Acoustic geometry, or why your bass sound might be great at one gig and then pants at the next.

[musicbassman]

 

[Dan Dare]

You can apply much the same to virtually any amplified music. We have to adapt to suit the acoustics of whatever space we are playing in. That's why having "my sound" isn't a good idea. If you're running everything through PA, the engineer can adjust the eq for room acoustics. However, if you're running off backline with a vocal only PA (which is the norm in many smaller venues), you need to check the sound in the room (use a long lead or wireless) and adjust your rig accordingly. I do this and if the resultant sound on stage is not ideal or what I'd prefer, I live with it.

[BigRedX]

But you can't fix a poor acoustic space with EQ. If you could, studios wouldn't expensive acoustic treatment to the ceilings and walls and could get away with simply slapping a 31 band graphic across the monitor feeds.

 

Room acoustics are a mixture of time and frequency domain issues and EQ is just a frequency domain solution. Sure you can use EQ to fix a problem at a given listening position, but your are just as likely to make the sound much worse in other parts of the room. EQ is a compromise solution only, and at some point you will have to live with the fact that it can only do so much towards fixing a poor acoustic space. You may get just as good results by repositioning the speakers to change the location of the sum and difference nodes caused by sound being reflected from the various surfaces in the room.

[Dan Dare]

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

But you can't fix a poor acoustic space with EQ. If you could, studios wouldn't expensive acoustic treatment to the ceilings and walls and could get away with simply slapping a 31 band graphic across the monitor feeds.

True, but you can ameliorate it to a degree, which is better than nothing. Moving speaker cabs can certainly be helpful, as you suggest. If you're playing in a venue with acoustic issues, you're stuck with it. You have to try to do something, even if it won't be a perfect solution.

[BigRedX]

There was a venue we used to play in my Dad Rock band and the biggest improvement we could make to the FoH sound would be to draw the curtains that covered the floor the ceiling windows all the way down one side of the room.

 

Just playing with EQ, you are going to have to accept the fact that no matter what you do you are making the sound worse in some other part of the room.

[Bassfinger]

My bass sounds awesome at every gig.