Korg Forums

Now that most of the world is in lockdown except good old OZ and NZ and maybe a couple of other places. I would like to find out if anyone has tried to busk with a Korg PA1000 in a portable setup, in the past or currently thinking about it.

Being in Tassie and at present no hassle with the "19" down here I would like to try to get out and do some music for Christmas, but need to do it with a battery/ inverter setup. The local councils are trying to stop "amp" assisted busking in some areas ( being powered by council) and other areas you need to book and pay extra for. So if I can get enough battery juice to run a PA1000 and maybe a portable battery powered amp, I would be just loud enough but not get "in trouble" with the local shop owners.

So, please, any suggestions as to what battery and would a 300 watt pure sine wave interver be enough?
What I was thinking I would need/ include, power wise:-

Korg Pa1000
SM58 mic
Small portable amp - what one I have not been able to work out yet - happy for anyone to point me in a direction please.
Cables to mic and to amp
Cable to Table - to run software for sheet music. etc
Cables to Inverter and battery/s
Inverter - pure sine wave - 300/600 watt????
1 or 2 x Batteries 12 volt ??? - not sure how to work out amp size for about 3 hours usage (max).
Would this one be enough to run what I want - Diamec DM12-18 SLA Battery $79.95

Thanks in advance everyone.....

Has anyone got any experience in busking with a keyboard on batteries and an inverter out there at all that can help please?


thank you.

no experience but look at this ..




https://www.roland.com/us/products/cube_street/

Rockpals 350W Portable Power Station

Westinghouse iGen160s Portable Power Station 155Wh Backup Lithium Battery, 110V/100W AC Outlets, Solar Generator (Solar Panel Not Included)

https://www.amazon.com/Westinghouse-iGe ... 6226&psc=1

tassiespirit wrote:Has anyone got any experience in busking with a keyboard on batteries and an inverter out there at all that can help please?


thank you.

I use a jobsite radio that runs off tool batteries, and synthesis capability that runs on batteries (like the KORG Kross).

Check out Bosch's jobsite radios. They sound way better than you'd expect.

I have a ton of experience with playing outdoors on battery assist.

In the past I used qsc k10 and k8.2 speakers, both of which require A LOT of power. For those speakers I used:

- Deep cycle battery, weighs about 60 pounds, used a 400 watt inverter. The battery, about 70 amp hours?, did well, but doing this setup again I'd use a 600 watt inverter. I would occasionally overload the inverter, which caused it to shut down. I just started everything back up, trying not to play too loudly or with too much bass.
Given you'd probably be playing at a softer volume, you'd probably do just fine with a 400 watt inverter with these speakers.

- I also used a Turbosound IP300 with this setup and found it was roughly equivalent to using the qsc k speakers, which is surprising given how much higher wattage the k speakers are

Before the heavy battery and big speakers, I used a roland cube street ex for years, which did surprisingly well considering it ran off of 8 AA batteries. As a do-it-all amp it did really well- I enjoyed the mic input with reverb, the guitar input with fx and amp modeling, I liked having the 1/8" and 1/4" line ins for keyboards and smartphone.
For $450 and at 18 pounds, it did a reasonable job, esp indoors, but in the noisy drum circles I played with in the park, it just didn't have enough bass oomph and overall volume, which is always the challenge for small, self-powered speakers for keyboards. Though, once again, this may not be a problem for your lower volume use. The qsc K8.2 and esp the K10 was really fun to play for the volume and bass it could produce

I also ran the K8.2 and K10 off of a lithium ion battery with built in inverter. Was really surprised I could pull this off- the inverter was only 300 watts and the battery was only 250 watt hours (wh). Both those numbers are on the low side, and I had even more shutdowns when I played too loudly and or with too much bass. After several months of this kind of grueling use for this underpowered gear, it stopped working well, could only play at low volumes before it would shut off.

Lithium ion batteries are sweet- the one in the above paragraph is only 6 pounds, what a difference from using a lead acid battery! And it was only $130, a low price for 250wh. However, if I was to do the same setup, I would jump from 250wh to at least 350-400wh, and the built in inverter would need to be at least 400-600 watts. You don't want to run equipment like batteries at their limit!


I'm waiting on delivery now for the JBL eon one compact, a $549 unit that:
- has a built-in lithium ion battery good for up to 12 hours light use, 5-6 heavier use
- has BT built in, so you can stream music wirelessly from your smartphone
- 8" woofer and tweeter
- BT mixer, so you can change settings from your smartphone
- 112db sound output, which is much louder than other comparable battery powered speakers
- 4 mixer channels, including 2 mic inputs (1 with phantom power), a high z input for guitar/bass, 2 band eq per mixer channel and 8 band eq on master,
- less than 18 pounds
- has chorus, reverb and delay fx

I've been waiting for a speaker like this for years! Nothing else out there like it. I'll have to see how well everything on it works, and of course the sound quality, but if it checks out this is the holy grail for low hassle, full sounding amplification and well-equipped mixer for keyboard/guitar/mic and BT audio and mixer control!

Also: you could probably get away with something like this for simply powering the keyboard, which has fairly loud speakers:
https://www.amazon.com/Pinty-Portable-U ... e&sr=1-12 , which is 200wh and 300 watt inverter for $135

What I liked doing in smaller jam circles was to get my Pa1000 as loud as I needed and then bring up the volume of the speaker I used. That way I had wonderful stereo sound for myself, and an external speaker just added to the bass and overall fullness of the sound, and I was likely not to play too loud cause i had such great monitors from the built-in speakers on the keyboard

Randy

I have a ton of experience with playing outdoors on battery assist.

In the past I used qsc k10 and k8.2 speakers, both of which require A LOT of power. For those speakers I used:

- Deep cycle battery, weighs about 60 pounds, used a 400 watt inverter. The battery, about 70 amp hours?, did well, but doing this setup again I'd use a 600 watt inverter. I would occasionally overload the inverter, which caused it to shut down. I just started everything back up, trying not to play too loudly or with too much bass.
Given you'd probably be playing at a softer volume, you'd probably do just fine with a 400 watt inverter with these speakers.

- I also used a Turbosound IP300 with this setup and found it was roughly equivalent to using the qsc k speakers, which is surprising given how much higher wattage the k speakers are

Before the heavy battery and big speakers, I used a roland cube street ex for years, which did surprisingly well considering it ran off of 8 AA batteries. As a do-it-all amp it did really well- I enjoyed the mic input with reverb, the guitar input with fx and amp modeling, I liked having the 1/8" and 1/4" line ins for keyboards and smartphone.
For $450 and at 18 pounds, it did a reasonable job, esp indoors, but in the noisy drum circles I played with in the park, it just didn't have enough bass oomph and overall volume, which is always the challenge for small, self-powered speakers for keyboards. Though, once again, this may not be a problem for your lower volume use. The qsc K8.2 and esp the K10 was really fun to play for the volume and bass it could produce

I also ran the K8.2 and K10 off of a lithium ion battery with built in inverter. Was really surprised I could pull this off- the inverter was only 300 watts and the battery was only 250 watt hours (wh). Both those numbers are on the low side, and I had even more shutdowns when I played too loudly and or with too much bass. After several months of this kind of grueling use for this underpowered gear, it stopped working well, could only play at low volumes before it would shut off.

Lithium ion batteries are sweet- the one in the above paragraph is only 6 pounds, what a difference from using a lead acid battery! And it was only $130, a low price for 250wh. However, if I was to do the same setup, I would jump from 250wh to at least 350-400wh, and the built in inverter would need to be at least 400-600 watts. You don't want to run equipment like batteries at their limit!


I'm waiting on delivery now for the JBL eon one compact, a $549 unit that:
- has a built-in lithium ion battery good for up to 12 hours light use, 5-6 heavier use
- has BT built in, so you can stream music wirelessly from your smartphone
- 8" woofer and tweeter
- BT mixer, so you can change settings from your smartphone
- 112db sound output, which is much louder than other comparable battery powered speakers
- 4 mixer channels, including 2 mic inputs (1 with phantom power), a high z input for guitar/bass, 2 band eq per mixer channel and 8 band eq on master,
- less than 18 pounds
- has chorus, reverb and delay fx

I've been waiting for a speaker like this for years! Nothing else out there like it. I'll have to see how well everything on it works, and of course the sound quality, but if it checks out this is the holy grail for low hassle, full sounding amplification and well-equipped mixer for keyboard/guitar/mic and BT audio and mixer control!

Also: you could probably get away with something like this for simply powering the keyboard, which has fairly loud speakers:
https://www.amazon.com/Pinty-Portable-U ... e&sr=1-12 , which is 200wh and 300 watt inverter for $135

What I liked doing in smaller jam circles was to get my Pa1000 as loud as I needed and then bring up the volume of the speaker I used. That way I had wonderful stereo sound for myself, and an external speaker just added to the bass and overall fullness of the sound, and I was likely not to play too loud cause i had such great monitors from the built-in speakers on the keyboard

Randy

duby2 wrote:no experience but look at this ..




https://www.roland.com/us/products/cube_street/

Rockpals 350W Portable Power Station

Westinghouse iGen160s Portable Power Station 155Wh Backup Lithium Battery, 110V/100W AC Outlets, Solar Generator (Solar Panel Not Included)

https://www.amazon.com/Westinghouse-iGe ... 6226&psc=1

The igen160s looks interesting, but I am in OZ and we have 240volt here so it causes issues with converters to 240v from 110v. But looks like a handy size (carry weight to site each time), even for 2 hour time frame would have been enough.

But on the other hand I did find this one on Amazon Australia https://www.amazon.com.au/Jackery-Porta ... 6607&psc=1
Not cheap, but it does 240v and at 200W - 1x pure Sine wave too!! 2 x USB ports.

Koekepan wrote:

tassiespirit wrote:Has anyone got any experience in busking with a keyboard on batteries and an inverter out there at all that can help please?


thank you.

I use a jobsite radio that runs off tool batteries, and synthesis capability that runs on batteries (like the KORG Kross).

Check out Bosch's jobsite radios. They sound way better than you'd expect.

Thanks for the reply, as I am pulling my hair out trying to work out amp/ watts and Volts to what equals consumption of the keyboard and the amp ( whatever is the best). Either a Roland Cube Ex or KC110 ( oldie), or something that just does the job for a while.

The radios I looked at either come in 12v (small) or 18v (larger), so I would have to still go through an inverter ( pure sine wave - this stops it killing my keyboard- and eliminates the hum). It is easier to invert a 12v or 24 v battery than a 18v , as it is more common. But it does really rely on the amp output or how many hours at a certain level of watts I can achieve out of the battery.

A radio can go all day on an 18 volt battery at low watts but not a 240 volt keyboard and amp for as many hours. That is what I have to work out and my maths are a bit shaky.

I do not see why you want a Roland Amp.

A Korg PA has a mike input you could use.

I cannot help but think you are going overkill.

Hiw about this.

Korg Kross 2, runs on AA batteries, is less than 9 lbs in weight and small overall yet with full size keys.

Add a Roland Cube, battery powered and has mike input.

Play backing tracks from your mobile into the Roland and play along with the,

A much simpler, lighter and more cost effective solution

Biggles wrote:I do not see why you want a Roland Amp.

A Korg PA has a mike input you could use.

I cannot help but think you are going overkill.

Hiw about this.

Korg Kross 2, runs on AA batteries, is less than 9 lbs in weight and small overall yet with full size keys.

Add a Roland Cube, battery powered and has mike input.

Play backing tracks from your mobile into the Roland and play along with the,

A much simpler, lighter and more cost effective solution

Biggles,

Thanks for the reply,

First off the rank, I haven't got the amp yet just the 'board. So the question was really what Amp to use as well to get enough oommmph, but not too much to make too much noise in the mall etc; since the small speakers do not have enough in the keyboard itself to get over the din of the crowd or other buskers down further.

Secondly, since I have got a keyboard, why go out and spend more money to buy another keyboard?!

Not knocking the Korg Kross 2 at all it is a fine board, but it does not have the features I need. Like the voice TC Helicon ( which I need to help my singing). I also, like the ease of transposing during a song and swapping from one MP3 to another since that is what I will be doing and NOT using the AUTO accompaniment.
I also love the joy stick setup of the PA1000 and really happy to get away from the wheel setup that is still on the Kross.

Arps by themselves seem too linier to me, give me something like Kaoss or Karma, but by themselves them are too regular and to contrived ( my opinion).
The Kross is well thought out and is 9V and has some great Players gear on the board at this level that stands out. But you do get what you pay for too. Been told there is an average Vocoda in the Kross but some people do not like it, but Ihave not tried this keyboard to be honest, and there is no one with in 300 k's to check one out ( I live in Tasmania OZ .

In one sense I could just run a midi controller and software with my backing tracks/ mp3 I have made up for myself, but I would still need to get an AMP and a Voice harmoniser (to align my voice as it sometimes gets out of tune - tinnitus).






Allan

Good luck

Hmmm... hopefully it'll take this time. The above blank posts from me was when I tried to send this post the last time.

I LOVE the mic section on the Pa1000! That you have all those controls right up on the board, the fx sound really good, volume and fx amount controls etc., it's way way better than simply a board with a mic in because of those controls.

Anyways, here's what I wrote:
I have a ton of experience with playing outdoors on battery assist.

In the past I used qsc k10 and k8.2 speakers, both of which require A LOT of power. For those speakers I used:

- Deep cycle battery, weighs about 60 pounds, used a 400 watt inverter. The battery, about 70 amp hours?, did well, but doing this setup again I'd use a 600 watt inverter. I would occasionally overload the inverter, which caused it to shut down. I just started everything back up, trying not to play too loudly or with too much bass.
Given you'd probably be playing at a softer volume, you'd probably do just fine with a 400 watt inverter with these speakers.

- I also used a Turbosound IP300 with this setup and found it was roughly equivalent to using the qsc k speakers, which is surprising given how much higher wattage the k speakers are

Before the heavy battery and big speakers, I used a roland cube street ex for years, which did surprisingly well considering it ran off of 8 AA batteries. As a do-it-all amp it did really well- I enjoyed the mic input with reverb, the guitar input with fx and amp modeling, I liked having the 1/8" and 1/4" line ins for keyboards and smartphone.
For $450 and at 18 pounds, it did a reasonable job, esp indoors, but in the noisy drum circles I played with in the park, it just didn't have enough bass oomph and overall volume, which is always the challenge for small, self-powered speakers for keyboards. Though, once again, this may not be a problem for your lower volume use. The qsc K8.2 and esp the K10 was really fun to play for the volume and bass it could produce

I also ran the K8.2 and K10 off of a lithium ion battery with built in inverter. Was really surprised I could pull this off- the inverter was only 300 watts and the battery was only 250 watt hours (wh). Both those numbers are on the low side, and I had even more shutdowns when I played too loudly and or with too much bass. After several months of this kind of grueling use for this underpowered gear, it stopped working well, could only play at low volumes before it would shut off.

Lithium ion batteries are sweet- the one in the above paragraph is only 6 pounds, what a difference from using a lead acid battery! And it was only $130, a low price for 250wh. However, if I was to do the same setup, I would jump from 250wh to at least 350-400wh, and the built in inverter would need to be at least 400-600 watts. You don't want to run equipment like batteries at their limit!


I'm waiting on delivery now for the JBL eon one compact, a $549 unit that:
- has a built-in lithium ion battery good for up to 12 hours light use, 5-6 heavier use
- has BT built in, so you can stream music wirelessly from your smartphone
- 8" woofer and tweeter
- BT mixer, so you can change settings from your smartphone
- 112db sound output, which is much louder than other comparable battery powered speakers
- 4 mixer channels, including 2 mic inputs (1 with phantom power), a high z input for guitar/bass, 2 band eq per mixer channel and 8 band eq on master,
- less than 18 pounds
- has chorus, reverb and delay fx

I've been waiting for a speaker like this for years! Nothing else out there like it. I'll have to see how well everything on it works, and of course the sound quality, but if it checks out this is the holy grail for low hassle, full sounding amplification and well-equipped mixer for keyboard/guitar/mic and BT audio and mixer control!

Also: you could probably get away with something like this for simply powering the keyboard, which has fairly loud speakers:
https://www.amazon.com/Pinty-Portable-U ... e&sr=1-12 , which is 200wh and 300 watt inverter for $135

What I liked doing in smaller jam circles was to get my Pa1000 as loud as I needed and then bring up the volume of the speaker I used. That way I had wonderful stereo sound for myself, and an external speaker just added to the bass and overall fullness of the sound, and I was likely not to play too loud cause i had such great monitors from the built-in speakers on the keyboard

Randy

I have been reading this thread and decided to post.

With regard to making everything battery powered, I hope that you can find a battery pack that will support the PA series board that you are using. I would imagine that if you could turn off the internal speakers on your PA1000, the battery would last longer, but you would sacrifice your internal monitor system by doing so. I know that I rely on the speakers in my PA700 when I play live.

For the PA speaker, I know that people have recommended the battery powered Roland and stuff and that could be a good choice.

Another choice could be a bluetooth party speaker, like maybe something from JBL? Something like the Part Box 100? They feature guitar and mic inputs and have an output of 160 watts. They also claim to last up to 12 hours on the internal batteries. Even at full volume, I am pretty sure it would last about 2-4 hours. They run about $299 USD or so, and the price may be cheaper online somewhere.

There is an entire Party Box lineup from the Party Box 100 all the way up to the Party Box 1000.

With the mic input and harmony features for the vocals on the PA1000, you would really only have to plug the PA1000 into your power source.

I have used Bluetooth speakers in the past as a supplemental PA source for my PA700 when I needed to extend the sound in a room without power connections and while mine are not nearly as powerful as the Party Box series, they still did the trick.

There are all sorts of knockoff brands as well on eBay, so you may be able to find something even cheaper that would still do the job for you.

Just a thought...

Grace,
Harry

Hmmm... hopefully it'll take this time. The above blank posts from me was when I tried to send this post the last time.

I LOVE the mic section on the Pa1000! That you have all those controls right up on the board, the fx sound really good, volume and fx amount controls etc., it's way way better than simply a board with a mic in because of those controls.

Anyways, here's what I wrote:
I have a ton of experience with playing outdoors on battery assist.

In the past I used qsc k10 and k8.2 speakers, both of which require A LOT of power. For those speakers I used:

- Deep cycle battery, weighs about 60 pounds, used a 400 watt inverter. The battery, about 70 amp hours?, did well, but doing this setup again I'd use a 600 watt inverter. I would occasionally overload the inverter, which caused it to shut down. I just started everything back up, trying not to play too loudly or with too much bass.
Given you'd probably be playing at a softer volume, you'd probably do just fine with a 400 watt inverter with these speakers.

- I also used a Turbosound IP300 with this setup and found it was roughly equivalent to using the qsc k speakers, which is surprising given how much higher wattage the k speakers are

Before the heavy battery and big speakers, I used a roland cube street ex for years, which did surprisingly well considering it ran off of 8 AA batteries. As a do-it-all amp it did really well- I enjoyed the mic input with reverb, the guitar input with fx and amp modeling, I liked having the 1/8" and 1/4" line ins for keyboards and smartphone.
For $450 and at 18 pounds, it did a reasonable job, esp indoors, but in the noisy drum circles I played with in the park, it just didn't have enough bass oomph and overall volume, which is always the challenge for small, self-powered speakers for keyboards. Though, once again, this may not be a problem for your lower volume use. The qsc K8.2 and esp the K10 was really fun to play for the volume and bass it could produce

I also ran the K8.2 and K10 off of a lithium ion battery with built in inverter. Was really surprised I could pull this off- the inverter was only 300 watts and the battery was only 250 watt hours (wh). Both those numbers are on the low side, and I had even more shutdowns when I played too loudly and or with too much bass. After several months of this kind of grueling use for this underpowered gear, it stopped working well, could only play at low volumes before it would shut off.

Lithium ion batteries are sweet- the one in the above paragraph is only 6 pounds, what a difference from using a lead acid battery! And it was only $130, a low price for 250wh. However, if I was to do the same setup, I would jump from 250wh to at least 350-400wh, and the built in inverter would need to be at least 400-600 watts. You don't want to run equipment like batteries at their limit!


I'm waiting on delivery now for the JBL eon one compact, a $549 unit that:
- has a built-in lithium ion battery good for up to 12 hours light use, 5-6 heavier use
- has BT built in, so you can stream music wirelessly from your smartphone
- 8" woofer and tweeter
- BT mixer, so you can change settings from your smartphone
- 112db sound output, which is much louder than other comparable battery powered speakers
- 4 mixer channels, including 2 mic inputs (1 with phantom power), a high z input for guitar/bass, 2 band eq per mixer channel and 8 band eq on master,
- less than 18 pounds
- has chorus, reverb and delay fx

I've been waiting for a speaker like this for years! Nothing else out there like it. I'll have to see how well everything on it works, and of course the sound quality, but if it checks out this is the holy grail for low hassle, full sounding amplification and well-equipped mixer for keyboard/guitar/mic and BT audio and mixer control!

Also: you could probably get away with something like this for simply powering the keyboard, which has fairly loud speakers:
https://www.amazon.com/Pinty-Portable-U ... e&sr=1-12 , which is 200wh and 300 watt inverter for $135

What I liked doing in smaller jam circles was to get my Pa1000 as loud as I needed and then bring up the volume of the speaker I used. That way I had wonderful stereo sound for myself, and an external speaker just added to the bass and overall fullness of the sound, and I was likely not to play too loud cause i had such great monitors from the built-in speakers on the keyboard

Randy

Musicwithharry wrote:I have been reading this thread and decided to post.

With regard to making everything battery powered, I hope that you can find a battery pack that will support the PA series board that you are using. I would imagine that if you could turn off the internal speakers on your PA1000, the battery would last longer, but you would sacrifice your internal monitor system by doing so. I know that I rely on the speakers in my PA700 when I play live.

For the PA speaker, I know that people have recommended the battery powered Roland and stuff and that could be a good choice.

Another choice could be a bluetooth party speaker, like maybe something from JBL? Something like the Part Box 100? They feature guitar and mic inputs and have an output of 160 watts. They also claim to last up to 12 hours on the internal batteries. Even at full volume, I am pretty sure it would last about 2-4 hours. They run about $299 USD or so, and the price may be cheaper online somewhere.

There is an entire Party Box lineup from the Party Box 100 all the way up to the Party Box 1000.

With the mic input and harmony features for the vocals on the PA1000, you would really only have to plug the PA1000 into your power source.

I have used Bluetooth speakers in the past as a supplemental PA source for my PA700 when I needed to extend the sound in a room without power connections and while mine are not nearly as powerful as the Party Box series, they still did the trick.

There are all sorts of knockoff brands as well on eBay, so you may be able to find something even cheaper that would still do the job for you.

Just a thought...

Grace,
Harry

Harry, thanks for that one bro, I had a look in to that one just now and it looks good.
Can't get it in time for this holiday season and it is not available locally for me. It costs $395.00 plus postage. but it maybe the way to go and I won't have some of the other hassles I am having. I love the speakers on the PA1000, so I don't want to kill them , as I like to hear myself ( as a monitor).

Anyway, seasons greetings to all and hope next year is a better one for all!


Allan