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Speakers "Boomy" in a large hall


SolDios
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Hey guys!

Usually, I love my speakers, but Saturday night I found my speakers to be abit "boomy" last night.

The hall I was in was a considerable size, (20m by 30m) so I had to turn it up to about 70% of the max.

I found around it was very "Boomy", the low end sounded not very good even when adjusting it on my mixer either way.

Usually you can feel the base in your chest, but even in this hall with 2000w total rms of speakers I couldn't achieve my usual mind boggle'ing kick.

Anyone care to explan why this was? is it just the size of the hall like I think it is? or something else like my 12's being too high off the ground?

img20120518184740.jpg

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Probably due to reverb. Instead of a nice clean thump in the chest, the sound wave bounces around the room like a crazy thing and you get vibrations everywhere. Large halls are notoriously bad for this kind of thing due to all the hard surfaces. Turning up the bass normally makes things worse.

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Having the speaker stands on the floor of the hall would also have been better as the highs and mods are just shooting straight over the head of the audience. High frequencies are very directional and have a very defined dispersion pattern. They need to be pointed at the audience at ear level. Lows are different in that their omni directional so that you don't need to actually have them pointing at the audience. You can prove this easily by standing behind a speaker. Loads of bass but very little highs and mids.

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Subs and low end works best when coupled against a wall or in a corner, as it uses the wall to reflect and amplify what it is putting out - basically. Since you were in a smaller room (the stage, which is almost 3 and a bit walls in the photo) the lower frequencies are resonating in that smaller room. Because you are trying to get as much volume you can, you are turning it up to the point that it is too loud for the room the speakers are in, which is why it sounds bad to you (because your system is not set up right for the space you are in).

I realise you weren't using subs, but here's what you do:

Subs go on the floor where you want the bass to be (ie/ same floor as the punters). If they go on the stage you are on, you will be shaking all night, but the punters won't feel much.

Tops go above peoples head so they will carry down the room (not too high, and smaller rooms you don't need them as high), and in the same room as the punters.

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Man, I always hate those kinds of stages. Bullshit to get sound right - hate it when I'm DJing, and hate it when I'm mixing a band playing there!

You want to get your speakers out in the other room as much as possible - don't waste any energy in the area you are in.

If I was in there trying to get a solid and potentially loud sound, I would have subs on the floor of the actual hall (the floor the girls are standing on). I would have the mid high boxes on top of the subs - again in the same room.

For you - I would recommend, if you are using your 15" boxes as makeshift subs, put them on the floor of the hall. Put your tops either with them (but on stands and high enough that standing on the hall floor has the bottom of the speaker box at your face) or, because I know sometimes this kind of real estate can be hard to get, on stage as close to the edge of stage that is safe (again at the same height).

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Im going to be dealing with drunken doushe bag teenagers probably with drinks/goon sacks in hand. (Not the most classy bunch)

That's why I worry about putting them on the DF.

Last time I played there I had them on stage and it wasn't too bad, il try both methods prehaps?

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