Need advice for a gig, ASAP

[BillMason]

We're playing Saturday night at a new venue, one we have not played before. The room is medium sized, long shaped rather than wide shaped, tiled ceiling and ceramic tiles on the floor, with no stage - we'll be set up on the tiles at the same level as the dance floor.

The last time I played on a tile floor, our "stage" mix was horrible, and I attributed it to the tiles.

We expect the dance floor to be busy.

Anyone have any general advice on how to best approach sound for this type of room?

We have a small 8-channel powered mixer that does about 300 watts at 4-Ohms - we normally run the mains through Channel A (so 4 Ohms there) and the stage monitors through Channel B (also 4 Ohms). One time at an outdoor gig, we rented a board, power amp and subwoofer, and powered the mains and sub off the poweramp, and the monitors off our powered mixer. Do you feel those additions will be needed here?

[lonote]

What you have should work fine. The room you describe will be plently lively and your main job will be to keep the volume at a decent level. Rooms like that tend to be loud and boomy.

[JKT]

I agree, your big problem will be low-end definition. A sane stage volume will help out a great deal here. As will having someone out front during your soundcheck. Don't try and fill the whole room with what you got. Concentrate on making the dance floor area happen.

JKT

[baba]

To make stage volume and sound bearable on the tile, bring throw rugs and/or carpet. Lay them out like a stage and they will help suck up some reflection on stage so you guys can hear yourselves play.

[BillMason]

Thanks a lot everybody - I should also add that we don't typically send my bass through the mixer, so my bass amp is typically the only speaker for my bass in the house, except for the one time where we rented the sub. Drums are Roland v-drums, and are sometimes fed through the powered mixer, and sometimes just amplified via the drummer's stage amp (which is also his/my drum monitor).

The bass amp being the only speaker for the bass is, I believe, the primary reason for the horrible stage volume we had at the last tiled-floor gig, and I don't want to see it happen again here. I didn't have it cranked or anything, but I think there was just a lot of echo on "stage" which resulted in the other guys turning up to cut through the bass.

I guess the question now then is whether blankets/rugs/foamy anti-fatigue tiles will do the trick, or whether we have to rent a sub again so that we have some sperate controls over bass stage and FOH volumes.

[baba]

Originally Posted by BillMason

I guess the question now then is whether blankets/rugs/foamy anti-fatigue tiles will do the trick, or whether we have to rent a sub again so that we have some sperate controls over bass stage and FOH volumes.

I would skip the sub and just try rolling off the low end on the bass cabinet and crank the mids. Do this to the point where you can hear yourself, but are able to bring your volume down to reduce the boom. Also, if possible, position the bass cab so it fires at you and the crowd, but away from other band members as much as possible. The cabinet can also couple with the floor, if directly placed on the floor, which can add boom, so try lifting it off the floor a little.

[hockey_head]

If using a bass guitar cab that has drivers right over the floor (like 210 or 410) I would raise the vab up like 3 or for inches.

[BillMason]

The gig last night went well - we borrowed a power amp, rented a small sub and a board, and used the foam anti-fatigue mats. The drummer and guitar player had their amps elevated, but I forgot my milk crate. Despite that, our stage mix was pretty darned good, and one of our camp followers said we had a better mix that night than we'd ever had.

Thanks to all for your advice!