Quote:
Originally Posted by IanStephenson  About a dozen people have now given the same advice.
I'm not entirely sure why the OP asked for advice, when he'd already worked out what he was going to do, and is sticking to it even when EVERYONE has told him it's a bad idea.
Ian |
+1 to that. In a hundred seater, even for heavy rock, I would keep it simple and just use the Peavey mixer for vocals (and maybe the kick drum - but only if really, really necessary) and just the 2 active monitors on stage.
In a place that small getting the vocals up over the heavy rock backline without feedback (howlround) is probably going to be the major issue and throwing more equipment at the problem than the room can handle isn't going to help.
If you keep it simple, all you need to do at your soundcheck is place the main PA speakers - it helps if you aim the speaker on the left of the stage into the far right corner of the room and vice versa, because then the reflected sound waves will be diffused a bit more than just bouncing straight back at you from the back wall, contributing to the howlround risk and generally screwing your monitor mix.
Then, just make sure that you get the gain structure of the mixer set for the mikes you are using, get a good balance on the vocals and set the tone up - set it with more top when the room is empty than you think you need - the soft bodied audience will soak up the treble frequencies. Push the master faders up until you just hear the first hint of feedback then back them off a few Db's - mark that spot, then back them off a few more Db's because it helps if you start off loud enough but with a bit of headroom. By the end of your set the audience will have become accustomed to the sound level and pushing the sound up to the marked level (still with headroom before any feedback) for the last few numbers will help your big finish.
Remember, the band can only be as loud as the vocal levels will take, miking the band in such a small venue will be futile because the mix will be screwed by the spill from the backline anyway, so use your backline for all the instruments but show enough discipline to keep the levels so that the vocals come though.
In the end it depends whether you want to look like you have all the cool gear (which the audience won't care about) or whether you sound good (which they will care about).
Less is more, anything more is only done for the same reason a dog licks it's balls
