Sound system

[Mississippipyro]

Thinking about doing a pyro musical next year and I am wondering what sound systems you guys use, looking for something under 1000.00, much under if possible. My shoot site is about 250-300 from the audience on the other side of a small pond/lake.

[esgrillo]

Advice from PyroJoeNEPA is your best bet. My system is great but a bit over 2000. I think Rick has something priced a bit lower but also very good.

[krayg]

You mentioned the shoot site is 250-300 (ft?) from the audience. Your speakers don't have to be that far. It could be fairly close to the audience and off to the sides a bit to allow for better viewing.

I prefer powered speakers because there are less wires and technical items to deal with. For under $1K, others have reported the Mackie Thump 15 to be very good. Add a small mixer, a microphone, and you're in business. It's not perfect but I used the speakers' rated sound pressure level (SPL) to determine what would be good for me. My test before the show with K12.2 speakers was ~110db at the audience-to-speaker distance of 40 yards without any distortion or limiting the speakers. (rated with a phone app so it's not perfect) . The audience at 80yards could hear the music clearly during the show except for the finale. I almost went with SRX815 but they were too heavy. I dual purpose my speakers for another use so I could justify spending more on them.

[esgrillo]

You mentioned the shoot site is 250-300 (ft?) from the audience. Your speakers don't have to be that far. It could be fairly close to the audience and off to the sides a bit to allow for better viewing.

I prefer powered speakers because there are less wires and technical items to deal with. For under $1K, others have reported the Mackie Thump 15 to be very good. Add a small mixer, a microphone, and you're in business. It's not perfect but I used the speakers' rated sound pressure level (SPL) to determine what would be good for me. My test before the show with K12.2 speakers was ~110db at the audience-to-speaker distance of 40 yards without any distortion or limiting the speakers. (rated with a phone app so it's not perfect) . The audience at 80yards could hear the music clearly during the show except for the finale. I almost went with SRX815 but they were too heavy. I dual purpose my speakers for another use so I could justify spending more on them.

I am using the same speakers... QSC 12.2 They are really good.

[PyroJoeNEPA]

There is a lengthy thread on this topic already posted. Search it out. If you can not find it, let me know & I will look for the original post from it. Lots of Q & A in the thread.

[CozmicRooster]

If you are only going to use the speakers a couple times per year and don’t intent to rent them out or otherwise make money off them I would recommend renting from your local sound company. If you are going to purchase then I would also recommend the QSCs. You might have to spend a little more than your budget but they are high quality and if you try to go cheap you will regret it later.

[PyroGyro]

If you are only going to use the speakers a couple times per year and don?t intent to rent them out or otherwise make money off them I would recommend renting from your local sound company. If you are going to purchase then I would also recommend the QSCs. You might have to spend a little more than your budget but they are high quality and if you try to go cheap you will regret it later.

As someone who used to be in the sound reinforcement biz, you can probably rent a small system like the one everyone is describing for $150 or less a night. They'll bring the gear, set it up, and break it down. It will cost more if you want an engineer to stay and control the audio, but really all we're talking about here is a fader to bring up and down the music so you shouldn't need an engineer for that. That said, they may charge a premium for July 4th too. Bottom line, is if you're doing this once a year I would call local companies and get some rental prices. If you're doing this once a year it might take 5-6 years of paying rental companies to rent before you reach the amount of money it would've taken to buy your own gear.

[krayg]

I agree that renting is a great option if cost is a concern.

However, IMO with the amount of money one spends yearly on fireworks, racks, and firing systems, $1K on a non-cosumable item is nothing to dramatically enhance the show. You can also guarantee that the system works days before the show. With renting, you never know what you're going to get. I rent tools from home depot so I may be overly pessimistic about rental gear. :rolleyes:

[PyroGyro]

I agree that renting is a great option if cost is a concern.

However, IMO with the amount of money one spends yearly on fireworks, racks, and firing systems, $1K on a non-cosumable item is nothing to dramatically enhance the show. You can also guarantee that the system works days before the show. With renting, you never know what you're going to get. I rent tools from home depot so I may be overly pessimistic about rental gear. :rolleyes:

I wouldn't equate home depot tool rental to sound system rental. The people that run sound companies are usually highly skilled and often are rented for important corporate events, including presidential campaigns and concerts of every kind. Simply put, the system you guys are talking about getting is a joke comparatively speaking to what sound companies usually have to set up and it would be really hard for a pro sound company to F something up this simple. 2 speakers, an amp, a tiny mixer, and a single microphone. My biggest concern would be about being able to find someone to do the 4th, and costs associated with that.

[Zippster]

I run one powered speaker, set it up along side my control table facing away from us towards the crowd. I run my music to it off a tablet and found a small inline booster between them to help with the tablets output. Speaker is plenty loud and probably dont run it over half way for most of the songs. With this setup, my crowd knows those who want loud sit close, those who dont sit farther down the line.
We do run a sound check a couple days in advance and adjust volumes per song.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

The 1K watt sound system PyrojoeNEPA spec'd out for me is awesome and it was right at $1100 with the amp, speakers, cables, and stands. I got them from ZZounds.com and they offer payment plans that will divide your payments up for (I believe) 6 months with no interest. So you can get a very nice system and pay it off before the next show even gets here.

As Joe indicated, the details of the system are in another thread.

[CozmicRooster]

I’m actually in the process of speccing out a pair of speakers for my daughter’s school and QSC has a CP12 compact speaker rated at 1000W that looks real good for the price. Zzounds has a kit (pair of speakers, tripods, bags, and cables) for right at $1000.

https://www.zzounds.com/item--QSCCP12NA?siid=257512

I haven’t found less than a 5 star review and although not as powerful as the K12 some reviews have found them comparable to the more powerful K10.

I will reiterate what has been said about renting. I’m also a former live sound engineer and even if I do pro level gigs I’ll still rent PA equipment instead of owning. It all depends on what you want to get out of it. You can get a lot of bang for your buck renting gear if you don’t use it very much, but for the price point of the CP12 kit it might worth your investment.

It just depends on your priorities and frequency of use. I will say that once you own them you will find more ways to use them :)

[AxeElf]

Zzounds has a kit (pair of speakers, tripods, bags, and cables) for right at $1000.

https://www.zzounds.com/item--QSCCP12NA?siid=257512

Didja see the little warning at the bottom of the description?

4311

Sold.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Didja see the little warning at the bottom of the description?

4311

Sold.

Lol... You're not supposed to fornicate with the damn thing! Sheesh...

[AxeElf]

Lol... You're not supposed to fornicate with the damn thing! Sheesh...

Nah, I just figure that any speaker loud enough to potentially cause cancer or reproductive damage should do the trick.

[CozmicRooster]

Nah, I just figure that any speaker loud enough to potentially cause cancer or reproductive damage should do the trick.


Haha! Thanks California ;)

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Nah, I just figure that any speaker loud enough to potentially cause cancer or reproductive damage should do the trick.

Lol... Now that actually made me Lol...