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Brick Octagonal Dome - Band Mix Issues

MNAirHead

MNAirHead

Nov 22, 2008
14,051
2,444
Minnesota - Twin Cities
#1
Howdy..

Looking for some pointers.

I do session work for a church band that plays in the most impossible room

2500 square feet.. dome ceiling.. brick walls ocatagonal... Add to this I'm backed into a corner on stage.

If I go out of my amp (at a low level) to the board, the low frequencies crack down the powered monitors and mains... they do not use subs as these overpower the room with low end.

If I boost my amp up to go without PA several frequencies go totally nuts... about 50-60hz it almost doubles in volume... around 100 hz it totally falls off a cliff.

I have a digitial rackmount head with graphic active equalizer.

I've tried just about everything
  • Different cabinets
  • Setting Eq
  • Smaller Amp & Bigger Amp...
  • biamping with Crossover.. full range
  • Active, Passive Basses
  • Flatwounds and Roundwounds
  • Plugging Ports.. opening Ports... changing Ports.

Any clues of what you'd do?.. Seems as if this room is either On or Off.. nothing in between.

Tim
 
#2
Maybe you could try to set up your amp to sound good with the group on stage. Still take a DI to the board but roll off the low end in the PA so your amp is carrying the low freqs for the room. You would be surprised at how those frequencies carry in a room like you have. My church is an oval shape with hard floors and this is how we work with it. The mids in the PA will clean up the articulation of the bass for the congregation.
 
#3
Domes are tough, as they typically give you murk in the middle and a "whispering room" effect by the walls.

*If* the PA has been engineered for the room -- if it sounds decent and full range with recorded music -- I'd go direct to PA (via either a pre-amp or quality DI, depending on the tone you're after, and ideally monitoring with in-ears) to reduce the problems with room acoustics.

If you must use a stage amp, move your amp farther away from the walls and cut the lows, setting a high pass even as high as 60-80 Hz.
 
#6
Do they own subs? Sounds like your asking the mains to do something they can't and they sound guy doesn't know how to set up the FOH and sub mix. You should be able to turn down the subs so they are equal volume to the mains. The sound guy can also take some lows out of the subs as well. Not sure how much money you or they have to spend, sounds like the room needs to be RTA'd with a reference mic which can be done with a DBX driverack and that will EQ the room to take all those weird frequences out. This is a sound guy issue not a bass player issue.
 
#7
Sincere thanks for the pointers.

The confusing thing for me is that I have a Digitial power amp with Graphic EQ.. have tried just about every bass type possible...

The fun bass player thing is that between a D and G (on a 5 string) almost plays like an E-Bow... it's driving the geezers nutz. Tried an Ashbory this weekend.... this also went nuts (nuttier than an Ashbory)

Thanks..

We'll try it again.

Tim
 

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