How to set up my PA and Band Equipment for Band practice

[DangerStarr]

My band's rehearsal space just moved to our guitarists new house. it's a huge home in a nice neighborhood, and we have the whole rectangle-shaped living room to ourselves for the time being.

What would be the best way possible to set up the drums, guitar amps, and PA system so everything sounds great?

-Drumset
-8x10 Bass amp
-1x12 Guitar Amp
-1x12 Guitar Amp
-15in Main
-15in Main
-1 Microphone

...I myself was thinking about just putting the drums against the wall, and having all the amps parallel against the walls with the drums, so the sound isn't all aimed in the middle. and putting the PA mains as far from the Mic as possible so i get good gain with no feedback. But where should i put them?

[walterw]

i'm used to the ol' "circular firing squad", with each muso in one corner facing in; that keeps each guy from (hopefully) being too loud to the next guy, so overall volume can be contained. aim the guitar amps up at their owners, rather than across at the other players, and make everybody turn the hell down.

PA mains should be placed so they're not behind a mic. wedge monitors in front of each singer would be better.

[DangerStarr]

REally?^ ok. that sounds cool. i have one wedge monitor, but unfortunately it all gets mixed the same. so it feeedbacks.

I also heard that if an amp is higher off the ground, you can hear it better, is that true?

[WayneP]

I also heard that if an amp is higher off the ground, you can hear it better, is that true?

Not necessarily. The amp’s location in relation to the ear is what matters. If it’s up two feet off the ground and you’re standing one foot from it, that’s really no better than the amp being directly on the ground.

To hear the amp better, it either has to be high enough to be at ear level if you’re very close to it, or tilted back with you far enough away from it that it’s aimed directly at your head. Think “vocal monitor.”

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt



Pedulla Club #45
Administrator, Tobias Club
Big Cabs Club #23
My Rig: Stage and FOH Friendly

[bruiser1964]

I prefer playing rehearsing with a more stripped down kit, we usually use about half the PA and turn all the backline down, especially when there are neighbours to think about...

[kalle74]

I usually do with singer facing the drums straight on, PA around the drummer. Others set up in a semicircle around the singer, facing drums also.

[groove pump]

Remember that you don't need the mains to put sound out into a room like you do at a gig. Take their output away from the initial setup and you pretty much need to hear each other in relation to the drums. The quieter or louder they get in the practice space, the more everyone else needs to sort of match their levels to the skins.

It can be quite the new leaf turnin' over if you practice quietly enough that you don't even use the PA for vocals. In a living room, they can carry fine as long as everyone isn't bearing down and you might enjoy some really good dynamics that way, too.

If the mains are helpful for more of a monitor role at practice, I'd say just try to get the mic's in a line on one side of the room so that the PA cabs can be "in front" of them on the other side of the room. That ought to help with controlling the feedback if the mic's are pointed away from the cabs, right? This is actually a problem that we have in our practice space... change is slow I guess.

As with a gig, I usually try to consult with my drummer so that my rig is somewhere on his right (he likes his monitor on his left because he sings some leads) and placed in a proximity that he can hear it okay. Guitar amps are usually farther away... we all know how their sound can, um, carry.

[Ubersheist]

Originally Posted by DangerStarr

REally?^ ok. that sounds cool. i have one wedge monitor, but unfortunately it all gets mixed the same. so it feeedbacks.

I also heard that if an amp is higher off the ground, you can hear it better, is that true?

What sort of mic is it? If it's got a cardiod pattern (like SM57s or 58s), you should be able to control the feedback so long as the mains (or better yet, your wedge) is in front of the mic such that the singer is looking into the speaker, the speaker is visible to him or her, and not behind the singer's head. Watch out for sound bouncing off the walls, so if you can get carpet or cheap blankets and hang them on the walls if you can to deaden the sound.

I'd suggest getting the singer in the center of the room or as close to it, but be careful about having sound reflect from the walls and too much noise entering the mic from the guitars. It'll help if you put the mains and/or wedge for the vocals all on one side of the room.

Remember, if the singer can't hear themselves very, very clearly, then someone (probably the guitarists) need to turn down. For 99% of the music in the world, the vocalist makes or breaks a song no matter how good the rest of the band is. They're the most important part in the band (but don't ever tell them this, or it'll just feed their ego even more). Make sure they can be heard clearer then anything and anyone else in the band.

Also, bass amps not on the ground don't carry low frequencies well. If your bass amp is off the ground, you'll need way more power to get the bottom end out, and it'll sort of sound gutless. It works even more efficiently if you can set it in the corner of the room, too.

Also, don't let those guitarists turn up too much. Far and away, the guitarists tend to be the ones playing way too loud. Remember, y'all are in a band. They often can't get that feedback or get the tone that they want unless they crank it up. Unfortunately when they do, the guitars individually sound good, but they make the band as a whole sound like crap. Most guitar amps in the 30 watt range are plenty for rehearsal, and anything over 50 watts is overkill if it's turned up more then 1/2 way.

Actually, unless you're in a grindcore or death metal band with some guitars with some really low tunings or 7-string guitars, your guitarists will probably never need more then a 75 watt amp ever, even for some really, really big stages.

[Rugaar]

I'm a little late to the party but I like this topic so I'll jump on in.

If volume is an issue the best setup I've been in is a circle where you sit opposite your amp, which is facing you. It puts you a bit further from your speakers so you can hear yourself better. It really works well in low volume situations.

But I generally prefer to setup and play the same way at practice as we do on gigs. That way we're all used to seeing each other in the same positions for our visual cues or onstage sound. Vocals are mainly coming from our monitors. We run a tiny bit of vocals through the mains, just to fill out the sound a bit but it's totally unnecessary. Our practice studio is relatively small but we're not limited by volume. We try not to go overboard most of the time but, well, sometimes one of us will bring a bottle to pass around and things happen...