Come Together only use top quality, well established brand name equipment to help us get our great sound for the band and supporting disco / light show.

You will find many bands offering 'band & disco', but when they say disco, what they actually mean is a CD player, and a couple of compilation discs. Some bands don't even carry their own lighting and instead rely on the venue's 'in house' lighting which is either non-existent or sub-standard.

This can ultimately result in a disapointing evening for all concerned - apart from the group who still get paid for providing 'band & disco'...

For this reason Come Together take our equipment very seriously. In fact, it's a bit of a standing joke with other bands we know.They always joke about and say that we carry too much equipment around. We always say to them 'you only get out what you put in'. We firmly believe this.

For disco we use a Numark twin CD deck / mixer unit and a Dell Dual Core laptop PC, with DJ software. We can download tracks live as ther are requested if neccessary.

We use a number of 'Acrobat' lighting units, two, four can Par 56 units, numerous other effects and standalone units. We also carry smoke and haze machines.

PA;

We have been using Mackie PA for over 5 years now but every time we turn it on we are still amazed by the fantastic sound quality.

It doesn't matter how good the band is - a bad PA will never make a great band sound great. However, using a high quality PA such as a Mackie doesn't make all bands sound great. It allows good bands to shine, picking up every line of detail in the sound. Unfortunately, a bad band is just that - a good PA will pick this up too!

We use a mackie compact system that packs a real punch!

Our system pushes out 2kw of uncompressed, undistorted power. What you put in is what you get out. For those who may not understand what 'active' speakers are, this means that the amps are built into the speakers themselves rather than having a traditional powered desk driving an unpowered(or passive) speaker. Because the amps are built into the speakers themselves, there is virtually no loss in power, and the speakers get their own amp designed to drive the given speaker at the desired frequencies. For example, the top speaker has two speakers and two amps - one pair for the high frequencies and another to deal with the mid-range. The subwoofer has a massive amp dedicated to providing the thunderous bass frequencies via the 15 inch speaker.

Mackie claim that you can push these speakers to the limit without a hint of distortion. Well I believe it. In 5 years of using this system, we have played many large venues, with occupancies in the region of 500 people. Not once have we got anywhere near the limit of these speakers.

Without wishing to tempt fate, the Mackie PA has proved to be the best investment we could make as a band, and it has never let us down. I'm sure that we will be using this PA for many years to come and when it finally is time to replace, we will look only to Mackie equipment.

We use the recommended Mackie CFX Series 12 channel unpowered mixer with these speakers - It was designed to be used with the active speakers, and the intergration is seamless. We find this desk easy to use with more than enough features for most applications. It also comes in 16 and 20 channel variations - The 12 channel version is more than adequate for a 5 piece band, fully mic'd. (we do use a small sub-mixer for the drums to save channels on the main desk and to allow for easy adjustment of the drum levels)

We use;

2 x Mackie 'Active' Subwoofers - SWA 1500

2 x Mackie 'Active' mid / top range speakers - SRM 450

Mackie CFX series 12 channel Mixer with digital effects.

For more information about the Mackie range;

www.mackie.com

Just round the corner from where Sound Control used to be, under the archway is City Music. I use them for monitors, microphones etc. Again, very helpful;

www.citymusicbrum.co.uk

Of course I also use our very own Music City in Worcester. Speak to Steve or Tom for helpful advice and competitve prices. Always mention Come Together - we might get some discount!

www.musiccityworcester.com

You'll find all of these shop and other links on our 'Links' page

More equipment info to follow shortly