Help with compressors / limiters requested

[Atrophist]

Hello everyone;

I will soon begin training and recording regularly at a rehearsal room, that I share with a few other bands and solo artists. The place has a shared PA that everyone uses, in addition to their own gear.

Now, my own gear consists of a few handmade noise boxes, pedals and a bog standard Alesis mixer. I understand how they work fairly well, but as far as "pro audio" goes I'm somewhere below retardation levels. Hence this thread.

What I would like to do is take full advantage of the PA (I like to play LOUD), while at the same time making absolutely sure that I don't damage the it in the process. Destroying or damaging your own gear sucks, but doing so to gear you don't even own would be much worse.

So, I assume I'll need some kind of a limiter/compressor/preamp type thingie. I don't even know where exactly this is supposed to go (although "between the mixer and the PA" would be my first guess).

So, any advice on what to get and what use to put it to would be much appreciated. Non-rack mount units that are fairly small in size would be preferable. I have even heard of people using guitar compressor pedals for this purpose, is that in any way advisable?

My budget for this purpose is limited, but thankfully not nonexistent.

Thanks for reading, guys.

[l.b.]

what kind of PA is it? i'd imagine even the average system could get loud enough without blowing cones or anything, as long as you watch your levels on the mixer, without any kind of limiter or anything like that.

[Cementimental]

There's not much to add to advice you got on noiseguide (or at least the actual advice before it devolved into bickering/trolling) - you don't really need a limiter in this scenerio, just don't present the PA or the mixer connected to the PA with an in-the-red red signal and you should be fine.

[Atrophist]

There's not much to add to advice you got on noiseguide (or at least the actual advice before it devolved into bickering/trolling) ...

Yeah, that seems to be a feature of the place. I'm not complaining though, because a lot of the advice I got was actually useful and friendly. Okay, so most likely it looks like getting an actual limiter would be overkill, and that regular common sense will be enough.

[calaverasgrande]

In case anyone else is wondering;
I have blown shit up quite easily, even while avoiding any 'reds'.

I've found that low frequencies are murder for a lot of PA gear. Try and engage any kind of low cut if there is one. It might seem counter productive, but it's really better to have a ton of low mid than a little bit of sub bass and a hot amp.
limiters can be bad. You can end up squishing the signal so much that it is overworking the amp or your speakers.

If you can, put speakers in the corners. You get a free bass boost  this way, and it will go a long way towards saving your gear.