I know a quite a few musicians who are obsessed with audio gear. To the layman it must seem a little weird. There's no real mystery why we place so much emphasis on our gear. No matter how well you play you only sound as good as your PA. A quality system adds to the impact of your music and the enjoyment of your audience. The solo performer has an additional qualifier as the rig has to be easy to transport, setup, and strike for one person. If you care about such things, my gear is outlined below.
-Casey
-Casey
B52 Matrix 1000 v2 - This 700 watt, three way system includes 2 cabinets with 10'' full range speakers with a horn and 1 cabinet housing a 15'" subwoofer and the power amps for each of the three speakers. Frequency response is 40 - 20k hz. Don't let the small size fool you, this system sounds great at lower volumes but can easily fill a room with huge sound.
Edirol m-10dx - This small format digital mixer replaced a whole rack full of analog gear. In addition to the regular mixer functions this unit features three seperate strereo digital processors that allow me to run compression, tube emulated saturation, and reverb on my vocals as well as a finalizer on the main bus that includes multi band compression and limiting all in pristine 96 khz 24 bit digital. Nice.
BBE 882i Sonic Maximizer - Perhaps the best known psycho-acoustic processor in the world. Corrects phase and amplitude distortion inherent in loudspeaker design. Gives the mix crisper highs and more defined low end punch without the phase problems associated with EQing.
Lighting Rig - Keeping with the 'one guy carries all the stuff' philosophy of smaller is better, my lighting rig is modest yet effective consisting of one LEDsplash 200b lighting fixture and one DMX-7 lighting controller.
Unlike gelled PAR cans, this fixture features RGB color mixing and can produce any color of the rainbow. It is rated at 930 lux @ 1 meter and delivers a deep colorful wash. The DMX controller allows me complete control of the light in real time as well as time based and sound activated chases. This simple rig does the job of a whole tree of PAR cans and since it uses LED technology it is 1/4 of the weight of a PAR can, generates no heat, and the bulbs last for 100,000 hours. Bonus!
Unlike gelled PAR cans, this fixture features RGB color mixing and can produce any color of the rainbow. It is rated at 930 lux @ 1 meter and delivers a deep colorful wash. The DMX controller allows me complete control of the light in real time as well as time based and sound activated chases. This simple rig does the job of a whole tree of PAR cans and since it uses LED technology it is 1/4 of the weight of a PAR can, generates no heat, and the bulbs last for 100,000 hours. Bonus!
Miscellaneous - I sing through a Sennheiser E945 condenser mic, play an Ovation acoustic and a ESP Toneworks PS1v electric guitar through a Zoom G9.2tt multieffects pedal.
I have been building and refining this rig over the last three years for ease of transport and setup while retaining good audio quality. I believe the performance of this setup to be equal to if not superior to PA systems 2 to 3 times its size and weight. Given the compliments I receive on the quality of the sound people tend to agree. I can setup in a very small space and, unlike a full band with a live drum kit, the sound can go from whisper quiet to 'in your face' loud.
