Different Venue every week .... is EQing the FOH "Mains" rather than the individual inputs a shortcut ..... or heresy?

[Aliwobble]

I've done 100s of "set up and go" pub gigs. The sort where a proper PA tuning is just not possible. My key tips would be:

1. Shiny room = lots of treble reflections. Think glass or polished wood. Trim some highs out.

2. Floor <-> ceiling reflections typically create a room node around 160-180Hz, (unless the ceiling is higher). Putting an eq dip in here somewhere usually cleans up the sound a lot.

3. Can't hear the vocal? Put a towel over the snare drum.

[Chienmortbb]

On 09/11/2025 at 09:07, Aliwobble said:

Can't hear the vocal? Put a towel over the snare drum.

I am not sure if I would like to be near the drummer when I suggest this.🎆

[Stub Mandrel]

The one PA we have uses a reference microphone and white noise through each, then both sides of the PA. Not perfect as it doesn't compensate for the place filling with punters, but it speeds everything up.

[JPJ]

9 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

The one PA we have uses a reference microphone and white noise through each, then both sides of the PA. Not perfect as it doesn't compensate for the place filling with punters, but it speeds everything up.

If I can get in early enough ie before the punters, and if the venue doesn’t complain, then this is what I do with the DriveRack auto eq feature. But, as the majority of our gigs are pub gigs, this rarely happens.

[LawrenceH]

Thinking from the perspective of smaller venues where lots of room modes and reflective surfaces can interact in a relatively small space...

 

I've never found that settings on individual channels transfer all that well from one venue to the next even when eq-ing the room. It's a very useful starting point, but since the room effects have position-dependent components with respect to individual instruments, and a lot of musicians adapt how they play to the room, some further tweaking of the individual channels always seems to be necessary.