carvin pa

[richard]

has anyone used or tried mixers and speakers from carvin? please give pros, cons etc....not guitar amps and speakers.

[Honeyboy]

I bought a PA 620 with the intention of using it as a monitor or small PA if the occasion should arise. I also thought all those effects it has would be fun to experiment with. I have not had occasion to use it on a gig yet. However, I did mess around with it alot at home. I found I could eliminate feedback by setting the EQ to an upsidedown smile configuration. I could actually sit in front of it with my SM57, facing it, and not feed back. I was totally unimpressed with the many sounds and effects it is supposed to have- the knobs have four effects per knob, meaning you only have 1/4 of a turn to get all the reverb effects, for example, 1/4 of a turn for delays, etc. Also, these effects weren't very pronounced, using a sax. I got better results using a Zoom Bass Effects pedal!! The effects were better using an electric guitar. If I was to do it again, I would get a comarable one made by Yamaha with their more useful reverb/delay and forget the flange and all that stuff.

[wbras]

I have 4 Carvin 12" monitors, model 7222, that I power with a QSC-700 and I am very happy with them. They are powerful, kick-butt tough and very clear/clean sounding. My bands have between 7 and 10 musicians...I run everything through the PA...15" Yamaha speakers with 1400 SPA Crate amp and a Nanoverb. Mixed with a 12-ch Peavey RQ board. I'm very pleased with all of it. Only thing I would change is maybe adding more channels on my mixing board maybe 20-24 ch., so I could have some unused ones just in case ..... also I'm looking for a pair of 18" subwoofers.... they are expensive..for me anyway. :D

[Honeyboy]

:oops: I just pulled out my Carvin head and I need to correct some statements.The EQ is set in more of a waveform with the 100hz at -2, 250hz at +4, 600hz at+2, 1K at+4, 2.5 K at+6, 5K at +8 and10K at +2. These settings allow me to be right in front of it without feedback. I once again played around with the effects and came up with a kind of decent delay effect- it sounds like Jr. Walker on Cleo's Mood. The echo is set in the middle and the secondary effects knob is set at 9. Other than this, I am very dissapointed with the multi- effects it advertises. I guess you'll have to try it out yourself, since others rate these pretty high. Luckily you can send them back if you don't like their stuff.

[richard]

thanks wbras and honeyboy for your responce...anyone else???

[Frank D]

You can only expect so much from the effects incuded in a PA head. I'd stick to a basic reverb, and if you want anything beyond that, use an outboard EFX unit.

As far as a small PA, I'd suggest looking into the line of powered mixers from Mackie. Lots of power, good efx, plenty of flexibilty regarding setup of eq, monitor loops, etc. I have the 408S (8 channels, stereo) and my only complaint is that it's overkill for my needs. If I were to buy again, I'd probably go with the 6 channel mono version and save a few bucks.

[Jazzed]

A band I play with recently got a Carvin 16 channel powered board along with 3-way speakers (system C1644P-1584). The system sounds very clean to me. The speakers are large-- I'm glad I'm not the one transporting it!!

I just got a Carvin Stagemate (S400D) last week to use for a gig monitor and ocassionally as a small events PA. I've only used it a few times, but it is working nicely.