Well, now that it is over, I can´t believe how lucky we were.
But I have still people telling me we had the best sound of the last 8 years.
To sum up: Dance show, we do every year in the same place, about middle of June. Small venue, about 250 heads public (well , as usual, they ARE a little more), about 120 between dancers and other artists (mostly childrens) 30-40 songs to play.
One day before the show - BANG - the place is busy for a double booking, and we got the short stick.
Luck, found another place not faraway, a little smaller, BUT no PA in place, at all.
We where used to have a rented sound system over there, well known stuff.
My other PA stuff already away for next week show, can´t find a rental on saturday afternoon. So we have to inprovise.
Found only 2 cheap 12" PA speakers (including double piezos) no brand on them, and a small "DJ" mixer console by a local store. No ampli available, so let´s pick up that old P3A sitting inside a box from years. Nothing spectacular, original PCB from ESP, standard ONSEMI outputs, quite big heat sink.
Just added esternally a double fan for forced ventilation, since, against the recommendations of the designer we went full power (42 V rails) to 4 Ohm (that was what was on the speaker´s stickers). Wired everything with 1.5 mmq plain electrical installation cable.
Soooo we went on for the 3 hours (plus some rhersals and sound tests before) playing at 9/10 of the volume , input a 0dB. The speakers, rated for 400 W "musical" where showing their limits just above that.
Could not make a proper sound check, but the speakers, placed with the tweeters just at head level, sounded accettable to my hears after some quick work on the console tone controls. Of course with the place almost empty.
So the praises that I got after the show came really as a surprise.
Must have been the clean sound of the P3A that did the magic, I cannot think of nothing else. What a beautiful simple design, amazing what a few clean watts can do!
Just want to share my happyness and maybe hear comments from people more competent than me.
But I have still people telling me we had the best sound of the last 8 years.
To sum up: Dance show, we do every year in the same place, about middle of June. Small venue, about 250 heads public (well , as usual, they ARE a little more), about 120 between dancers and other artists (mostly childrens) 30-40 songs to play.
One day before the show - BANG - the place is busy for a double booking, and we got the short stick.
Luck, found another place not faraway, a little smaller, BUT no PA in place, at all.
We where used to have a rented sound system over there, well known stuff.
My other PA stuff already away for next week show, can´t find a rental on saturday afternoon. So we have to inprovise.
Found only 2 cheap 12" PA speakers (including double piezos) no brand on them, and a small "DJ" mixer console by a local store. No ampli available, so let´s pick up that old P3A sitting inside a box from years. Nothing spectacular, original PCB from ESP, standard ONSEMI outputs, quite big heat sink.
Just added esternally a double fan for forced ventilation, since, against the recommendations of the designer we went full power (42 V rails) to 4 Ohm (that was what was on the speaker´s stickers). Wired everything with 1.5 mmq plain electrical installation cable.
Soooo we went on for the 3 hours (plus some rhersals and sound tests before) playing at 9/10 of the volume , input a 0dB. The speakers, rated for 400 W "musical" where showing their limits just above that.
Could not make a proper sound check, but the speakers, placed with the tweeters just at head level, sounded accettable to my hears after some quick work on the console tone controls. Of course with the place almost empty.
So the praises that I got after the show came really as a surprise.
Must have been the clean sound of the P3A that did the magic, I cannot think of nothing else. What a beautiful simple design, amazing what a few clean watts can do!
Just want to share my happyness and maybe hear comments from people more competent than me.
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