Re: What sub should I get?
Tim, hellooooo *waves*. Business aspirations are currently to be self sufficient.....I'm a live tech by trade, mostly working in venues which already have PA installed, occasionally landing gigs that require PA to be supplied, starting on the road to having all my own gear because hiring it from one of the established companies feels like dead money. The Thumps did the trick but in using them I've already reached a point where I'd like more volume/coverage (must be all those outdoor gigs). Being that there is no deadline, I envisage some sort of slow, steady acquisition of nice equipment, more for my own satisfaction than that of the clients (as from what I can tell, people are easily impressed - I've had nothing but good feedback using the Thumps, I put this down to good FOH EQing perhaps).
The business plan is to land myself a venue installation or two (I did have one lined up and that was what started me thinking about buying better equipment but it fell through.) Even without getting a gig like that, I want to improve my PA because I know I can drum up jobs through talking to people - the jobs invariably seem to require more power/headroom than I have though (and again, not wanting to hire, preferring to own, logical solution seems to be buy better gear). The other business plan is to cold canvas work off of cover bands but the Thumps would do for that ah ha (maybe that kind of stuff can fund my better gear).
In terms of competing with already established sound companies, my thoughts are that I can beat them in customer service, care-factor and live mixing skill (I can actually use a Graphic EQ unlike most of the techs in town) hands down. (I'd mostly be localised to the the original live music scene, when it comes to proper corporate AV I don't reckon I'm ready for that yet and possibly have no interest in it - not looking to make heaps of money, just generate work for myself really - would be cool if I could establish a name for myself as a boutique business :-D)
In terms of business running my experience is minimal, but then my overheads are low, and my aspirations are to keep things fairly low key for now. As for financial return, my main objective is to make a living out of sound tech (like, with nothing else, I'll just keep living off of my income from freelancing), having better gear is a means to that end, gives me the option to value-add (if I'm mixing in a venue that's hiring from someone else, it'd be an easy transition to have them hire from me instead)...there's also an element of my wanting to mix on something a bit more awesome (than all the small venue PAs I've been using) and feeling like the only way I'll ever get to is if I own it myself.
What else, I've been live teching for 5 years (during which time I've transformed from rank amateur who tells everyone she's the best to consummate professional who realises she still has more to learn), I did a superfluous uni course, and I've done a bit of box pushing, could probably benefit from a bit more box pushing but I'm no where near as good at that as I am at mixing and companies tend to not call me back, still, I have a bit of a feel for what they do.
For the venues I'm thinking of, the competitors supply vocal PAs in various shapes and sizes. If you go slightly larger capacity then you start seeing speaker stacks. I'm supposing supplying gear to nightclubs might be quite lucrative too. One reason why venue supply is stuck in my head, two actually, is because one of Adelaide's leading lights of PA hire has equipment in 50 different sites - I didn't even know we had 50 venues! Also, especially in the non commercial part of the scene, venues are opening and going bust all of the time, which means it'll be possible to land a gig in a new place without stepping on anyone's toes. Another thought is that we have this thing called the Adelaide Fringe every March and then you can't throw a stone without hitting a venue and they all need to get their PAs from somewhere.....Another reason why I want to own better gear is I'd like to get further up into a price range where someone wanting to use such gear could never justify the outlay themselves, and therefore will have no choice but to hire.
Johnathan, cheers, Excellent site :-D Every one loves JBL, why is that?
Ivan, I might be using bottom end gear at the moment, but I am doing sound professionally and intend to continue doing so for the rest of my life. Stands to reason if I posted in Junior varsity, I'd get good feedback about putting together a low end PA - nothing wrong with that, if I am successful and use it every week, will it last? Is there any point in buying a single Mackie Sub (yes, singular, for now, i can always buy more, I don't need to get everything at once, hell, I could go on landing gigs with just the Thumps, it's for myself as much as anyone that I want to upgrade) when I could make a start on acquiring a PA with more headroom, from the sub up as it is? If I'm going to do that, I'd like to know more about what's good, this seemed like the right place to post. Also, there is no budget (although a practical limitation at the moment of about $3000 - that's not to say that I can't wait and save more if there's a good reason to).
At the moment I'm doing little gigs - like people's back yards, and RSL halls, and outdoor gigs that can get away with not being too loud. If I keep landing these outdoor gigs I'd like to get a sound that is closer to outdoor festival volumes though, and I'd like to get some quality PA inside venues. Those are my current objectives. One day I'd like to be in possession of a sizeable speaker stack comprised of Martin Wavefronts or something similar :-D, then, freed of the cost of hire, I'd probably organise some goofy outdoor Rock festival just because I could that would never even break even cos no one likes Rock in my town, and I wouldn't care, cos I get to spend the whole time mixing on my mad system. (She dreams).
Mike, not a bad suggestion, I've been seeing QSC around a bit lately, in fact, it just so happened that I've used a QSC sub with the thumps in the past, sounded alright (I'd probs be inclined to hold onto the Thumps though cos I hoard, and one of the B plans is to open a rehearsal room in which case they'd be handy again).
~;-)~:wink:
