Hypothetical Gig

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Hypothetical Gig

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Fri Jun 17, 2011 3:52 pm

You are hired to do production for a concert. The concert will include multiple acts from solo artists to full bands. You have acess to whatever you need in terms of gear; your budget is unlimited. They are also paying you $20,000CAD if you are successful in doing a good job. There are a few catches: The room is 30' high by 30' wide by 65' long and it's all hard reflective surfaces that you cannot cover with anything and the promoter wants to keep volume in check as much as possible.

You accept the job because it pays too well not to. What kind of rig do you put together so that the promoter is happy and you get your money?
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Re: Hypothetical Gig

Postby Jef » Fri Jun 17, 2011 5:58 pm

Mathieu Benoit wrote:They are also paying you $20,000CAD if you are successful in doing a good job...

How much if you are unsuccessful in doing a good job, and who determines this?
Information I would need before signing on to anything like this, hypothetical or not.
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Re: Hypothetical Gig

Postby Mathieu Benoit » Sat Jun 18, 2011 9:23 am

Jef wrote:How much if you are unsuccessful in doing a good job, and who determines this?
Information I would need before signing on to anything like this, hypothetical or not.

You get nothing, and the promoter determines what he/she thinks sounds good. The promoter has more money than Oprah and doesn't mind paying if he/she thinks you helped make the night a success.

Or try this... The promoter is holding your family hostage and their safe return is determined on you doing a "good" job.

Whatever the scenario is... You aren't getting around the gig, and you have to make it work, but the room is horrible.
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Re: Hypothetical Gig

Postby Jef » Sat Jun 18, 2011 10:24 pm

There are a couple ways I would approach an 'echo chamber' type room. Either overkill it with high spl or underkill it by playing it very quietly. I find that when a room has a very reflective surface, keeping things much louder than the reflected sound will sometimes help. However, since there is a promoter who wants to keep volume in check, going to the other end of the spectrum would probably be my method; keeping the volume lower and using some carefully placed and properly delay synced short throw cabinets. So when it hits the reflective surfaces, it has lost most of its momentum to bounce back and cause problems.
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Re: Hypothetical Gig

Postby macrae11 » Sat Jun 18, 2011 11:29 pm

There are no shortcuts with the laws of physics unfortunately. It's going to sound like garbage almost no matter what. Jefs idea is a good one, but I think it would cause as many comb filtering problems as the ones it solves.

For that kind of money I would put together an adequate pa that would work for a decent sounding room of a similar size and then pay a bunch of homeless people to attend the event to soak up as much sound as possible. Fire limits be damned. I'd get them to all wear poofy winter coats and carry in some bass traps pairing to look like banners supportting whatever he event was for.

I'd still be ahead morethan five figures.
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Re: Hypothetical Gig

Postby warrbeat » Sun Jun 19, 2011 11:52 pm

A single line array "cluster" with a narrow horizontal flown and raked to keep off the ceiling and to theoretically aimed approx 10' up from the floor at the back of the room to start. Demand the kit used gets a Plexi Sheild, drive as many of the guitars and keys into DIs, put the stage monitors 180 degrees out of phase from the mains. oh yeah and make sure there's lots of Blood Bags along the walls...
Just a thought.
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Re: Hypothetical Gig

Postby Alain Benoit » Mon Jun 20, 2011 11:05 pm

Jef wrote:There are a couple ways I would approach an 'echo chamber' type room. Either overkill it with high spl or underkill it by playing it very quietly. I find that when a room has a very reflective surface, keeping things much louder than the reflected sound will sometimes help. However, since there is a promoter who wants to keep volume in check, going to the other end of the spectrum would probably be my method; keeping the volume lower and using some carefully placed and properly delay synced short throw cabinets. So when it hits the reflective surfaces, it has lost most of its momentum to bounce back and cause problems.


Exactly.
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Re: Hypothetical Gig

Postby Malcolm Boyce » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:21 am

Headphones for everyone in the room?
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It just fills Forum pages..." --compasspnt

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Re: Hypothetical Gig

Postby Alain Benoit » Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:45 am

Malcolm Boyce wrote:Headphones for everyone in the room?


The Joe Satriani way!!
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