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Need Assistance with Practice Space PA speaker Positioning.

Eilif

Eilif

Grooving under the MDW runway.
Oct 1, 2001
9,756
9,645
Chicago
#1
Wasn't sure whether this should go in Live Sound, Recording or somewhere else but here goes. A few months ago my wife let me turn a spare bedroom into a rehearsal room.
The wife OK's a rehearsal room!

Currently it looks mostly like this...
dscn0103-jpg.jpg

...except that now the PA speaker and mixer seen in the upper left corner is currently on a small table aproximately the same height and location of the Music stand seen on the mid-left side. The PA speaker is usually pointed at the drummer.

It's a very simple Mono 4 channel 100 watt Sunn Alpha 4 from the 70's plugged into two Fender PA speakers from the 90's

When singing, my wife (Lead Vox) and brother (BGV/Guitar) sit on chairs located aproximately between the upright bass and the music stand (now PA table) and sit/sing facing the general direction of the drum kit.

The other speaker is currently in the closet directly behind the lead singer placed on top of the 2x12 bass cab:
dscn0098-jpg.jpg


We practice our mostly Alt-Country and Americana at fairly low volumes and haven't had an problems with feedback yet despite having the rear speaker essentially facing over the lead singer's shoulder and strait at her mic.

Here's the next step and my current question...
I recently acquired two wall mounts intended for old CRT TV's at the local resale shop (only $6 each!). They're perfectly sized for my two speakers which I think are probably about the same weight as the TV's that would have rested on them before.

Where should I put these mounts? Where on the wall and how high?
Priorities/considerations include:
-Prioritizing practicing while seated
-Making sure the drummer can hear the singer
-Making sure the singer can hear herself clearly
-Positioning them in such a way that if I do decide to rehearse with a somewhat higher volume group there will be no feedback problems. I don't forsee playing metal in here anytime soon, but I'd like to keep my options open!
-The mounts can be swung and twisted widely but only have a few degrees (probably 10 or less) of up-and-down angle adjustment.

Thanks in advance!

One other question.
if I move the speaker out of the closet and put a very heavy curtain there, might that help also with feedback reduction and general sound control?
She bed turned on its side with comforters over it and the mattress (currently behind and beside the drummer as seen above) seem to be helping with this also, but as I mentioned before we don't really practice at high volumes.
 
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#2
If the current configuration lets everyone in your current group hear vocals clearly, why not leave the room as-is? Seems like the wall mounts are solving a problem you don't have.

With louder bands in a room that size, your mic volume will be limited by gain-before-feedback and by the balance in the mic channel b/w the singer's voice and spill from the other instruments. To squeeze out more useable volume, you'd notch eq at any peaky frequencies at the mic position, put the vocalist's monitor in her mic's null point, choose the vocal mic for feedback resistant pattern and for a response curve that suits your singer's voice.

(And yes, in that situation, some acoustic treatment behind your singer would also help clean up the signal in her vocal mic and her ears—assuming your future not-quite-as-loud-as-metal band won't have a singing drummer or some other change that requires reconfiguring the rehearsal set-up.)

This is all to say, if you're using cabs to monitor in a small room and you're concerned about later using the room closer to the limits of feedback with different bands, a bunch of significant variables argue against mounting your monitor speakers at all, much less in fixed positions tailored just to your current band's personnel.
 
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#3
Thanks for that. I'm hoping that putting them on stands will free up a bit of space in the closet (I'm probably going to move that bass cab into deep storage) and on the table where one of them rests now, but I'm open to having them in similar locations.

If I choose to move just the one cab out of the closet where would be a good place to put it?
 
#5
Man, be REALLY careful if you decide to fly those speakers. Speakers vibrate, TV's do not. Make sure they are strapped down tight. Don't rely on the wall mounts alone. I'd sink a couple eye-bolts into the speaker cabinets and chain them to a wall stud as well in case the wall mounts fail.

I think your current set-up might be best. Maybe mount the one speaker in the closet slightly higher and toward the center? Use the other speaker as a monitor for the drummer (on a separate monitor aux so the drummer can tweak his own mix.) If the drummer is still having trouble hearing the band/singer, maybe try headphones?

Generally, I'd try to have the singer's mics pointed away from the speaker as much as possible.
 
#7
You guys have given me alot to think about. Maybe mounting them is not such a good idea. It wouldn't be the worst thing to keep things as-is and I can always mount them later if it' becomes an issue.

As for the current arrangement everyone has seemed happy with it so far and no one is playing to loud, so perhaps I should just not try and fix something that isn't broken.
 
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#9
Room is about 9x14 but I just ended up leaving them as-is. I think it worked well but I m don't remember much as that group feel apart and a year later it got turned into a kids room.
 

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