Adding extra speakers for outdoor gig?

[41Hz]

Hi all,
 

We’ve recently got 2x RCF Evox J8s and they seem fine for typical indoor pub gigs. We’re putting vox, keys and kick through them, plus lower level bass/gtr (we have backline gtr/bass cabs too)

 

We have a few outdoor gigs next year and I’m wondering if the J8s will be enough. Has anyone tried adding extra speakers to their usual PA setup? We have some old powered 12s. I’m thinking we could use them like monitor wedges on the floor, but facing the audience not us (we use IEMs so don’t need floor monitors). Has anyone done anything like this before?

 

Thanks!

Edited Tuesday at 11:43 by 41Hz

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Using more speakers outdoors is appropriate, as you're losing some 6dB or more of boundary reinforcement. That requires doubling the cab count to come out even, especially in the lows. The main issue with using dissimilar cabs is whether they'll integrate to help each other or whether they'll fight each other. You'll want to try it in a practice situation first. 

[Jack]

So you want to use them in the place of centre fills but not necessarily as centre fills? Not ideal but then we've all worked with less than ideal setups before, just a part of gigging in the real world. Normally when one puts speakers there they are used to make sure that people in the very front of the audience can hear the things on stage that don't produce much volume on their own. The thinking being that if you're right at the front then the main pa is shooting over and past your ears. So it's often vocals, vocals and more vocals in centre fills as things like drums and guitars are probably making enough stage volume on their own for the first few rows. 

 

If possible I'd put the extra speakers on an aux send, that way you can do their own mix and eq. Even if they are just duplicating the main mix and being used as extra volume rather than extra coverage they're still going to sound different and the added control of being on an aux send will likely help.