Position:Home>Performing Arts> Will a 150w x 2 powered mixer be able to push my Vocals over live drum, guitar +

Hi Tyson:

Theres something very key you left out on this!. What is the sensitivity of your speakers!? Watts really means nothing!. Its what your combining the power with that does!.

Heres some things about p!.a!.'s!. Sorry, its not going to be short, but, it is going to be detailed!.

On speakers, there is what is called a sensitivity rating!. Lets use a rating of 92!. What this means, when one watt of power is sent to the speaker, at the distance of one meter, (approx!. 39 inches) a volume level at 92 decibels heard!. The spec would look something like this!.!.!.92db@1w,1m!. Now!.!.!.!.!. a speaker with a sensitivity rating of 100db @1w,1m is EIGHT decibels louder with that same one watt going to it! Now, an interesting fact: Every 12 decibels is considered to DOUBLE the volume!. Just by having an efficient speaker makes a BIG difference!.

Now lets see how WATTS apply when it comes to speakers!.
This is very important to know!.!.!. everytime you double the watts, you get a 3db increase in volume!. So!.!.!. if 12db doubles the volume, 3db is just noticably louder, yet youve had to double the wattage!.

So!.!. lets see what it takes for a rock and roll band as far as db AND wattage!.

To perform in small venues, you generally need about 115-120 db in volume!. For large clubs, 124-130 db in volume!. Anything louder than that is very dangerous, and can damage your hearing!.

So!.!.how does this apply!? Im going to give a list of wattage, 2 different speakers and the sensitivity of each so you can see how this works!.

Wattage applied!. Spkr with 92db rating Spkr!. with 100 rating

1 watt 92 db 100 db
2 watts 95 103
4 watts 98 106
16 watts 104 112
64 110 118
256 116 124
1024 122 130

Remember, these are at 1 meter away from the speaker!. So, the decibal level is going to be lower as the distance gets farther away from the speaker!.

Generally, a kick drum is around 110 db, a snare at roughly 120, and a cymbals crash at 130 db!. Take a look at the chart, and what do you see!?

So, wattage is generally meaningless!. As a rule of thumb, a rock band should have no less than 250-300 watts @ 4 ohms!. And this is for a smaller rig! My band runs in stereo, and we have no less than 2400 on the subs, about 1500 per side on the high end!. !. Of course, when we play out, we run EVERYTHING through the pa!. And, we have tons of head room, or left over power!. Its a very clean and quality sounding rig!. We practice with no less than 300, and have trouble getting just the vocals over the drums!. Usually, we use a Q!.S!.C!. 2400 watt powerlyte for rehersals, but ours is on loan right now to some good friends who have blown there power amp!. (hope we get this back in working condition!) Bear in mind too, when you expand the 1 meter distance, a lot of factors come in to play!. The test that are done on speakers are all done in perfect environments!. Add distance, carpeting, if playing live, PEOPLE!. People aborb alot of sound!. Walk in a club thats dead, and keep an eye on the sound tech!. As people start to fill the club, the volume goes down some!. He will bring up the volume on the pa to get it back where it was when the club was dead!.

By the way, these figures about decibels and wattage is exact SCIENCE! Its not my theories or ramblings!.

So, if we go up to the chart and look at the figures, using speakers with a 100rating would mean you would need somewhere in the area of 256 watts!. I see the mixer your looking at is 150!.

You dont say what your budget is Tyson, nor what you was going to pay for the Roland!. Im going to enclose a link to a mixer that would give you more than enough juice for rehersals, and small gigs!. Its a powered mixer, with plenty of onboard effects, master eq, and some nice features!. Plus, you can solo each channel, which prevents any kind of clipping on the input!. Clipping an input just adds noise to the channel, which is sent to the main power supply, which is sent to the speakers, which can blow up if to much!. also, use MATCHED speakers!. Same power handling, same spl level or sensitivity!. By not doing so can cause a lot of problems!.

Heres the link:
http://www!.americanmusical!.com/Item--i-B!.!.!.

This powered mixer is 250 watts at 4 ohms per side,(stereo), or the power amps can be bridged and then produces 500 watts at 8 ohms, mono!. A lot of pro techs might frown at this mixer, but like you, im the working joe who tries to get the best bang for the buck!. These arent bad mixers!.
Hope this has helped!. If you have any further questions about products or sound reinforcement in general, feel free to contact me through email or my yahoo 360 page!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The one your looking to buy will be plenty, especially if you're only running your vocals through it!. As long as it's EQ'd and clipped properly you should only need the volume set to around 0Db on the channel and the same on the master volume!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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You could also turn down the amps on the guitar and bass, and have the drummer play more quietly!. That's good old fashioned musicality there!Www@QuestionHome@Com

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