How to set up in Banquet Hall...so you're heard

[cashews]

Played at a fundraising banquet couple of nights ago. The din of chatter was so loud that my keyboard was completely indistinguishable. And group of old ladies near the stage asked me to turn it down. Funny how older people are often hard of hearing but music is always too loud!

 

I've been in restaurants etc. where the piano is tastefully heard above the table chatter and provides great ambience.

 

Is there a way to point/direct speakers to be heard? Should I connect into the hall PA? I have a couple of EV 360's.

[drawback]

I've done a few of these where it seems no matter what you do, you'll be too loud up front, and too quiet everywhere else. The solution for me was to connect into the hall PA, and use in-ears connected to the DP. No one really cares whether the piano is live-sounding or muzak through the hall speaker system. In fact I wonder why they hired a pianist at all, but I'll take it.

[PianoMan51]

I've posted this before. If you lift your speakers above everyone's head and angle them slightly downward you can significantly reduce the 'it's too loud in front of the band' effect. I do this on stage for all performances.

 

http://www.astralsound.com/vertical_pattern.htm

 

You can buy 15degree speaker stand adapters for about $7 apiece at FullCompass.

[ksoper]

Funny how older people are often hard of hearing but music is always too loud!

 

 

Here's something I've learned: Just because the nerves aren't transmitting the signal doesn't mean the ear drums aren't taking a beating.

[dodonnell]

Full Compass wants $60 each for the K&M speaker stand tilt adapters http://www.fullcompass.com/product/396267.html and $6 each for the Yorkville tilt adapter http://www.fullcompass.com/product/333452.html

 

Duane

[Six-string-man]

I bought the Yamaha DXR 10's. One nice bonus is that there are two holes in the bottom for a pole, one of which is tilted down slightly.

 

 

SSM

[PianoMan51]

Full Compass wants $60 each for the K&M speaker stand tilt adapters http://www.fullcompass.com/product/396267.html and $6 each for the Yorkville tilt adapter http://www.fullcompass.com/product/333452.html

 

Duane

Here's what you want: http://www.fullcompass.com/product/333452.html

 

less than six bucks each.

 

Sorry, just realized you had already posted this.

[DanL]

The old ladies who complain about the volume are always the ones who sit right in front of the speakers!

[Baldwin Funster]

Get long 100ft speaker cables and position the pa cabs so they are away from the front of stage. You will have to deal with some signal delay though. In ears maybe?

[drawback]

What about renting a Bose L1?

[J. Dan]

The issue has to do with the physics of how sound travels.

 

With conventional speakers, volume is reduced 6dB every time you double the distance. So suppose you have a large room with a constant din of 85db chatter and you're at one end, and it's 200' long. To be 85dB at the far end of the room, you'd have to be 121dB 3' from your speaker. Way too loud for an old lady. Line arrays (like the Bose sticks) reduce by 3dB every time you double the distance. In the same example, you'd need to be 113db 3' from the speaker. Better, but still not ideal.

 

There are only 2 ways to really get even coverage throughout the room. 1) have an array of speakers throughout the room, either ceiling speakers, or many speakers on stands. 2). Have a point source in the middle of a room with a high ceiling, way over everybody's heads, so that the difference in distance from that pint to any point in the room where there are listeners is not significant.

 

Most of those scenarios are not really feasible, but a combination of things can greatly improve it - like Bose sticks in front with a couple strategically placed speakers towards the back of the room placed high over people's' heads.

[hurricane hugo]

I bought the Yamaha DXR 10's. One nice bonus is that there are two holes in the bottom for a pole, one of which is tilted down slightly.

 

 

SSM

 

we seriously need an Innuendo thread.

[Six-string-man]

I bought the Yamaha DXR 10's. One nice bonus is that there are two holes in the bottom for a pole, one of which is tilted down slightly.

 

 

SSM

 

we seriously need an Innuendo thread.

 

 

Yeah, I suppose I could have put that better

 

 

SSM

[Bill H.]

I got a couple of those K&M tilters off Amazon a couple of years ago for $25 each and consider them an essential part of my kit. I use them more often than not.

 

I always set them at max which is 15 degrees. So you might as well just get the Yorkies, which are permanently at that angle.

 

Tilting your speakers does wonders when it comes to all kinds of weird coverage issues.

[Tusker]

The long, thin, halls are the worst kind for hurting the people up front and not being audible further back. Some older ornate buildings (eg. beautiful, exposed stonework) can be very reflective to boot. Higher volumes don't solve these problems. If the speaker installation is professional, I would rely on the installed system as much as possible, because many installations are engineered to mitigate the reflective/delay effects.

 

For restaurants, the room shapes are hit and miss, but I have the same experience as others. The downward tilt solves a lot of problems when the primary problem is that the audience is absorbing sound.

[cashews]

thanks for the advice on this, next time i'll try the speaker tilt!