Such pretty, expensive toys

[illusionofjoy]

Every month or so Musician's Friend sends me a new catalogue in the mail, teasing me with various musical instruments and pieces of audio equipment that I can not afford to buy. Well, truth be told, I can afford to buy a new expensive "toy" every once in a while, but it means scraping cash together for a bit and forgoing other non-essential purchases so as to remain fiscally solvent (I'm not a major corporation qualifying for a government bailout, after all).

At the moment, my next for my next major equipment purchase, I've set my sights on a PA. This would free me of the curse of having to rent one whenever I found myself in a venue without and in-house system. I say curse because with every rental, I have to "get to know" equipment that I'm not intimately familiar with. With my own equipment, I already know which plugs go into which jacks and can get the job done right quick, no mess, no fuss.

Musician's Friend stocks several pre-assembled PA packages, however, I could probably get away with this cheapie package. The live Illusion of Joy set-up really only requires three channels for a proper mix (vocals, keyboard and laptop), however, I can't help but think I'm still selling myself short. Still, I can't afford a gee-whiz geekgasm PA system and it's unlikely that Illusion of Joy is going to evolve into a "real band" anytime in the near future, so the small budget PA would suit my current needs.