The power amplifier is often just seen as the bit that produces the loud sounds. The choice you make when picking out an amplifier could be the difference between a happy crowd and an empty room.

There are two main considerations to be made when you choose your amplifier. How much power you need and what kind of frequency range would be acceptable.

How much power?

This is the question most people will begin with. When we talk about the amount of power we need you have to consider the audience you are playing to. As a rule of thumb you can use the following:

Medium bands: 3 to 4 watts per audience member.
Large bands: 5 to 6 watts per audience member.

These are only basic estimates but they will usually suffice for most occasions. Just use your common sense, 200 watts is not going to be enough for 200 people in a football stadium. Heres a few examples:

Home stereo: 150w is plenty
Rock or heavy metal music in a stadium: between 5000w and 25000w

What amplifier?

The range of the amplifier depends on two things. Is the instrument going to be amplified separately from everything else, a guitar amp for example, or is the amplifier to be used as the end amplification.

A guitar amplifier is specifically for guitars because of the range of frequencies it works best at and the extremely high gain that is required. A good (read expensive) end stage power amplifier should give a good response right across the desired frequency range.

If the amplifier is only to be used on a voice microphone then there is no point paying out on an expensive full range PA amplifier.

Again, common sense should be used here and the manufacturers/suppliers are usually very helpful when it comes to technical queries regarding music type and frequency range.

A good point to make that the beginner is often not aware of, is that you cannot just plug anything you like into a power amplifier. The inputs will often need some kind of conditioning of the signal. This will often involve either a mixer or a pre-amplifier to get the signal up to the desired levels.

This a good reference table so that you can check the amplifier has the desired range:

Singing voice: 60Hz to 1.2kHz
Wood winds: 30Hz to 3kHz
Drums: 70Hz 300Hz
Guitar: 65Hz to 1kHz

These are only a rough guide. Individual instruments can stray wildly from their typical frequency ranges.

I've given you a very basic guide to amplifier selection and obviously there are more in depth guides and tutorials but everybody has to start somewhere and armed with this information you should be able to request the desired amp.

(Zebedee is a professional in the music industry and owns and runs onthedex.com, a music hardware and software site.)

Good advice, Taike. I will add though that I think more power than needed will in the long run give you a cleaner sound. Case in point: A portable CD player with pretty good speakers and a power wattage of 12W can sound OK in a small room at a medium volume. Take that same CD player and put 150W in it and play it at the same volume - no louder and you will hear quite a difference in quality of sound. Keep in mind, the 12W sounded OK but having more than enough power with 150W makes a cleaner sound.

Scott

Scott why do you hate Rap?

Donny .....I may have a better question for you, Do you like it???? Why do you like it???
TR

Well, his profile says he likes melodic music. Rap, though it may have many other things going for it, has no melody.

Try making some before you diss it...

It is a LOT more complex than you think. Although the lead rapper may not be melodic, he (or she) is VERY rhythmical, even if in a 'loose' style that even crooners used to use. And there is often multi-layered r&b-style vocals behind it that are anything but easy to sing!

But the beats, and the backing... They are very much like blues music. It SEEMS like it ought to be easy, but try it and you'll find it VERY hard to not be derivative, and simply copy what you have heard. Just like the blues, it takes a true master rap producer to come up with something phresh.

Rap, reggae, dancehall, hiphop, ALL these styles seem deceptively easy. But try to innovate, rather than just copy, and you find out how hard it is to get it right... (and even copying is really hard with the soundsets that arrangers provide)

'
Tony hate is a strong word........dislike is more usuable....especially for a musician......you can find good & bad in any type of music....I always keep an open ear to find the things I appreciate in ALL styles of music including Rap.....why? because I take bits and pieces from all of them & incorporate it into my performances and playing & singing techniques....many ingredients make a wonderful stew my friends



------------------
________________________

Donny

� Choose a Job You Love, and you will Never have to Work a Day in Your Life! �
________________________
And HUG Someone tight Everyday....
You'll Feel better afterwards

Dnj -

To begin with, I find it odd that you would ask this question on a topic that has nothing to do with my not liking Rap. It clearly sounds defensive, coming from you. If you must know, let me give you a few reasons why Rap is of no interest to me:

It degrades everything on this planet, which includes total disrespect for anything moral. It degrades law enforcement, (to the point of, "kill a cop") races, gays, women, religion... the list goes on. It is generally played by punks at ear splitting volume in their souped up cars. It has an unmelodious sound, with an arrogant beat. It is produced to defy anything good and what is considered the norm. There is nothing more disgusting than to hear a punk or some overage fool playing this sound at a high volume, with their windows down, riding through a shopping center, letting everyone know what a "big man" they are. This ignorant and uneducated attitude of forcing people to listen to this shit is unforgivable. Also, check out the obituaries and see how many of these rappers are dead from drugs, gang wars or in prison for committing murder. Apparently, all this is OK with you by your defending it.

Diki, I disagree with you that it is hard to create. Any good musician can duplicate it. However, I would have to wonder why. Playing one chord (if one can call it that) for 200 measures doesn't require much creativity. Any fool can throw a few lyrics together that sometimes rhyme behind a boom-a-kish-ah, boom-a-kish-ah strong beat and you have it.

Again, whether I like or dislike Rap has no business being on this post. Let's stick to the informative topic that Taike posted.

Scott

Scott why did you put it in your public profile? secondly ever hear of changing the station/channel? sounds like you got a chip on your shoulder .............

Scott, even though I agree with you about Rap[I dislike it too }..I see where Donny read your statement and asked the question..I was confused too when I read his question, but you should have known where he was coming from, after all it is your profile...