I'm piecing together a system on a shoestring budget.  Just bought the analog Mackie 24-4 board that my bass player bough and used in our first band back in 99 - its old, but clean and little use.  I have a powered peavey monitor, and an unpowered one I just replaced the diaphram  - (thanks, KISS tribute band!), and am using 2 old square dance "Yak Stack"  column sets as "mains" in my garage for practice, driving them with  the power section of a friend's 300 watt powered 6 channel mixer.

One decent AKG vocal mic, one cheaper Peavey.  24 channels seams like a bunch until you realize the drummer is going to use up 10 of them!

So I'm on the look-out for subs, speakers, amps, eq, effects, a snake, etc.

Keeping an eye on craigslist and fakebook marketplace....

Yes, ever since March of 2020 the whole industry was completely hosed. I actually took a job for a major sports team and some corporate gigs here and there which the restrictions had little barring on, due to science and some people being more equal than others.

Ish. I’ve been working/touring steadily since June now. There are many hurdles and restrictions yet to overcome, but things have been becoming more and more normalized again. I’m looking forward to next year, but we’re supposed to do quite a bit of international tours/gigs. I’m interested to see how the vaxx mandates play out as many of us are not and will not. The main band I work for does not enforce any bs, nor believes in mandating anything on the crew or locals. I’ve been fairly lucky in that sense.

Fine… I’ll poke my head back in every now and again.

I see you logged back in. ;)

Yeah, man! I thought it may have been you who re-upped my membership.

I appreciate it greatly!!!

Cool, glad to hear your band is one of the sensible ones. Too many bow to the insanity of the left. I’m also hopeful for 2022 to return to normal as I need as many gigs as possible for my original rock band.

Cool thread!   I recently fell into a part time sound engineer position at my church, and it’s been a ton of fun and new challenge.  

We have a pretty sweet Allen & Heath SQ digital board.  I’m still a total noob.  I can ride and mix faders well, but still getting the deep hang of EQ and compression.  

Is there a market for income for smaller gig sound guys?   I’m totally not opposed to buying a setup and doing some gigs on the weekends.  (Even if I go into the red, my main business can financially support another one that loses money if it’s fun lol)

If that's where I think it is, the best seats in the house are on the front row of the balcony to the left or right of the soundboard.
Great view of the stage and sound and the people watching on the floor are amazing.

Church sound can be challenging, and you can really hone your chops doing it. My church has an S6L, which is about ten times the console I use at my paid gig

Whether you can make money as a weekend warrior depends on your regional market. I'd do some research before buying a system.

Yep, good ol' Granada Theater. Quit working there full-time in 2018.

I miss that place. Had the time of my life there. I'm thankful I had that opportunity. Best people in the world.