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Cabs on both sides for small gigs with no PA?

#41
InnerBass said:
I’ve done that kind of set up more than a few times and I really liked the stage sound we got.

I also like the way it looked to have a cab on either side of the drummer. Just looked kinda bad ass.
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So are you more worried about your stage sound and badass look than your sound to the audience? Some of them will be getting plenty of bass and some will be getting none.
 
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#43
rant on,
A fellow of mine did a FOH job last September for a band I was involved for a couple of years.
I listened to the show for about 60 minutes at most till I left for (a beer) at home.
The mistake they did was to give preference to the stage lights versus the PA sound. And I know that the leader of the band has little to less understanding about acoustcal science but, a big interest in good stage show. What I think is that my fellow FOH lost the fight of discussion versus the band leader cause he was payed to bring the sound ....
 
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#46
Nephilymbass said:
I don’t want to hear bass better I want to hear my vocals better
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That's what monitors are for. Don't want to bother with them? Then don't expect to hear your vocals.
How do pa subs not have issues spaced out like that?
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They do. Invalid Link Removed

There are two circumstances where splitting subs is OK. One is in a very large room where the stacks are 50 feet or more apart. The other is a really small room, where room interactions dominate the response. In the other 95% or so of rooms where most of us play splitting subs is the number one mistake made by PA operators who don't know any better.
 
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#47
Mackie SRM150

Also, not all bass cabs are created equal when it comes to hearing yourself well on-stage. One reason I love love love Duke's H1203 cabs are the cutouts on the 3" driver section of the cabinet. Helps a lot when you're standing on top of your cab (also helps the drummer)

Hathor 1203

I do a fair number of lower-volume gigs with a variety of lineups. The H1203 always helps me hear my bass (and it pushes out into house just fine). For vocals and certain instruments, a personal monitor can be make-or-break. In one band our vocalist hated one venue we played - finally brought a personal powered monitor for him to hear acoustic guitar and all was well.
 
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#51
lfmn16 said:
How complicated is it to set up a monitor? Should take about a minute to carry in, a minute to run the cable and a minute or two to dial it in.
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Well it’s surprisingly difficult when you don’t currently have one lol. In the past we’ve mainly played originals shows where full PA is provided so the pa gear we have that we can bring to these acoustic/cover gigs was originally intended just to hear vocals and acoustic at band practice not really to play shows with.
 
#53
i think it comes down to aiming things ( various which ever cabs ) so you can better hear more of what you wanna hear ... and i have played with my bass cabs on each side of the drummer ... but he sang also .. ha , and didn't like being drowned in bass ... but i could hear other stuff better without 100% of the bass firing up my butt side . !

it is hard to aim the Mains at your head/mic from behind , finding that sweet spot might start some feed back issues when you're away from the mic .?
 
#54
Nephilymbass said:
Title pretty much says it but I’ll elaborate. My bands been playing originals gigs with full PA provided by the venues for 17 years. More recently we’ve started doing some acoustic/cover gigs. For these shows we’re bringing our own small PA with two newer QSC powered tops and a wireless mixer for acoustic guitars and vocals and putting the cabs far enough back so we can hear them. I’m using my normal bass rig with two ampeg cabs a cable and a clip on tuner instead of bringing my pedalboard and the drummer isn’t amplified at all. I probably have an odd reason for it, I want to be able to hear my backup vocals better without losing volume of the bass out front, but I’m considering running one cab on each side of the drums. I ask you guys if you’ve done it and howd it work out because I haven’t played a gig with cabs on both sides of the stage in a while. I’d have to buy a longer speaker cable to even try it. At the moment we really don’t want to make the setup more complicated with monitors or pa subs so running one a cab on each side of the drums was suggested.
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We did this years ago. Like 25 or so years ago. I had a Marshall full stack that I divided on both sides of the drums, and guitar players used my cabs to put their half stacks on. In theory there could have been problems, but in practice it worked perfectly.

Btw. I was also singer in that band. So there is that.
 
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#55
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#57
Nephilymbass said:
Absolutely I just didn’t expect that response. I’m essentially using bass rig as pa because bass isn't going into the pa at all for these gigs. I would think that would be a bigger issue with running cabs side by side not 10-15 feet apart because all the gigs I play with full pa the pa subs are spread out like that. Seems weird but I don’t know that’s why I was asking. Thanks
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Spreading PA subs can be bad for the same reason as separating bass cabs. Granted, people separate hi fi speakers, but often they do very little in the bottom octave, and people don't move around the sweet spot so much on their sofas.
 
#58
Rick James said:
That's what monitors are for. Don't want to bother with them? Then don't expect to hear your vocals.
They do. Invalid Link Removed

There are two circumstances where splitting subs is OK. One is in a very large room where the stacks are 50 feet or more apart. The other is a really small room, where room interactions dominate the response. In the other 95% or so of rooms where most of us play splitting subs is the number one mistake made by PA operators who don't know any better.
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Us Jersey guys know how to run subs properly, LOL!. I run the sound for my band and I have to always defend why I place the subs together in the center of the stage. They see every other band run them incorrectly, split under the mains, and think that is correct.
 
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#59
Nephilymbass said:
Title pretty much says it but I’ll elaborate. My bands been playing originals gigs with full PA provided by the venues for 17 years. More recently we’ve started doing some acoustic/cover gigs. For these shows we’re bringing our own small PA with two newer QSC powered tops and a wireless mixer for acoustic guitars and vocals and putting the cabs far enough back so we can hear them. I’m using my normal bass rig with two ampeg cabs a cable and a clip on tuner instead of bringing my pedalboard and the drummer isn’t amplified at all. I probably have an odd reason for it, I want to be able to hear my backup vocals better without losing volume of the bass out front, but I’m considering running one cab on each side of the drums. I ask you guys if you’ve done it and howd it work out because I haven’t played a gig with cabs on both sides of the stage in a while. I’d have to buy a longer speaker cable to even try it. At the moment we really don’t want to make the setup more complicated with monitors or pa subs so running one a cab on each side of the drums was suggested.
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Rules for Subwoofer placement and stacking - BillFitzmaurice.info
 

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