Another Speaker Placement question

[gimmeagig]

I usually put my Bag End 15 cab onto a milk crate when i play.When I use two I skip the milk crate.
Has always worked for me.Yesterday for the first time ( on an out door gig) I set up my two bagends on the floor side by side and tilted them up by popping out the handle.Just to see what would happen.I was surprized that i could still hear the highs just fine and the added fullness of it was great.I'm pretty sure i liked it much better than stacking the cabs.
I'm not sure what the most effective way to place them is though.I had them about a couple of feet apart and angled in a little bit.
I wonder if this is the best way to set them or if it might be better to have them exactly next to each other.Or maybe even point away from each other.
Any opinions on that?
Thanks

 

[IvanMike]

might have sounded good to you, but i bet it didn't sound as good out front.

the increased fullness you heard was actually some of the midrange frequencies cancelling each other out as they were out of phase by the time they hit each other.

also, having the cabs apart from each other can cause more phase cancellation problems.

tilting them up worked for you but was your audience in trees? that's where the on axis sound was going.

next time try stacking both on the milk crate so the top cab is closer to your ears. I do that from time to time.

 

[jtrow]

Tilting your cab up is fine as long as your bass is running through the pa. As long as the sound coming out of the pa has enough of your bass in it, you should be fine tilting it back.

 

[gimmeagig]

I used to stack the cabs but I've seen Marcus Miller have his cabs side by side and I also read a few posts about speaker placement and floor coupling so I figured I'd try something different.
My Cabinets are 15s with coax speakers rear ported but they are very small so I was trying to get the most out of those two cabinets.
No, I was not going through the PA so in retrospect it makes sense to me that the audience might not have heard me that well.It was a small amphitheatre( is that how you spell that?) and the stage was about 3' high and the first row was maybe 25' back and the the seats went up from there.
So I guess my sound did go into the trees.It sounded pretty good to me though.
So if I wanted to go side by side I should really put the cabs right next to each other? And to hear the highs I should bring another identical milk crate?
Maybe I'll try that next time.

 

[JimmyM]

Tilting your cab up is fine as long as your bass is running through the pa. As long as the sound coming out of the pa has enough of your bass in it, you should be fine tilting it back.

Tilting them back is great under any circumstances. The sound doesn't change...only your perspective of it. I'm in agreement with IvanMike, though...Marcus may do it, but a lot of really good musicians don't know the first thing about audio and how it works.

 

[jtrow]

Tilting them back is great under any circumstances. The sound doesn't change...only your perspective of it. I'm in agreement with IvanMike, though...Marcus may do it, but a lot of really good musicians don't know the first thing about audio and how it works.

Marcus also has the help of great pa's and great soundmen.

I haven't tilted my cabs back for a few years now, but I didn't think the sound projected out into the audience that well. Mainly the first couple of rows was where the bass was, and farther back there was none. But I guess it didn't help me out any that I was using a crappy combo, instead of a nice one. Just my opinion.

 

[jazzyvee]

I've always struggled to hear myself clearly on stage and figuring out the best place to put the cab(s) to improve that.
Let night I had a gig which was a backline only gig so that gave me an opportunity to try a different speaker setup. I decided to bring two cabs, a 4x10 and 2x10 mesa powerhouse cabs instead of just one cab. At soundcheck I decided to try out two setups. Regular with the 2x10 on t's feet on top of the 4x10. That sounded great as usual and using a long lead I walked out into the room to hear the sound. Then I set up my two mesa boogie cabs with the 4x10 at the bottom on it's wheels as normal but put the 2x10 on top of the 4x10 but on it's side on it's side so the speakers were vertical and the walkabout head on the top of the stack. Immediately I was able to hear the bass much better at the playing position and could turn the volume down and still hear properly. Interestingly the bass seemed to project better in the room and sounded much fuller further away from the stage area. So that was the setup I did for the gig and both myself and band loved the sound but I'm not sure how me standing in front of the cab sometimes would affect the projection into the room. I also put the cabs across a corner of the room where I was standing so this probably accounted for some enhanced bass also, but then it was a reggae gig so the extra bottom end wouldn't go amiss. I also turned the tweeters off on both cabs.

I have read many recommendations about the benefits go putting 2x10 speakers vertically to get a better sound but is this a good way to use a 4x10 and 2x10 or even a 1x15 and 2x10 which is another option I have cab wise.