Powered Speakers,,,,Help

[Hemi245]

I have a roland pm 30 monitor, 200 w, and need a little more volume. Some friends asked my to play with them for a bit of fun, but my amp gets out muscled a bit.
I don't need much, just enough for a small crowd of say 20 at bbq's and stuff, we are pretty lame really, but everyone gets into it.
Heres the problem I have got. I first looked at 1 or maybe 2 powered speakers, then read that there no real low freq,,maybe 40hz lowest, and no real mids just horn and bass with most of them. So do I get these and put a extra sub with it, and a mid spearker..? Pricey and lots of **** to handle for me I think.
Or maybe a keyboard amp will be the way to go for bass,mid and treb with enough volume that is. But do I need a sub, is it that important.
I looked at a ashdown bass amp going cheap, got some good bass out of it, no sub and no treb at all, maybe a bass amp with a powered speaker will cover it.
Dam it, might as well save up for another roland pm 30, two of them might be loud enough and have bass mid and treb,,,, but pricey again,,,,,,,,,,,, help.
Theres got to be a cheaper way out of this for a little more quality sound /volume.

Ps after reading this I think I should just get a powered earinger, or some crap sounding easy thing!

[Hemi245]

I just looked into the forums archive and found heeps of information about this subject, well with a bit of trolling you can get there.
And a friend just phoned me and said he saw my post,,yay. He hates e drums and ***** slaped me good,,prick.
He said if you played a acoustic set you would need no speakers for that small crowd. He went on to say that a cheap set would be cheaper and less hassle to set up than my roland with amps and crap..Dam, I thinks hes prob right you know,, might look into a $500 kit,,be way easier like he said, but then loose all my kits and tweaks, get stuffed, speakers it is.

[hairmetal-81]

So do I get these and put a extra sub with it, and a mid spearker..? Pricey and lots of **** to handle for me I think.

If you get yourself 1 sub (just one, no need for 'stereo subs') the neat thing is, that the speakers in charge of the mid- and high-frequencies can be chosen to be much smaller!

(...because the sub handles all the low frequencies like floor-toms and kick-drums.)


So I would tend to recommend a satellite speaker-system ...a 2.1-style PA., with one sub and two satellite-speakers... for the sake of 'small footprint' and 'not-so-heavy weight'!

No particular make or model ...just look at the trusted brands like JBL, Mackie, QSC - or maybe HK Audio (..as I know they have a whole line of systems in this format).

Or maybe a keyboard amp will be the way to go for bass,mid and treb with enough volume that is. But do I need a sub, is it that important.

Could work... but carefully examine the high-end, to make sure you'll get a detailed or refined sounding high-end.
(A lot of keyboard-amps with piezo-tweeters in them give you rather 'harsh' sounding cymbals.)

Also, there needs to be a good 15" woofer in there!

I looked at a ashdown bass amp going cheap

*Beware*, or even *Avoid*, as they are just not designed to handle the full spectrum of E-drums!

Ps after reading this I think I should just get a powered earinger, or some crap sounding easy thing!

Again, I tend to say *Avoid*.

You may like those 'Ear Ringers' initially (...that's if they don't fail on you in the long run...) but only as long as there isn't a Mackie/QSC/JBL-system standing next to them, as that will give you a glimpse of what a 'Good' sounding speaker sounds like!




HTH

[campster]

I use a Mackie dlm PA. I have two 12" satellites and the matching sub. I only take the two satellites to practice and they easily stand up to big Marshall stacks. We even even a bass guitar through them one (without the sub). Very impressive. We use the sub when we want to run the whole band through them, it really frees up the satellites to do their thing.

[thebarak]

I recently purchased a Yamaha DXR12 powered speaker for my drums and for general PA use, and I could not be more pleased. Hi-Fi quality, silent operation, louder than I need and reasonably priced. No sub-woofer needed, though they do offer them in the range. Check one out at a GC or somewhere and you will find it is an amazing sound. Definitely a sound upgrade from the usual budget Mackie/JBL type of powered speaker.

[campster]

Funnily enough I compared the Mackie DLM12s to the DXR12s side by side, ended up going the Mackies and also got the matching sub. Both sounded great but i gave the edge to the Mackie, to me it was a little clearer. The DLM12 is 5kg lighter than the DXR12 and is also very compact...that was a factor for me.

Rest assured these Mackie DLMs are not "budget" speakers, in fact these were slightly more expensive than the yamahas!

[Renegator]

He said if you played a acoustic set you would need no speakers for that small crowd. He went on to say that a cheap set would be cheaper and less hassle to set up than my roland with amps and crap..Dam, I thinks hes prob right you know,, might look into a $500 kit,,be way easier like he said, but then loose all my kits and tweaks, get stuffed, speakers it is.

This is how I got into acoustic drums. I was looking to upgrade my sub because it was a back breaker. A compact good sounding sub was about $1000. Well guess what, acoustics are easier to haul around and set up in about the same time. I would say try a $600 kit (new) but be ready to spend a good $500 on cymbals. (I did get a used Pearl kit for $400 and some used cymbals from the same guy for $300.) Still, when you look at the cost of a couple of powered speakers and a sub, this is cheaper and lighter.

By the way, I was using good gear like Yorkville, JBL, and Opera. The sound was good, but it weighed a ton. It also took up a lot of space. I don't miss it at all. The acoustic kit sounds great and is a lot of fun to play.

[Peter Warren]

I have a roland pm 30 monitor, 200 w, and need a little more volume. Some friends asked my to play with them for a bit of fun, but my amp gets out muscled a bit.
I don't need much, just enough for a small crowd of say 20 at bbq's and stuff, we are pretty lame really, but everyone gets into it.
Heres the problem I have got. I first looked at 1 or maybe 2 powered speakers, then read that there no real low freq,,maybe 40hz lowest, and no real mids just horn and bass with most of them. So do I get these and put a extra sub with it, and a mid spearker..? Pricey and lots of **** to handle for me I think.
Or maybe a keyboard amp will be the way to go for bass,mid and treb with enough volume that is. But do I need a sub, is it that important.
I looked at a ashdown bass amp going cheap, got some good bass out of it, no sub and no treb at all, maybe a bass amp with a powered speaker will cover it.
Dam it, might as well save up for another roland pm 30, two of them might be loud enough and have bass mid and treb,,,, but pricey again,,,,,,,,,,,, help.
Theres got to be a cheaper way out of this for a little more quality sound /volume.

Ps after reading this I think I should just get a powered earinger, or some crap sounding easy thing!

I eneded up going back to acoustics after spending $1500 on an EV sub plus a pair of 2 ways,and $1000's on a Roland kit. It was too much gear to connect up. I use hot rod bundled sticks if the kit is too loud .

The Roland amps are terrible with very cheap drivers. The JBL PRX speakers have enough low end to work without a sub,but they will cost you at least $1200 for a pair. Yopu might be able to get by with one.
40 hz is a very low frequency so that should not be a problem.The lowest end of a kick drum will be 50 to 80 hz. 2 way speakers are fine and better than many 3 way designs.

[thebarak]

Rest assured these Mackie DLMs are not "budget" speakers, in fact these were slightly more expensive than the yamahas!

I missed the part where you said DLMs. I was picturing the Thump.