xscope placing guides on the correct monitor

speakers as far downstage as possible and point your microphones in the opposite direction. To combat feedback, always place your P.A. 3: Place speakers so that they are facing away from microphone pickup patterns. Feedback is not just hard on the ears, it's hard on your gear, and it can destroy speakers and amplifiers.įig. Each time the sound cycles through the loop, it gets amplified, resulting in a screech that forces all the amplifiers to clip and overdrives the speakers.

This means the mics will pick up speaker sounds and feed them back into the amplifier the sounds come back out through the speakers and into the mics, completing the feedback loop. speakers right behind the band, the microphones point directly at the speakers. Of course, some mics, like floodlights, have a wide pattern, and others, like penlights, have a very narrow pattern. All stage microphones have a directional pickup pattern, typically called unidirectional or cardioid, designed to pick up sounds right in front of the mic while rejecting the sounds at the sides and rear.Ī microphone's pickup pattern acts like a flashlight beam: any sound present where the beam points is going to be picked up and amplified. You must place speakers in front of the band to eliminate the speaker-to-mic path, the primary cause of feedback. They have a very wide dispersion pattern and are not as loud as a horn-loaded cabinet, making them perfect for covering tables directly to the side of a stage. I keep a set of Bose 800 cabinets in my trailer for just such contingencies. These speakers don't require a lot of bass response, but they should have a wide dispersion pattern if possible. If you need to cover a group of listeners seated directly beside the stage, you may have to aim an additional set of small speakers to the side so everyone can hear (see Fig. Try to aim speakers toward the most important part of the room. If the audience strays outside this range, they'll mostly hear booming bass sounds and miss the vocals.Īs a general rule, if you can't see the throat of the horn, you can't hear it. This means most of the midrange and high frequencies project out in a cone about 60 degrees wide by 40 degrees high. By comparison, most club speakers are short-throw, with dispersion patterns of 60 by 40 degrees or wider.

Long-throw speakers, which have projection patterns as narrow as 20 degrees, are used exclusively for concert sound systems targeting crowds hundreds of feet away. You can group speaker patterns into two general categories: long-throw and short-throw. Like microphones, speakers have a directional pattern and tend to beam mid- and high-frequency sounds in specific directions at varying angles. The right directionįigure 2: This typical speaker arrangement shows high-frequency dispersion patterns and includes a small speaker that's been added to cover tables at one side of the stage. Tape down cables and route foot traffic away from stands to avoid injuries. Use sandbags or old gym weights on the legs so that wind (at outdoor events) or jostling from crowds won't tip the stands over. Make sure you have the speaker stand's legs splayed properly, and never exceed load limits.

Be smart, don't put heavy enclosures on folding chairs or light furniture. Whenever you put a bass speaker up in the air, you instantly lose half of its power, and most of the time you need all the bass you can get.Ĭaution: remember to use proper speaker stands and mounting hardware when you elevate speaker cabinets. Subwoofers actually operate more efficiently (and get louder) at floor level. But if you have separate subwoofers, they should remain on the floor. For single cabinets containing, say, a 15-inch speaker and a 1-inch horn, your only alternative is to elevate the whole enclosure. However, keep in mind that only mid and high cabinets belong up in the air. The best PA speakers: the best compact live sound systems for bands and buskers

Xscope placing guides on the correct monitor