play a tough venue, advice?

[Kramerguy]

We're going to play a bar tomorrow in a very large extended room with a bar on one end, and 2-story cathedral ceilings throughout, everything windows and hard wood / stone. The only thing that absorbs sound is people.

 

I've seen many bands fail in there, where it sounds like anyone talking into a mic sounds muffled and can't make out a word they say- the echo is much like that of a church.

 

Obviously, turning all reverb off and holding back the volume are key, but does anyone have any other useful advice to help keep the sound good?

[Ryan.]

More speakers placed around the room, turned down even more?

[Kramerguy]

More speakers placed around the room, turned down even more?

 

Can only turn the drums down so much though, we don't have the cable lengths or the speaker system to handle much past the standards. We're going to nix subs and one take it down to only 2 monitors also. I was wondering if maybe there was an EQ or other mix tricks to balance against the room.

 

I do like your idea though, if only we had the means to do that the room is about 30 feet wide and 60 feet long.

[Ryan.]

Yeah thats gonna be a tough one... Controlling the volume is only thing I could think of, just steadily increase it as the room fills with human dampening.

 

Its funny, I play a place like this once in a while, about the same dimensions and its made out of the best possible materials for reflecting sound. We just control our stage volume and the foh as best as possible and pray for a good night.

 

Your big challenge I think will be the ceilings...

[RoadRanger]

Tilt the speakers down. If you can't do that you're pretty much forked.

[abzurd]

I aim speakers towards the opposite corners versus straight back. It keeps the sound from bouncing straight off the back wall and onto the stage a 1/2 second later. It also focuses more sound in the center of the room and onto the dance floor (assuming the dance floor is in front of the band. This allows you to turn the volume down even more.

 

Here's a good example of a similar situation. This was a wedding we did last week. Shot from second floor balcony of the room below. Sounded great on the dance floor. Not so fantastic anywhere else, but that's OK. We do another wedding in that same room tomorrow.

 

[YOUTUBE]11Njq4-DvkY[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

[RoadRanger]

I aim speakers towards the opposite corners versus straight back. It keeps the sound from bouncing straight off the back wall and onto the stage a 1/2 second later.

Oh yah - forgot to mention that. I almost always do that to fill in the sound in front of the band. It also gets the sound off the sidewalls and as it focuses the sound into the middle of the room you can turn it down some and still get the same SPL on the dance floor .

[Kramerguy]

do you mean like "X" crossing the speakers towards the opposing corners? HMM, that could shave some of the echo off

 

thanks!

[Shaster]

Besides tilting and turning in, for a cavern setting, I like to keep the speakers relatively low. Lower than I would normally.

 

Sometimes the closer the speaker is to your target, the less you have to push. Similar to the tilt down idea.

[abzurd]

 

do you mean like "X" crossing the speakers towards the opposing corners? HMM, that could shave some of the echo off thanks!

 

 

Yes

[twostone]

What type of music are you covering?

I read everybody posting low volume but try that with a metal band.

All I can advise is promote the hell out your band to fill the room up with people to soak up all the reflection.

 

We do a club that's a acoustic nightmare. The stage is surrounded by 3 walls of glass mirrored walls, has cedar beam rafters covered with tin that's above the stage 7ft in height , concrete floors, the stage is just a glorified kiddy sandbox because it so tiny. All I run is kick and vocals to start out with, because if I add all the other instruments I'm guaranteed a giant wall of cluster f***ked mush.

 

Even though every thing is mic I have to wait until the room fills up before I can add more in the mix. This is a great example of less is more.

Any way good luck.

 

P.S. Thanks Sean for your advicce I'll have to try the angle the speakers, it would be nice to do the angle down as RR posted, but my EV tops are pole mounted above the subs.

[philw44]

Kit is usually the biggest problem, stage spill of cymbals that just completely wash up the mix. Get drummer to play quieter, use lighter sticks etc.

 

Also, do you have a 31band Graphic for the FOH? I usually have to make one or two big cuts for very reflective rooms

[Dogoth]

I noticed that most of the advice here is about speaker placment. I have to agree with that. Someone in an earlier post said (I should have grabbed it for a signature) "It's not about where the sound goes but about where it doesn't go".

 

In gnarly rooms, pattern control helps a great deal. If you can get tighter patterned speakers and aim the properly it can help a lot. The point is to keep the sound from being directed toward the most offensive surfaces (what ever the horn pattern may be).

 

Overall good advice so far.

[RoadRanger]

it would be nice to do the angle down as RR posted, but my EV tops are pole mounted above the subs.

http://www.fullcompass.com/product/333452.html

http://www.long-mcquade.com/products/4445/Pro_Audio_Recording/Stands/Yorkville_Sound/Speaker_Stand_15_Inch_Adapter.htm

 

[twostone]

http://www.fullcompass.com/product/333452.html http://www.long-mcquade.com/products/4445/Pro_Audio_Recording/Stands/Yorkville_Sound/Speaker_Stand_15_Inch_Adapter.htm

 

Thanks for the links

[BluesJamPlayer]

We used to turn our guitar amps(1 and 2x12's) back at us on stage...keeps the volume and beam of death down, the music has to hit the back wall before it heads out to the audience...