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+ What About PA Basics?

	- Your first PA system
	- Basic building blocks
	- Watts and volume
	- How many watts?
	- Matching ohms
	- Avoiding mains hum
	- Avoiding feedback

+ What About Speakers?

	- Active or passives?
	- What size speakers?
	- What about monitors?

+ What About Mixers?

	- Powered or non-powered?
	- How many inputs?

+ What About Mics?

	- What type do we need?
	- Should I get a radio mike?
	- Ready-racked systems
	- Wireless frequencies

+ What About Connections?

	- Miking-up guitars/basses
	- Connecting acoustic guitars
	- Connecting keyboards
	- Alternative guitar rigs

+ What About Cabling?

	- Cables & plugs
	- Using multi cores/snakes

+ What About Loops?

• What About Acoustic Acts?

• What About Solos & Duos?

• What About Bands?

• What About Pubs?

• What About Meetings?

• What About Conferences?

• What About Halls?

• What About Schools?

• What About Portable PAs?

• What About Gigs?

• Glossary of Terms

• Links


The diagram below shows the basic PA building blocks. Click here for set up with a snake/multi-core.

Source
	These are the main sound sources (instruments and vocals) that you want to amplify through the PA. Typically, these would be microphones and keyboards but could also include electric/acoustic guitars, bass guitars, drums or CD players.
Mixer
	The mixer (mixing desk) is the device for balancing the volume between the vocals and the various instruments. Active or passive Depending upon your choice, the mixer can be passive (un-powered) or active (powered). A passive mixer (such as the LDLAX6) needs a separate amplifier to power both it and the speakers. A powered mixed (such as the LDLAX12DA) has an amplifier incorporated so you do not need a separate amplifier. Outputs Some mixers have FX (special effects processor) built into the mixer. If not, they will have an effect (FX) send/return facility so that you can process individual instruments with FX such as reverb or delay via a DSP - Digital Sound Processors. An additional facility on a mixer is a monitor/foldback send button. This allows you to send and control the signals to the monitor speakers.
Monitors
	If you are playing at anything other than the lowest volume, then it will be difficult to hear what is coming out of the PA speakers when you are on stage. Monitors (also known as foldback) help you to hear better and also help you to sing in tune! Monitors can be powered or non-powered. We would always suggest powered monitors as you can control the level of the monitors from the stage. If you have un-powered monitors then you will need a separate monitor amplifier. An alternative to stage monitors are in-ear monitors - less gear to carry around!
Amp
	The main amplifier. This is selected depending upon the power output (how many watts) you require.
Speakers
	The are the main front of house (FOH) speakers. These can either be passive (un-powered, connected to the amplifier) or active (powered by an internal amplifier), which are connected directly to the PA.
Basic set up using a snake/multicore
A set up using a snake allows a sound engineer to mix the sound from the back of the hall. A typical set up is shown below.

Mixers Limitations
	Using a snake precludes the use of a powered mixer as you can not put the output of an amplifier down a snake/multi-core cable.
Amplifier positioning
	The amplifier must be located on the stage area and take the line outs from the mixer via the snake. You may however use either an amplifier plus passive speakers or powered speakers.
Source cable runs
	In order to use a snake, any connected source instrument should be able to either use a balanced cable (e.g. microphones) or be at line level (e.g. keyboards). If you put the output of a guitar down a long cable run, you will loose signal strength and high frequencies. If you are connecting an acoustic guitar directly which does not have a low impedance/balanced output, then you will need to deploy a Direct Injection (DI) Box. Cables, snakes and DI boxes are available in the Online Shop - click here.
Need help and advice?
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