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Starting out with a PA - Am I on the right track.


Stub Mandrel
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5 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

But mic'ing the kick is a quick'n'easy way to put a smile on the drummer's scowl.

 

You don't actually need to plug the mic in, you understand; just so long as he sees you putting a mic there, he's your friend for the rest of the evening.

 

Don't forget to adjust the DFA knob.

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3 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Aside from late July to mid-August, there is no way a drummer* can be heard properly by anyone not standing right in front of the band at the George on  a Friday or Saturday night.

 

Apart from outdoor venues, I have never played in any venue where our drummer couldn't be heard by anyone standing outside the venue louder than the rest of the band without any amplification!

But we always do the bass drum as it makes him happy.

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I always mic drums, and for that matter all of the instruments. It's not about volume, it's about dispersion. The only instruments that don't have a problem with dispersion are the bass and keys, and then only below 200Hz or so, where their speakers are omnidirectional. To prevent them from being too loud down low I high pass their channels as required by the venue acoustics.

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2 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

I always mic drums, and for that matter all of the instruments. It's not about volume, it's about dispersion. The only instruments that don't have a problem with dispersion are the bass and keys, and then only below 200Hz or so, where their speakers are omnidirectional. To prevent them from being too loud down low I high pass their channels as required by the venue acoustics.

 

Good advice. When you mic' drums in small venues, you can roll off a lot of the low frequencies so you get dispersion and clarity, but little to no "wump" from them in the PA. The same applies to all other instruments. It really makes a difference out front, even at modest volume levels.

Edited by Dan Dare
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Speaking of sub placement... 

 

We did a gig last night where the venue has permanent installation of an in-house PA, set up with a full Yamaha digital desk or to hook up to our mixer.  A lovely set of QSC passive speakers (4 bins + 4 mid tops + 4 wedges) and a superb rack of 5 power amps to drive it all.  In theory a great set up but... bin placement was purely for show rather than quality of sound.  The frustrating thing is that this is all hardwired and fixed in place and can't be moved; installed by a professional installation company/engineer.  :(

 

image.thumb.png.a923f8d5d313033455bfde28add6393f.png

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There are professionals, in that they get paid for what they do, and there are professionals, in that they know what they're doing. This bunch doesn't know what comb filtering and power alley are, let alone how to prevent them. They had both, with not only poor sub placement but also side by side tops. 🤥

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On 29/07/2023 at 10:59, warwickhunt said:

Speaking of sub placement... 

 

We did a gig last night where the venue has permanent installation of an in-house PA, set up with a full Yamaha digital desk or to hook up to our mixer.  A lovely set of QSC passive speakers (4 bins + 4 mid tops + 4 wedges) and a superb rack of 5 power amps to drive it all.  In theory a great set up but... bin placement was purely for show rather than quality of sound.  The frustrating thing is that this is all hardwired and fixed in place and can't be moved; installed by a professional installation company/engineer.  :(

 

image.thumb.png.a923f8d5d313033455bfde28add6393f.png

Oh dear. Rookie errors.

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An old story, so forgive me if you heard it:

A 9,000 seat outdoor venue near me was being threatened with closure over noise complaints, low frequency noise in particular. They hired a 'professional' company to come up with a solution. Said solution was a cheap PC with sound level software, with a mic that measured the level in the FOH.  An alarm light lit if the level they'd hit exceeded the standard that they assured would not be too loud in the area. For a full season the light never lit, yet the complaints increased with every concert. For this the venue paid them $25,000. 🤥

 

Just before the start of the following season, on the threat of being shut down, they hired me. The first thing I noticed about the gear they had and the standard that was being used was that the levels were being measured with 'A-weighting'. They were upset to say the least when I told them that 'A-weighting' doesn't measure low frequencies. 😄

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