With the advice billfitzmaurice and others, I have started to group my subs ( four 1x15 3015lf vented cabs) together on one side of the room at most gigs. It works well. I've been reading more about boundary loading and have some questions. 1) If I was to vertically stack a pair of subs in a corner, would it be best to point the speaker into the corner? Or, away from the corner. The cab corners would be about 6" from the wall. 2)If using all 4 subs, would I face the front of the cabs together at a right angle and then face that into a corner? Or, face all cabs into the corner with out the right angle? 3)Many clubs that we play at are long rectangles with the band set up at one end. I have been place the subs in front of the band, on one side wall, turned at roughly a 30 degree angle to hit the dance area in front of the band. Is this a good idea? I have been wanting to corner load for awhile but, the corner is usually where the drummer sits and even though he would love to feel the thump of his kick more, I think that it would end up causing major feedback. Thanks for any advice guys.
Also, this weekend I have an outdoor gig. If I put the subs all together in one spot, will I gain anything my cross-firing them, or should I just face them forward. (2 cabs high, 2 cabs wide)
I did some more experimentation in the basement today and will give myself some advice. When facing two subs into a corner, it sounded deeper and better to have both subs on the floor and facing eachother at right angles into the corner. Two stacked vertical sounded great but just not as deep. Im not wondering about this arrangement with the other two subs on top of first two? Anyway, corner loading is IT!
Sort of. My band uses no stage amps. We go direct to the board and use in-ears. We totally rely on the pa. As a result, we get a much better mix than most bands. I think anyway.
Bill's advice is good if you are using horn loaded subs. You should still get some coupleing of you are grouping your subs together (any type). I am not sure you will get the same benefit if you are boundary/corner loading direct radiator subs. I would guess so, but that is only a guess.
There is benefit in wall loading with direct radiating subs and ALOT of benefit in corner loading. I've got 2 live gigs left with my band before we take an indefinite break and I'll definitely be trying wall loading at one club and corner loading at the other. We play some very weird shaped rooms. It's tough.
I just had a though and hoped someone like bill would chime in. If you are outdoors, could you build a corner using two 4'x4' sheets of plywood or 4x8 and corner load a sub to get more output?
I imagine the biggest problem with the corner would be constructing it so that it's solid & heavy so that it doesn't resonate. At the same time, you'd want it built so that it could be broken down for transport & storage. I'm not sure it would be worth the trouble.
Corner loading is fine if it's practical in the club--most venues aren't. (Face them out of the corner) I need my subs to physically hold up the mid-highs, so they go in the normal position on each side of the stage. Time-alignment is important to me. I want the low component of bass and kick to arrive at the ears at the same time as the high parts. Keeping subs on the floor gives you a free 3db per cabinet due to floor coupling.
It works with any sub. Horn loaded subs are a bit different in that putting them together, the mouth area of each sub effectively combines into one big mouth. The size of the mouth determines the lowest cutoff frequencies. So the bigger the mouth gets by putting horns together in multiples, the lower the system operates. So when grouping horn subs they get louder AND lower. All other cabs only get louder. As for positioning, it all kinda depends what frequency of the subs' crossover. Below 100Hz, the direction of the sub isn't cricial because those frequencies are omnidirectional naturally.
A sub in the corner faces in, not out. There is a big difference in output when the sub faces towards the corner with 6" to 1' spacing on either side of the speaker. I played outside this weekend and found that putting all 4 1x15 subs on the ground, next to each other in a line worked the best. 2 wide and 2 high didn't work better, even though I thought it would. The guys in the band still don't seem to get the concept of getting the subs grouped together, even though we sound better that way. Oh well. We only have 2 more gigs and then we're taking an indefinite break after 6 years. I'll have to start breaking in some other guys who probably won't get it either.
Aint that the truth. It's odd because the evidence is overwhelming. Have a look at this thread, in particular post No 4. I've found graphic images like these tends to make it easier for people to understand. http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=695389
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