Playing in a 'boomy' room.... how to EQ?

[Makalu]

Its a big cold room covered in hard surfaces and the bass booms terribly, bouncing off every surface and sounding terribly muddy and indistinct. How do I EQ for this?

Reduce Bass? Add mid? My final pre-gig mix sounds terrible but I cannot improve it..

Then the crowd arrive and the room is stacked. The room temp goes up, the hard surfaces become less of an issue and the boom lessens. Now I am conscious that the sound is probably thin and a little weedy for the new room acoustics...

I hate this room. But the crowd is always awesome and the gig is huge fun. Im playing there again on the 3rd Sept. Any one got any advice for smoothing out the EQ'ing process because this room gives me nightmares!

Mak.

[staindbass]

usually when people mention boomy they mean too much in the 100- 150 hz region. if the room is reflective and sounding indistinct you might not be able to eq it out

[Emibass]

In a boomy room, if you can´t do some acustic work, it´s better to reduce low frequencies

[refbassist]

what the others said, cut the low frequencies and boost your mids a bit and see how it goes from there.

[Bassmec]

Originally Posted by Makalu

Its a big cold room covered in hard surfaces and the bass booms terribly, bouncing off every surface and sounding terribly muddy and indistinct. How do I EQ for this?

Reduce Bass? Add mid? My final pre-gig mix sounds terrible but I cannot improve it..

Then the crowd arrive and the room is stacked. The room temp goes up, the hard surfaces become less of an issue and the boom lessens. Now I am conscious that the sound is probably thin and a little weedy for the new room acoustics...

I hate this room. But the crowd is always awesome and the gig is huge fun. Im playing there again on the 3rd Sept. Any one got any advice for smoothing out the EQ'ing process because this room gives me nightmares!

Mak.

I feel your pain!. if I where you I would get a parametric eq and cut at 120 hz by about 3dB at a Q of about 1 3rd octave try sweeping up and down a hundred or so hz and broaden and narrow the Q to taste.
While at it you can fiddle with a mild mid boost at about 350 hz for added intelligibility.
The old Ne 1 yamaha single band parametric box was great for this purpose though most people tended to use it to loose midrange definition and create mud but it will do the opposite very effectively if you turn the frequency control anti clockwise.
Yeah I know anti-clockwise with LF eq controls seems to be unpopular with young chaps today but back in the old days
there was no shame or public humiliation in reducing the level of boom a bit.

[RickBlair]

There's nothing preventing you from adjusting the EQ after the room fills up. I've found that most times the EQ I have to use to get a good mix with the band doesn't sound all that good to me on stage, but it's the overall sound of the band that counts.

Rick B.

[Son of Bovril]

I assume you have no PA support? Do as Stained said and cut round 100Hz and drop a bit of low end. I had this exact problem in our new bandroom last night and after a few tweaks suddenly everything shelved perfectly and sounded tight and clear.

Once the room starts to fill up start reducing the cut backs you've made and hopefully you can find a nice balance of the two...

[billfitzmaurice]

If you have graphic EQ try notching at 125-160Hz. The problem with boom is getting rid of the boom frequencies without losing your low end too. Only a true parametric allows that, using a narrow Q (bandwidth) setting, maximum cut, sweeping the frequency control until the boom disappears. Also try lifting the cab off the floor two to three feet, which reduces boundary coupling in the boom frequencies and makes it easier to hear your mids.

Any one got any advice for smoothing out the EQ'ing process because this room gives me nightmares!

Get the owners to fix the room. Bad sound drives customers away, good sound brings them in.

[Robby Hoinsky]

Originally Posted by billfitzmaurice

Bad sound drives customers away, good sound brings them in.

Round here cheap drinks and hot girls bring the customers in, good or bad sound doesn't seem to have much of an effect as long as it is loud.

But back to the OP. When the people show up, it changes the acoustics which is why your eq needs to change. Just do your best to adjust it during the show. Try to get out into the crowd or at least as far from your rig as possible to listen to how it sounds in the mix. Goodluck, sounds like a sound-night-mare.

Robby

[grendle]

Originally Posted by staindbass

usually when people mention boomy they mean too much in the 100- 150 hz region. if the room is reflective and sounding indistinct you might not be able to eq it out

+1

[prd004]

If the room is too reflective, no matter what sound wave you project, that wave is going to reflect. Changing the EQ will only change the frequencies that are giving you problems, not fix the problem.

It sucks, no doubt. A bad room is a bad room. The best thing you could do is bring some packing blankets, or other dense blankets and hang them on the walls. Or hope as the previous poster stated wait till bodies fill the place and absorb/diffuse some reflections.

[Rockin Mike]

Originally Posted by Robby Hoinsky

Round here cheap drinks and hot girls bring the customers in, good or bad sound doesn't seem to have much of an effect as long as it is loud.

But back to the OP. When the people show up, it changes the acoustics which is why your eq needs to change. Just do your best to adjust it during the show. Try to get out into the crowd or at least as far from your rig as possible to listen to how it sounds in the mix. Goodluck, sounds like a sound-night-mare.

Robby

+1 the sound onstage is not the same as the sound in the audience.

[will33]

Good advice here already and yeah, boom is usually around 120 hz. Unfortunately, most amps don't have a knob centered at this freq. Lower 60-80 hz bass isn't a problem and neither is 250 or so lowmids. Having a sweep mid knob helps here but as said, try separating the cab from the floor. Also try blending in a little more bridge pickup if you have a 2 pup bass or try plucking a little closer to the bridge. As you get more bodies in the room they tend to soak up more uppermids and highs, keep that in mind and yes, get as far away from the rig as you can when listening. Helps if you can let a friend sit in for one song using your bass and your settings. Make a few trips out into the room and back to the amp to adjust and just accept the fact that what sounds good out in the room may not sound all that great up close to the rig.

[jeff7bass]

It also helps if people use smaller cabs for guitar/bass/vocals. Single, 12” cabs for both the bass + guitar is plenty for rehearsals. They sound GREAT also.
I know because both me and my guitar player use a single 12” cab and we can still drown out the drummer, which you NEVER want to do.
The drummer’s volume is your barometer for good rehearsal volume.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by Robby Hoinsky

Round here cheap drinks and hot girls bring the customers in, good or bad sound doesn't seem to have much of an effect as long as it is loud.

By "round here," you're referring to "everywhere in the world," right?

[konodl18]

Originally Posted by staindbass

usually when people mention boomy they mean too much in the 100- 150 hz region. if the room is reflective and sounding indistinct you might not be able to eq it out

+1

If there is an EQ adjustment that happens more often than any other, its this. I dump 100hz or 125hz out of both my bass rig and my bands PA pretty regularly. Lots of bars and clubs have this issue with acoustics.

Derek

[konodl18]

Originally Posted by jeff7bass

It also helps if people use smaller cabs for guitar/bass/vocals. Single, 12” cabs for both the bass + guitar is plenty for rehearsals. They sound GREAT also.
I know because both me and my guitar player use a single 12” cab and we can still drown out the drummer, which you NEVER want to do.
The drummer’s volume is your barometer for good rehearsal volume.

Haha, wrong thread?

[dhomer]

We're not talking about a certain venue in Howard City, MI, are we?? Can't remember the name of the place, but the two memorable things about it was the owner is an SOB, and the room has about a 120Hz resonance. I actually went out to some home-depot-type store, bought furniture legs and screw-in mounts for the cabs.. the only thing that made it remotely bearable..

[IvanMike]

BFM has the right idea.

also - don't be fooled by the idea that what you hear on stage is what the audience hears.

Likewise, make sure that the other musicians (i.e. guitar players and keyboards) aren't boosting their lows. Often what you think is a boomy room is the guitar player goosing his lows, or what you hear on stage vs what you hear 20 feet off the stage...

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by IvanMike

BFM has the right idea.

also - don't be fooled by the idea that what you hear on stage is what the audience hears.

While it's true that it's often quite different out in the room, you can fix a lot of the problems associated with that by doing one of two things...tilt your small cab up to ear level, or use a tall cab. Room resonances and dispersion issues may still cause it to sound different in the house, but it'll be a lot closer to the mark if you can actually hear your amp's entire frequency range rather than just the lows.