with the piezo tweeters... I've had bad experiences with the crossovers in them.

[PAsound]

id avoid the Class D - exactly what the name sounds like, sub quality goods.

behringer is decent kit for the money, but dont expect it to last very long at all! ive got quite a lot of it, does the job while your short of cash. www.PASounds.co.uk has my gear listings on (im 18 btw, started when 13).

on a tight budget, best thing to do if you have some woodwork skills is build some cabs yourself!! My rig is all self built but makes some serious low end and crystal clear tops. Many pro engineers have said it sounds like an expensive rig, just looks a bit crap ..... its all about the sound really!

keep an eye on ebay for used stuff, such as peavy or ex hire stuff, they are pretty good for your cash! the driver its loaded with and quality of construction is more important than brand and cosmetic condition.

[shepz]

Those x1's are pretty good, I always borrow my mates and am blown away by them everytime... literally in small venues! lol
What drivers have you loaded them with?

[soundmanjim]

watch out with e bay - theres a lot of junk on there - i buy most of my gear from Thomanns as the exchange rate is good and the postage is very cheap. I ordered a grafik on a monday and it turned up on Thursday. 4 days tops. brilliant.

[pasounds]

they are SD18's i believe. Only need 700w a piece to cause a small earthquake. Did a nice mono stack of 4 of them with a 186 horn on kick and a top in a smallish pub, litterally had bits of plaster falling from the ceiling and glasses vibrating off tables ...... naturally booked again!

[shepz]

ROFL!!!!

[soundmanjim]

i did a gig (when i was a thrashin' tight trouser wearing freak...oh wait i still am...erm.).anyway i had a hi watt 200w head and TWO 4x12 cabs - with the other guitarist and the bass player and drums, the large lady that ran the pub came downstairs and complained that her bath water was vibrating rather roughly with her in it. When we saw her, you can imagine the visual image. ROFL ROFL

[micmk]

In these circumstances we have found that a roll of gaffa around the pub landlady with a behringer shark attached alleviates any pink noise fleshy vibration.
Empty wharfedale monitor cabs can be used as marker buoys if wind direction blows the systems engineer off course.This is commonly known as blow-job effect .
XTA do have a digital device costing £3 mil or a behringer equivalent £2:75 to solve the problem
A bubble bath with the nearest roadie can have a splash and spill effect which might cause spillage on to the main pyramid stage at the Nether Regionbury Eavis annual festival of Wishbone Ash and a muddy fox sound for The Killers on the David Icke Pine Array d&b memorial stage

If the council noise patrol turn up , a simple phase inverted ground loop polarity class WTF checker will of no use at all except in conjunction with a pantomine cow outfit , 100 tons of Vdosc and 92 SAE trainee studio engineers on day release from Rampton

Big fat naked pub land lady behringer devices [BFPLLBD's 69] can be bought online at www.thomann.de-falklands-invasion . They are designed to fall to bits as soon as you touch them giving you a massive electrical shock to offset your hangover caused by the free vodka bottle attached to the packaging.
will post photos soon

[soundmanjim]

L_O_L!

[John Bell]

Maybe at our next social, we should do a "stand-up" sketch of pro-audio situations. It may even lead to a DVD, "The Gaffer".

[soundmanjim]

LOL now THAT would be good. I have a camcorder. will have to gee up our leader and get him to sort it!!!

[micmk]

As a comedy sketch maybe my saturday experience of a waterlogged stage , power turned off and an acoustic guitarist doing a completely acoustic version of "knocking on heavens door" to a crowd of 2 kids and a dog in the pouring rain must rank pretty high .
Better still fridays gig in a pub garden at 10:30 pm with a fairly major pop star complete with string section who is supporting Amy Winehouse on a US tour now [ do a youtube.com search for
" Patrick Wolf abbey " ]
but absolutely no stage lighting/no stage/no graphic/one dodgy peavey keyboard combo as a monitor[his previous gig was Glastonbury]
There was one string of fairy lights , 2 candles and a lantern perched on top of my turbo tq 445dp which fell on me at the end depositing large amounts of candle wax on my head.

On a more serious note
These according to one website are the two worst bands in the world
www.myspace.com/therightbrothers
www,myspace.com/crudearmband
Razornutse feature fairly high on my list