Hi there,

I play in an acoustic duo (2 guitars, or 1 guitar and one dobro, and 2 vocals) I have some excellent PA gear already (1 16 channel Allen and Heath unpowered mixing board, 1 AER AS 281 PA speakers....but no monitors...)We play in quiet settings, and in noisy bars, from 50 to 200 people in size.

I was thinking of keeping the AERS, and using the Bose compact as an onstage monitor- just for us as musicians to hear. The Bose compact would then come out of the Allen and Heath mixing board.

1) What do you think of this idea? Any problems? *This was my first idea.

Then I started reviewing the Bose L1 model ll idea...Got a little confused. The salesman here told me with the tonematch mixer you can plug in "5 instruments/vocals"...great, I thought, that could accomodate us perfectly. (2 guitars, 1 dobro, 2 vocals...). But in watching Teja Gerken's review on Acoustic guitar...he seems to be saying there are "3 inputs"...
So, I know that ideally, my partner would have a system of his own...but we are not there yet...,

2) Would this Bose L1 model 2 system work for us without our mixing board/2 AER speakers? and

3) would it work with the speakers and mixing board if we wanted to use it as a monitor for us for the time being, till we got two of them?

4) Is there a way to hook up a recording unit to record the gig to a Bose (compact or L1 model 2 system)?

5) Any presets for old Taylor guitars pre- expression...just with a piezo...

6) how about for an old Yamaha guitar with a piezo?

7)Dobro...anything worked out for that?

8)Tom Anderson Crowdster? anything in the works..?

9) I have 2 Beyer dynamic mics (TG-X48) any presets for those...?

Many thanks for any help, details you can provide. Some serious gear changing considering going on here...

Hi Marek,

I'm glad you're considering L1 systems for your duo. It's obvious that you've already done a considerable amount of research which makes it easier to provide some guidance.

I think the L1 Compact would work as a monitor and in fact others are using it this way. But like you I don't know why you wouldn't want to go all the way and get all the benefits of the L1 approach and use the L1 Model II to provide a single sound field for both the musicians and the audience, adding a second Model II when you can.

Either way I recommend using the T1 ToneMatch audio engine as your front end, thereby further simplifying your setup and getting the major benefits of ToneMatch technology. The T1 has three mic/line/instrument channels and a 4/5 channel that's line only. I would put the two vocal mics on channels 1 and 2, and the stringed instruments on 3 and 4. One wrinkle is that one of the guitars might need a preamp so that you can use the line level input on the fourth channel of the T1.

You can see all of this for yourself (and more) by using the T1 interactive simulator.

Now to some of your specific questions:

quote:

2) Would this Bose L1 model 2 system work for us without our mixing board/2 AER speakers? and

3) would it work with the speakers and mixing board if we wanted to use it as a monitor for us for the time being, till we got two of them?

If you go the T1 with L1 Model II route I'm recommending, you do not need the PA speakers or the mixer. Your setup will be greatly simplified and you'll have all the other benefits of the L1 approach with the exception of each having your own, which you can add later.

quote:

4) Is there a way to hook up a recording unit to record the gig to a Bose (compact or L1 model 2 system)?

Yes, it's easy to set up either the master output of the T1 for recording or set up the USB digital output for recording.

quote:

5) Any presets for old Taylor guitars pre- expression...just with a piezo...

6) how about for an old Yamaha guitar with a piezo?

Yes, there's a very good general preset for steel string acoustic with piezo pickup.

quote:

7)Dobro...anything worked out for that?

8)Tom Anderson Crowdster? anything in the works..?

Not that I know of. I would try some of the stringed instrument presets and then use zEQ to dial in a good EQ. Everything can be saved as a scene.

quote:

9) I have 2 Beyer dynamic mics (TG-X48) any presets for those...?

No, but again, I'd experiment with the large number of other ToneMatch presets for microphones and then dial in more EQ if you need it using zEQ and the parametric EQ built in.


Please let me know if you have any follow up questions.

Ken

Thank you so much Ken. I am really impressed by the amount of help and support I have had in such a short time- both from yourself and from another member (*Doug). I work in an online high school- and this is a truly rich "Professional learning community"- with a high degree of responsiveness, lots of "just in time learning"...all the groundbreaking elements we expect in a rich learning environment. Well done! I am confident that not only getting a Bose is a good investment, but that Bose will help me to learn and grow with the system. That's intelligent design!