Hey Guys,
Lately I've been using a new technique and I want all your opinions on it.
I do this once a month gig with a small 2 speaker PA for speeches in a tiny cafe in my city.
The room is a nightmare acoustically with hardwood floors and 1 of the walls actually being a full size window. They usually want the PA parallel to the glass wall but hey, it's up to them where they want it. I'm not the one to argue and I like the challenge.
As usual, the tuning goes out the window when the people pack themselves into this small space. My solution to this has been a new approach to tuning.
Lately for this event, when I'm ringing-out the system I've popped my graphics into 6db mode and dropped the output gain by 3-6dB, I've engaged the low cut and I've proceeded to ring out the system as I usually would. I'll go check how it sounds by having a quick chatter and bring some frequencies back if I've gone too far. I guess that it's important to note that I'm using a gooseneck, but I only own one second hand and fucked if I know what brand or model it is
Skip forward to the start of the event:
During the short period of time between the house filling up and the speakers starting their speeches while the room is loud with everyone taking, I slowly creep up the output gain back to 0db with the channel wide open. I've never had it feed at this point but I expect it to one day. In which case I'll go red in the face and drop the level.
The drop in gain is supposed to simulate the soaking up of sound that our bodies are so brilliant at doing. I understand that this soaking effect is frequency dependent and would be impossible/extremely difficult to truly simulate.
For me this is kind of like a stop-bar to prevent me from going nuts with the tuning and taking way too much out. At the same time I've taken out only the largest room resonances, created the headroom that I need and have a good idea of my gain before feedback. the move to the 6db mode allows me much finer control of my attenuation.
It sounds a lot more natural, I usually head to the back of the room and have a listen. I can't hear much of the acoustic space anymore but the voice still sounds full and natural. Any other issues in the voice are addressed at channel EQ level.
What do you guys think?
