Audio How are these audio equipment?

[iPwnz]

We've been using the following equipment in our church for a few years now.
1. Yamaha Mixing Console MG24/14FX
2. Yamaha R115 speaker
3. Ahuja Pro Series PAM-3001
4. Yamaha Power Amplifier P5000S with EEEngine
5. A Shure wireless headset with mic (forgotten the model) and a mixture of mics.

The church is a brick hall with 8-10 windows, 3-4 doors and has a seating capacity of about 300 people without overcrowding the hall.

We place the Yamaha speakers, each on the sides near the door at the front. In between we have two Ahuja-something speakers for the "monitor" or whatever its called.

I'm no audiophile but i love good sound. And so i've always felt that the sound quality to be very lacking. Also the distortion and other issues. We can never get the sound to be just "right" and so we often end up setting the controls to our mood of the moment or when we assume it be "okay". I also want to mention that we have no dedicated sound engineer or someone who can handle the sound systems skillfully. Just a bunch of novices who only know the basic and bare knowledge of which wire goes where. As a result it takes a long time to make things work.
How does one become a sound "engineer"? What do i need to learn to know how to maximize the potential of all these to have a "good" sound.

Also how are the equipment which i mentioned above? And how much would it cost to have a decent sound system (from scratch) without breaking the bank?

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

Equipment seems decent enough. The mixing console looks overkill though, for eg - are you actually using anywhere close to 20 input sources?
For cables more than a few feet long, check that you're using balanced cables with XLR connectors to cut down on any interference.

And so i've always felt that the sound quality to be very lacking.

You need to be more specific.

Also the distortion

For distortion you need to adjust the levels on each component in the signal chain to ensure none of them are clipping.
Let's say you're looking at the wireless mic - the wireless receiver will have its own gain knob, the mixing console will have another gain knob for that input + a master gain knob, and finally the power amp will also have another gain/volume knob. You need to experiment with balancing all the levels to get the least distortion.

As a result it takes a long time to make things work.

Why not leave the settings as is once its been dialed in and just use the master volume knob + on/off switch?

 

[iPwnz]

Equipment seems decent enough. The mixing console looks overkill though, for eg - are you actually using anywhere close to 20 input sources?
For cables more than a few feet long, check that you're using balanced cables with XLR connectors to cut down on any interference.

I don't know about the exact number of input sources but they are definitely not few. Drums, guitars, vocal mics etc etc. all connected.
The wires are very long. While the actual distance is short we place the wires so that they dont get in the way ending up much longer than what we wanted.

You need to be more specific.

Even if it sounds okay sometimes the sound get noisy or "hurt/damaged" producing unwanted sounds like "zzrrr..." without any interference from our side.

Let's say you're looking at the wireless mic - the wireless receiver will have its own gain knob, the mixing console will have another gain knob for that input + a master gain knob, and finally the power amp will also have another gain/volume knob. You need to experiment with balancing all the levels to get the least distortion.

I'll give this a try when I can and if there is time.

Why not leave the settings as is once its been dialed in and just use the master volume knob + on/off switch?

Well first of all we are just hiring the hall temporarily, every saturday evening we set up everything and on sunday we disassemble and pack up. This has been going on for a few years now. We've also damaged some wires and cables and other equipment in the process.
Secondly, we can never leave the settings as they are. Someone or the other always complain about their mic/other input device and tell us to change the settings on the mixer.
Thirdly, our artists are so pro we can never meet their expectations.

btw what about the cost of a new decent sound system?

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

Even if it sounds okay sometimes the sound get noisy or "hurt/damaged" producing unwanted sounds like "zzrrr..." without any interference from our side.

Sounds like cable issues/loose connections.

Thirdly, our artists are so pro we can never meet their expectations.

Let the musicians have their own separate mixer on stage where they can set levels themselves. This has the other advantage of short cable runs to that mixer, and then just one long cable to the master mixer / power amp.

btw what about the cost of a new decent sound system?

This existing system itself is easily 1.5L+. If nothing's broken, you're better off improving this.

 

[iPwnz]

Second one is not possible. Which is why we have guys looking after the sound.
I'll post a pic or two showing how things are when I can.

 

[iPwnz]

@Crazy_Eddy what do I need to connect two audio output from a guitar? I need one for my personal ear-piece/headphone and the other for the external speakers. I can barely hear my bass guitar when I play. Increasing volume doesn't help much.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

Not sure about bass guitars, but don't you need an output from your guitar amp?

 

[iPwnz]

Yes I think so. But i don't know what its called. Many in concerts use them.
Btw i bought a 3.5mm to guitar jack converter (local one, paid 50bucks) and connected my 3.5mm earpiece. Not sure if its because of the earpiece or the convertor (its not tight) or the battery or all of the above but even at the highest volume it is not loud enough for my liking.
I tried to borrow a dedicated ampli/speaker (for single guitars) from a friend but he said the guitar will be too OP and wouldn't give it. -_-
so my next question is, how much does a decent one cost?[DOUBLEPOST=1454477835][/DOUBLEPOST]Went to a music equipment store and i was told that i need a "processor/effect" system and that it costs around 8k.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

Can you describe your present setup? What is using a battery?

I thought you were using an amp, in which case it will be colouring your sound and I assume you would want to listen to the amp's output, so you would need a line out from your amp.
But if you're playing clean into the mixer, then you just need a simple splitter with a suitable headphone amp, since guitars/pickups have high output impedance.

 

[iPwnz]

Lol I was playing directly into the earphone using a convertor.
I think that I need two things,
For church use I need a simple splitter like this but one of the port should be 3.5mm and the other standard 1/4." Would there be any?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/1-4-jack-splitter
For solo at home I'll need an amp. So what would be a good entry level guitar amp. I don't trust these local dealers.