Setting up a PA (etc) for a strange environment

[Jenny_Innie]

We're playing at the weekend in an odd place. We're doing 2 x 1 hour sets in the middle of the afternoon in a large pub garden. There are three bands on throughout the day and evening - we're all being asked to set up our own PA and backline etc. We're bass, guitar and drums. Two of us sing.

It's a strange set up where the audience will be on three sides - out in front of us and to each side. I went there as an audience member last year and remember that none of the bands got the sound right. They all sounded okay up front, but you couldn't really hear the vocals at either side. The bass was okay, but the guitars were much quieter unless you were out the front.

There will probably be even numbers of people in the three sections of the place; out front, the the left and to the right. Last year there were about 200 people or so there.

We've got access to loads of gear to cope with this and our keys player won't be playing so she has volunteered to help as 'sound girl'.

Any advice you have would be appreciated.

[The Badderer]

Are you going vocals only into the PA or guitars too?

If you have people at the sides they are going to need speakers facing them directly otherwise they won't get any clarity of sound, just the lower frequencies. If your guitarists are going out of cabs, then they're going to need to have cabs pointed in all directions too. My advice would be to mic 1 guitar cab and have it going out the PA too, that way there's only one source of sound going sideways rather than having PA and cabs everywhere. I'd keep it simpler and put everything through the PA aside from Bass if you don't need to do bass (given your thread about your Barefaced cabs being too loud I don't think Bass is going to be an issue being heard).

Obviously if it's outdoors you'll need to mic the drums and send that through the PA too.

[Jenny_Innie]

We normally go "vocals only" into the PA. We have a Mackie DLM12 set up. Two of those point out front and one as a monitor. They are 1000 watt each ...... but I worry that we'll struggle to get good vocal volume out of them if we put other things through.

[Stylon Pilson]

Your PA doesn't sound like it's going to be up to this job. At the very least, you need four speakers out front to cover the area properly (the two main ones pointing slightly outwards, and then two additional ones at 90°). You'll also want to mic up the guitar cabs.

What I would suggest would be that instead of these three bands bringing up their own PAs, you all club together and hire one suitable PA system to share. Maybe the pub would even be willing to put in something towards it.

S.P.

[Matt P]

The Badderer has already said this but I think you need to run more of the band though the PA, and have speakers pointing in more directions, from the description that you gave I'd guess that a pair of speakers pointing straight out plus one either side of the stage pointing at 90 degrees would be needed to cover everything (all running in mono to give the same sound from all the speakers), depending on the surroundings you might not need to mic the drums, and with the barefaced cabs I'd doubt that you'd need bass in the PA.

the ideal thing would be to set up in one of the corners rather than the middle, that would allow you to cover the whole area with just 2 speakers but I'm guessing that probably won't be allowed.

Edit - Beaten to it in far less words by Stylon Pilson!

Edited July 16, 2015 by Matt P

[Stylon Pilson]

[quote name='The Badderer' timestamp='1437035818' post='2822910']
Obviously if it's outdoors you'll need to mic the drums and send that through the PA too.
[/quote]

For a pub garden with 200 people, if power is in short supply then I reckon they might be able to get away without micing up the drums on this one. I dunno, it's borderline.

S.P.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Stylon Pilson

[Dad3353]

We don't play out often, but when we do, it's in this kind of configuration, too (open air, garden party, 2 guitars, bass, drums, 2 x vox...). We put bass drum and 1 overhead through PA (HK, 2 x 300w...), vox, of course; seldom the guitars. Not needed for the bass. With your public being to each side, you'll need an extra pair of PA speakers, one each side, so effectively having 1 PA speaker at each corner of the stage area, two pointing roughly forwards, the back two at 90°. The guitars, when mic'ed, are picked up by suspending a mic by its cable in front of the cab (we use Sennheiser 609, but Shure SM57 will do, too...).
Keep it simple, keep it mono, keep the volume reasonable on stage, using the PA to reinforce the stage sound rather than trying to make it the primary sound source. If the stage sound is well balanced, the PA will be able to diffuse that to all the audience. 200 folks in a pub garden is not Woodstock; you won't need to go overboard. Basically, then, an extra pair of 'side-fill' behind you, facing out at 90°, should do the trick.
Hope this helps; enjoy the gig.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Dad3353

[charic]

You could try putting the PA at the furthest reaches to the sides but really... they should rethink the layout. It's just not realistic for most band to be able to cater for this setup.

[mrtcat]

If several of the bands use active pa cabs why not pool them together and cover all 3 sides. Mono is best for coverage and it'll up the power plus cut down on band turnaround time.

[Dan Dare]

Defo need someone to mix, so take your keyboard player up on her offer. Agree with others' suggestions to combine PA cabs and go out in mono. Stereo a waste of time unless it's for a seated concert hall audience.