Need some advice from the musically inclined out there

[glenn1]

hey all, i'm putting together a system for our church now, it's going to be used by both the Pastor and the Music Director (we're not an old-school type church, we have music with electric instruments and such, not a simple choir or the like).

Now, since i have absolutely no real background in music (nor musical talent), what would be good stuff hardware-wise to put into a box that's going to be used by musicians? For example, would getting a SB Live Drive or something similar be useful, or a possible waste of money that could be spent on other items?

Plus, any "must-have" software should i be out there looking for? I'm really flying blind in that department, so any help or advice there would be greatly appreciated...

 

[glenn1]

LOL, what, we have no musicians out there who can help me out here?

 

[glenn1]

well, the Pastor will be using it as a general purpose box (word processing, internet, etc.), and the Musical Director, i don't know... could you use a computer to aid with practicing and rehearsing, say by plugging say a guitar into a Live Drive rather than a normal amp? Again, i'm in unfamiliar waters here, so i don't really know what usefulness a computer might offer to a music person apart from perhaps being able to find and download sheet music and such from the web...

 

[bcterps]

Unless you are gonna do some recording, it really isnt necessary to hook up your computer to your sound system at all. Computers are really just used for mixing and editing your recordings. Just spend the money on a good mixing board, speakers, amps, mics, etc.

--Ben

 

[glenn1]

Thanks Benchiu... that's pretty much what i needed to know, i'll put the money to work for something that i know will be useful... such as a decent burner - i KNOW that will get used. Thanks again

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

/in steps the church music/church tech god. I've been playing for my church for seven years. Been through this stuff many times.

okay, there's no way you're going to take the money you were going to put into a computer system and buy decent sound/mixing equipment for a band. No way in hell. Those boards, amps, mics, etc. cost many thousands of $$$. ...don't even think about running an instrument through it during service. I'll have to kill you.

If you're looking at getting a PC for your pastor and music director's desktop/business usage, it will work perfectly.


-note-

if you want the music director to use the PC to poop out sound quantity (quality is a given with decent hardware - which I'll get to in a minute), you'd better get some seriously kick-ass speakers that are nearly as loud as a regular amp. If it's a one-on-one practice, you don't need the amp anyway. If the music director is working with a group of people, you'll want the people in the way back to hear. I'm assuming from your post that your church is a fairly large one with a nice set of musicians and singers.

Anyway, get yourself a SB live! Or, if you have the money, go looking for a professional mixing card called the 'tortise' (SP?) -like the turtle.
With the SB Live!, you can get a drive for the front of the PC that has several RCA plugs of various sizes and two (male/female) plugs for -AW CRAP. I can't remember the name of the huge metal plugs with three prongs. Hmm. Anyway, if you work with setting up musician/singer's monitors or hooking musicians into the system or getting the singer's mics up and running, you'll know what I'm talking about. Anyway, there's a drive out for the SBL that allows you to use those kinds.


Good luck. Good hunting.