Qsc 8.2 as sidefill or as keyboard amp ?

[bjosko]

I have a gig tomorrow night with my second band, the first gig with this band.

It is an outdoor gig on a small stage with around 60 guests.

Drums, bass, guitar and vocal, and then me on keys. 

We have decided to play on the back gear, and only use the PA for vocals. Normally my keys goes to the PA, and I use my two QSC as monitors in another band, and will bring them with me as my amplifier.

Now they should act as my main amplification - or, I was wondering if it was better to run my keys through the PA, and link the PA speakers up to my QSC and use them as sidefills against ourselves?

 I have read up a little about sidefills, and it is a bit for and against it, one of them is phase cancellation.

I hate the sounds I am getting through our main speakers in rehearsal, it is some kind of EV 10 or 12”. My organ is drowning in bass, but I saw there was some digital adjustments on the backside of them ( something similar to that on my QSC), perhaps they have been tweaked to something strange. I know they was borrowed to a party where they was used for playback from a MP3 source, and since then I thought they have been worse than what I remember. But that is also the reason I am in doubt and might prefer my QSC’s that I know.

 

Any thoughts?

[jarrell]

Some powered speakers have a low frequency boost or cut function, so check the manual for that speaker. If it does have that capability, I would guess the borrowers enabled the low frequency boost, thereby making your keyboard sound more bass heavy.

[timwat]

Agree w jarrell - my guess (and we all know how reliable that is LOL) is folks running MP3 playback wanted it "more kicking" and turn bass boost on.

 

But that's a distinct matter that is easily verified and corrected.

 

Your real question, I think, is, "In a situation where only vocals are going PA, is it better for keys to go as well, or be self-amplified like everyone else on stage?"

 

And to me, the clear answer would be:

 

1) use your two K8.2s as stereo pair for your keys

2) they will be plenty loud for an outdoor gig for 60 - 100 people, especially if nothing else is going PA except vocals

3) you will have more control over what your rig sounds like

4) someone else can worry about how the vocals project, and if they sound bass-heavy

5) unless I'm missing something, I don't see how that band configuration for that size audience requires sidefills...unless you guys play extraordinarily loud

 

And yes, I readily acknowledge I may be missing something obvious.

 

Hope that helps some.

 

Tim

 

 

 

[El Lobo]

30 minutes ago, timwat said:

1) use your two K8.2s as stereo pair for your keys

2) they will be plenty loud for an outdoor gig for 60 - 100 people, especially if nothing else is going PA except vocals

3) you will have more control over what your rig sounds like

4) someone else can worry about how the vocals project, and if they sound bass-heavy

5) unless I'm missing something, I don't see how that band configuration for that size audience requires sidefills...unless you guys play extraordinarily loud

I completely agree with Tim Wat. (I think that often happens.) I use my pair of old K8's for stereo keys. They're on short stands. I don't usually go to PA. I mostly play in small clubs with audience size less than 100. Even when I've gone direct to FOH in larger venues, I still use the stereo pair of speakers on stage to be heard how I'm usually heard to myself and other band members. Only once has FOH sound engineer asked me to turn my speakers to face me because he didn't want to get anything coming from the speakers in his mix, he only wanted the direct sound. I've been playing with my pair of QSC's as the only amplification for keys for several years now. I'm happy with it. I also double on sax and that goes to the PA with a wireless mic. 

[RABid]

You could always turn down the bass on the mixer.

[bjosko]

Back from the gig, and I used them as sidefill.

It sound very good and balanced on stage. Some folks from the audience told us it sound great out as well, so this will be repeated. I checked the settings on the EV, they was on “Music”, I sat them over to Live, but have no clue if anything changed.
And we didn’t need any other monitors. The volume was not crazy, we played with a lot of dynamic, and could hear each other clearly. Luckily, we have a drummer that plays drum, and not only smashing them 👍

 

 

[timwat]

Glad it all worked out!