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Absolutely buried at outdoor gig

burgerdj

burgerdj

Dec 4, 2006
4,074
6,673
Maryland
#1
Yesterday my band played a casual outdoor gig at a beautiful property with an expansive yard. We brought our PA and I was running my little walk about for monitoring purposes. We literally played on the ground with no riser whatsoever. This was also our first gig with our new powered subwoofer.

our opening acoustic songs sounded just fine from our "Stage" but once things got going, I absolutely could not hear anything out of my amp and only the muffled subwoofer across the way. By default we keep our monitors pretty straightforward without any bass coming through.

I had my amp on a tilted stand, gain and volume at appropriate levels. I tried standing close and away by about 15'. Man, it was tough and muscle memory was clutch over the next two hours.

I think I'm going to need to augment my rig, but I would love to get some tips from you folks who have been in similar situations. Any recommendations on monitor mixing or sub placement?
 
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#5
burgerdj said:
Yesterday my band played a casual outdoor gig at a beautiful property with an expansive yard. We brought our PA and I was running my little walk about for monitoring purposes. We literally played on the ground with no riser whatsoever. This was also our first gig with our new powered subwoofer.

our opening acoustic songs sounded just fine from our "Stage" but once things got going, I absolutely could not hear anything out of my amp and only the muffled subwoofer across the way. By default we keep our monitors pretty straightforward without any bass coming through.

I had my amp on a tilted stand, gain and volume at appropriate levels. I tried standing close and away by about 15'. Man, it was tough and muscle memory was clutch over the next two hours.

I think I'm going to need to augment my rig, but I would love to get some tips from you folks who have been in similar situations. Any recommendations on monitor mixing or sub placement?
Click to expand...

Appropriate levels, compared to what?
 
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#6
agedhorse said:
The first step is to be sure your PA is balanced, then the band needs to play within the limits of all of the gear.
Click to expand...
Ha - yeah, got that part! More curious about setting up of the live sound specifically placement of the subwoofer in relationship to where I am set up. We often play outdoors with and without FOH but these parameters kind of threw us for a bit of a loop.
 
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#11
burgerdj said:
I had my amp on a tilted stand, gain and volume at appropriate levels. I tried standing close and away by about 15'.
Click to expand...
It's in my nature to be cynical about small bass cabs...

but unless y'all were screaming-loud, you should have been able to hear that thing.

You're sure it was functioning properly?
 
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#12
Outdoors without capable monitoring (whether in-ears, wedges, side-fills, whatever) is always tough as there are no walls, no bounce-back, nothing. The sound just goes one way: Away from you. For most of us that don't have festival rigs with walls of cabinets behind us or serious monitor capabilities, you just do the best you can and get off. I always dreaded them.
 
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#13
J Wilson said:
Outdoors without capable monitoring (whether in-ears, wedges, side-fills, whatever) is always tough as there are no walls, no bounce-back, nothing. The sound just goes one way: Away from you. For most of us that don't have festival rigs with walls of cabinets behind us or serious monitor capabilities, you just do the best you can and get off. I always dreaded them.
Click to expand...
Yeah - I think I'm just going to need some more speaker surface area, maybe position my rig from the side rather than behind. We'll have a chance to experiment again in a couple weeks. Will report back.
 
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#14
J Wilson said:
Outdoors without capable monitoring (whether in-ears, wedges, side-fills, whatever) is always tough as there are no walls, no bounce-back, nothing. The sound just goes one way: Away from you. For most of us that don't have festival rigs with walls of cabinets behind us or serious monitor capabilities, you just do the best you can and get off. I always dreaded them.
Click to expand...
Yesterday's (750-watt) rig for stage volume outdoors.

To be fair, there are some walls back there. :D

upload_2023-8-6_12-11-45.jpeg
 
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#17
It happens, accepting a gig for which the band is under-amplified. "You go to battle with the army you've got." The whole band has to accommodate, because the bass player can't win the volume war with any reasonable amount of gear. Everybody turns down, and the audience will probably be just as happy, if not happier.

The subwoofer is an ominous sign. I love subwoofers like I love tube guitar amps, when placed in the right hands. Most of the time they detract from the sound of the band by being used without restraint.

I've had the problem that the subs drown out my "monitor" amp, but with a total loss of clarity, leading to that situation where it's too loud and you can't hear yourself, simultaneously.
 
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#18
One thing to consider is cab placement when you are using your amp primarily as your monitor (just to hear yourself). I typically do that and can get by with either a single 12 or 15 (although I often bring both - just because :D) The key for me is to get the amp high enough so that its not just aimed at the backs of my calves. It doesn't take much, I use a 12" folding stool. Doesn't take alot of volume to hear yourself, just remember where your ears are (hint - not on the backs of your legs).
 
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#20
(clears throat)...If "reasonable levels" wasn't enough to be heard, why didn't you just turn up the volume and gain on the Walkabout?
What do you consider reasonable levels?

I used to have this problem because I listened to to many people in the peanut gallery. Then I became pragmatic.
If I can't hear, it's not yet a reasonable level.

It's possible the rest of your band was way too loud. This is a separate issue but it can contribute to the problem.
 
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