Sound System Recommendations or Suggestions

L

Luis Pedroza

Freshman
Apr 19, 2014
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We own a small (15,000sqft (125ft W x 120ft L) (see sketch below)) dance hall where we host public dances and rent it for wedding. Most of the people that rent the place from us usually hire live bands to play at their events.

We are interested in buying our own system so that it can remain at the hall and not have to worry about it when hosting our dances. The idea is to stop paying rent when we bring bands for public dances and to also to provide the sound system to our clients as an additional service.


Any ideas or recommendations of sound needed for this venue will be much appreciated.


Thank you,


Luis PedrozaFloor Plan.jpg
 
Re: Sound System Recommendations or Suggestions

Where are you located? Do you have a budget? Do you just want basic PA and a mixer, or will you need mics, cables, mic stands, etc for the bands? How many mixer channels? Where would you place the mixer?
 
Re: Sound System Recommendations or Suggestions

In other words, this is a rabbit hole you don't want to go down, but you won't realize it until you are 40 grand into buying a "small" and "basic" system that will be good for the events you do there. Then after you have bought this system you wonder where all your power, XLR, and microphones went. Well, they walked out the door in the pocket of those local bands. Then you get tired of babysitting this thing and hire a local "soundguy" to come in and run the system for events. About this time is when the first piece of gear fails. You call your "soundguy" to come in and repair or replace whatever is busted. The whole time he is telling you, "you know this system doesn't really work well for this room. You should sell it and buy this other system that my buddy has for sale. It was used by Ted Nugent just the other day and it RAWKED!"

And you are thinking that I'm just being a Debby Downer here, but honestly I've seen this scenario play out dozens of times....


Just keep renting. Find a vendor that you like and does a great job. Make sure they get every bit of work that comes through your venue and charge it back to the clients. Everybody wins this way.
 
Re: Sound System Recommendations or Suggestions

I am located in TX. I will need everything. The ceiling is made of ceiling tiles and is about 16ft tall for the stage to the dance floor then it drops to 10ft to walls. We usually place the mixer between the bar and the dance floor.
Thanks!
 
Re: Sound System Recommendations or Suggestions

I was in a wedding band for about 4 years.

We had our own system that we used.

With our setup, I would not want use another system, as I would have to "learn it" and usually there was not time for that.

We would "pop in" setup and do the gig. Often times we would do a saturday afternoon and saturday evening wedding. No time to "start from "zero".

For some situations having a in house system could be fine-assuming you have a qualified operator. Without an operator who knows his way around-it could quickly become a nightmare.
 
Re: Sound System Recommendations or Suggestions

It's very difficult to say "Buy this list of gear and it will work for everything" as there are a lot of variables. What is appropriate for 100 people for light music is VERY different than what is required for a 1200 person EDM event. $5000 worth of gear might be fine in the former, but it may take $250,000 of gear in the later. A playback only system will be different than a system for live bands.

What equipment has been used successfully for the events you are trying to do? I would use that as a starting point.

As Tim alludes, managing the sound gear can be a significant undertaking, as you will have to provide knowledgeable labor, spare parts, and handle equipment damage. If it were me, I would continue to rent for a while to understand what your market is. After that, it may make sense to install some speakers and amps and still hire in for the little stuff, as that's where much of the management lies.

Unfortunately this isn't as simple as just making a one-time investment and then saving a bunch of rental expenses in perpetuity.
 
Re: Sound System Recommendations or Suggestions

In average I would say that 500 people attend our events.

We currently have a local PA system that we use for the DJ. We have four Behringer Eurolive B215-XL speakers and two Cerwin Vega subs.

In the past, they have used a non linear JBL SRX system. I am interested in a linear system as I could benefit from the real estate and sale VIP tables besides the stage.
 
Re: Sound System Recommendations or Suggestions

Luis Pedroza said:
In average I would say that 500 people attend our events.

We currently have a local PA system that we use for the DJ. We have four Behringer Eurolive B215-XL speakers and two Cerwin Vega subs.

In the past, they have used a non linear JBL SRX system. I am interested in a linear system as I could benefit from the real estate and sale VIP tables besides the stage.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by a "linear" system?
 
Re: Sound System Recommendations or Suggestions

You don't need, or have room for a line array. The only reason anybody wants a line array is because they are "cool". They won't cover your relatively low ceilinged venue any better. They also won't make any extra room beside the stage for vip's. That room will be taken up by amp racks, monitor desks, dead cases, and other detritus that happens during a show.

Also, even with a line array you would need more speakers to cover the vip section.


Where are you in Texas?
 
Re: Sound System Recommendations or Suggestions

Ok I'll bite,
There is no dedicated sound booth, so you are going to need a rolling rack that can house your Front of House equipment and a floor box that has the snake and power in it.(concrete and electrical work) Or your going to have to run everything from a wall.
Your going to need main loudspeakers to cover your dance floor area, and you may need delay and fill loudspeakers to cover the areas where the ceiling drops, (forget about the line arrays) that means your going to need a pretty hefty processor for multiple delay zones and don't forget about the console, amps and cabling.

That's before you start considering rated hanging hardware, Mic's, Di's, Stage monitors, In ear monitors wireless's and anything extra you may want.

Are you looking for someone to install this for you, or are you trying to do it yourself?

There's a lot of people who are willing to help you here, just understand that there is a lot more to an audio system than the initial purchase... That can be painful enough.
 
Re: Sound System Recommendations or Suggestions

Tim Weaver said:
You don't need, or have room for a line array.
Click to expand...

+1

That size room has no need for a line array. Properly flown trap boxes would cost a heck of a lot less and provide the same, if not better coverage than an array. But, as soon as you take the speakers up, you will need to consider the loss of coverage in those VIP tables right next to the stage and plan something to cover that area with sound.

You haven't mentioned a budget yet for your project. That will make a huge difference in the direction you can go. If you're looking for something for the small groups there just to have PA or light music playback in the room, you can get by with a modest budget in the 5K range for everything. It could be set up in a way that it's easy enough for anyone to turn on and use. If you're putting in an entire system, and want it to be able to handle your largest events, add at least another zero to that number. Now, if you're installing a full PA system, don't expect to just have the bands know how to use it. It doesn't work that way. You'll also need a technician on hand that knows the ins and outs to make it work. A band that comes in would much rather use their undersized system than try to figure out a large complex system on the day of the show. Without a tech, the system will go unused. Make sure that's part of the budget consideration.

Buying your gear versus leasing it from a sound company will have different benefits and payouts. Over the long haul, if the venue is busy, owning could end up cheaper. However, now you're on the hook for maintenance, replacement, etc. If you book a sound company, upgrades are on them. If you want a different system in the venue, you can simply get a different one brought in for the show.

The best thing you can do is make sure the stage is wired to be easily used. As in, make sure that there are appropriate power drops of appropriate sizes in very convenient locations. Make sure it's easy to run a snake to FOH for the traveling shows that come in with their gear. Yes, most shows would rather pull their own snake than use a venue supplied system because of the horror stories they have gone through.
 
Re: Sound System Recommendations or Suggestions

Tim Weaver said:
In other words, this is a rabbit hole you don't want to go down, but you won't realize it until you are 40 grand into buying a "small" and "basic" system that will be good for the events you do there. Then after you have bought this system you wonder where all your power, XLR, and microphones went. Well, they walked out the door in the pocket of those local bands. Then you get tired of babysitting this thing and hire a local "soundguy" to come in and run the system for events. About this time is when the first piece of gear fails. You call your "soundguy" to come in and repair or replace whatever is busted. The whole time he is telling you, "you know this system doesn't really work well for this room. You should sell it and buy this other system that my buddy has for sale. It was used by Ted Nugent just the other day and it RAWKED!"

And you are thinking that I'm just being a Debby Downer here, but honestly I've seen this scenario play out dozens of times....


Just keep renting. Find a vendor that you like and does a great job. Make sure they get every bit of work that comes through your venue and charge it back to the clients. Everybody wins this way.
Click to expand...

They only thing Tim left out of his game plan is that you negotiate a 10/20% discount with your preferred vendor in exchange for all of your events. You mark the price to your clients back up to your vendors normal rate and make a little profit. Now everybody wins.
 
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