Live sound amps/speakers for synths & electronic sound sources

Equipment
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Hi everyone,

For folks who are playing synths/modular/electronic music live and are providing their own main amplification or monitors - what are you using?

I recently got a Groove Tubes SFX100, which is an older version of the Aspen Pittman Spacestation. It’s cool, and I think I like the single-point stereo and it does have a unique way of presenting stereo for live settings, but it doesn’t have anything close to the low-end that I want in a keyboard/synth amp…though it does have an output for a powered subwoofer, so it could be augmented, but then that’s another thing to have to bring to a show. At practice for a band I’m in, I thought “maybe this sounds good enough” until I heard my bandmate’s JX-3P through a fairly common Roland KC amp and the bass was just on a whole different level.

In the past I used to bring a powered mixer/15" monitor speakers or a big old Roland Cube 100 keyboard amp and those worked okay, but they were quite bulky.

I’m curious what people are using for all sizes of venue, but my experience and current interest is for venues of probably 15-75 people or so.

maybe this is a separate topic altogether, but related: has anyone done any quadraphonic or surround shows? I attended a Morton Subotnick performance a couple years ago and it was awesome, and it seemed like a pretty simple setup using powered monitors on tripod stands in a room that fit probably 80 people.

ps. I looked for a related thread but couldn’t find one, but if anyone is aware of one on lines, please let me know!

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I don’t like playing through less than a pair of quality 12" tops and an 18" sub: I need real bass!

My rig currently includes a pair of EV ELX-12P powered tops and an ELX-118P powered 18" sub. I don’t do sound for myself that often, fortunately. That combo will deliver 105dBC continuous at 8-10 meters with reasonably decent bass. I like to get out in front of the mains when I can. Otherwise I use IEMs.

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thanks, sounds like a good system.

what is your IEM setup like?

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Oh, it’s really simple: Shure SE-215s plugged straight into the modular’s headphone output (which is a DIY Intellijel format 1U tile with an OPA2134-based amp). The isolation and accuracy of even these entry-level IEMs is pretty amazing to me, I wonder what the high end versions sound like!

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Hello! Not sure this is the right thread but I try here :slight_smile: I’m creating a performance (synths/voice/movement) for a festival and we have decided to perform the music in a quadraphonic set up.

Now they want to place the show in a large venue with a capacity of approx 500 ppl. I’m thinking my this is too big, but I’m just wondering is there any way we can place the quad set-up to cover this audience and if yes what type of speakers would we need?