Amongst the bands I've played with recently (both mostly playing pubs) one of them would have:
Tops on poles
A pair of subs
A couple of big amps to power them
a big mixer
full foldback with a foldback mix
A rack with compressors and reverbs etc.
Various lights on mounts
All instruments miced up.
The other band
Played out of amps
Shitty powered mixer into a pair of tops for vox
No foldback at all
I'm really not sure if the lack of gear of the latter band made that much difference to the audience (though how you're meant to sing without foldback is a puzzle to me)
Thinking about a new project and if it can cope with being light on gear or if it really makes a difference to the punters to have the extra stuff.
Comments
They had individual amps for guitar, bass, keys.
3 mics in to pa.
2 pa speakers - 12"
2 small floor monitors - at a guess 10"
1 power amp
no lights
no backdrop or drapes etc
sound-wise it was fine
looks wise, no lights / drapes meant they created no image / atmosphere
We increased our PA set up over time but that seemed to just increase the amount of stuff to lump in and out and the number of things to go wrong.
Essentially it was very hard to get the band members to understand that we could get a better balance between ourselves and not just to try to fix it with the PA.
For things like festivals or support slots then PA and lights are supplied anyway. I appreciate that if you are playing functions you need a decent PA to get that very balanced sound across potentially quite big rooms that won't have a band style PA set up. For the pub circuit IMHO you can get away with something smaller provided you use it intelligently. The next step up is then club type venues where you don't need your own PA / lights.
Done away with monitors
2 x 12" on poles
Backline to mixer via DIs
Drummer seems to prefer his electronic kit these days - which is dead easy stereo cable to mixer
4 mics into 20 channel mixer
Mixer -> power amp for speakers
Mixer (4 Aux channels) -> IEM
Lighting via 2x iColor 4 with DMX controller
Feedback
Acoustic band here. We have:
Acoustic guitar --> PA
Double bass --> PA
Cajon/Djembe/Cymbal --> PA
Mics / mixer / amp / 2xspeakers
No vocals so we are an easy set-up! Monitors and subs if we think we need them, which we usually don't. Will use the house PA if there is one. Will play without any amplification if the venue warrants it. No lights, no smoke, no banners. I have got an exciting guitar strap though.
If we are organising an outdoorer we may take the mighty Ampeg SVT for the double bass. It sounds AWESOME in the original sense of the word.
On the other hand if I'm paying £1500 for a band to play my wedding then I expect more than a drum kit and everything else through a 1974 Carlsbro two channel PA head.
I'm always more comfortable performing with a well spec'd sound system (I sing and play) but can perform with lesser rigs. Since I do this for pleasure (aparantly) why would I subject myself to difficult conditions and my audience to an ear bashing.
Having played in loud electric bands I am now in an acoustic outfit without a full drum kit, and I would not go back to a stupid high on-stage volume. In my youth sound engineers used to tell us to use 10W amps and mic them; we thought they were idiots.....they weren't.
I like the idea of an IEM mix so you don't have to crank a 50W Marshall to keep up with the drummer.
This may be the least rock and roll thing I've ever written.
Often the amps+ basic vocal PA approach is there because it is the simplest way to glue together a bunch of people who have invested heavilly in their own gear but not in band gear.