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Title: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Doug de Werd on November 14, 2017, 12:24:07 PM
Hi all,

Long time lurker, infrequent poster. Learned a lot over the years here  :)

My band played a multi-band festival on a baseball field last Saturday. Stage set up behind home plate.

This is the setup. Sorry for the bad pics, I wish I would have taken one from behind so I could see all the model #'s. Quite a mish mash. Lots of JBL (SRX I think), a couple of KF650's, Yamaha double 18's (maybe sw218?).

Decent gear, Soundcraft Impact SI, separate monitor console, lots of amp racks. I didn't get a chance to see all of it up close.

It was loud, but not particularly clear. But it sure looked impressive! Lots of comb filtering as I walked back and forth. I figure they could have brought 1/3 of what they did and have it be just as loud and sound a lot better.

Blue tarp over the stage, flapping in the wind by the end of the night (no rain though).

Cheers,
Doug
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Luke Geis on November 14, 2017, 01:33:01 PM
For the amount of work required to do that setup, a small bit of math would have saved them a bunch of time and energy for a better result with similar coverage and output.
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Stu McDoniel on November 14, 2017, 01:43:45 PM
Hi all,

Long time lurker, infrequent poster. Learned a lot over the years here  :)

My band played a multi-band festival on a baseball field last Saturday. Stage set up behind home plate.

This is the setup. Sorry for the bad pics, I wish I would have taken one from behind so I could see all the model #'s. Quite a mish mash. Lots of JBL (SRX I think), a couple of KF650's, Yamaha double 18's (maybe sw218?).

Decent gear, Soundcraft Impact SI, separate monitor console, lots of amp racks. I didn't get a chance to see all of it up close.

It was loud, but not particularly clear. But it sure looked impressive! Lots of comb filtering as I walked back and forth. I figure they could have brought 1/3 of what they did and have it be just as loud and sound a lot better.

Blue tarp over the stage, flapping in the wind by the end of the night (no rain though).

Cheers,
Doug
They could have cut that whole pile and used the SRX boxes on the outside of the piles. They appear to be SRX.
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: John L Nobile on November 14, 2017, 01:58:56 PM
Did anyone in the crowd say....

Wow Man! How many watts you puttin out?

Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Doug de Werd on November 14, 2017, 02:24:05 PM
Did anyone in the crowd say....

Wow Man! How many watts you puttin out?

I meant to ask, just out of curiosity, but didn't get around to it. But in this teeny little rural Texas town (pop. 300), their "big" show of force was duly impressive to most folks.

And yes, they were all cabled up too!

Cheers,
Doug
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Steve Crump on November 14, 2017, 02:27:50 PM
I meant to ask, just out of curiosity, but didn't get around to it. But in this teeny little rural Texas town (pop. 300), their "big" show of force was duly impressive to most folks.

And yes, they were all cabled up too!

Cheers,
Doug


How many people were at the event?
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Doug de Werd on November 14, 2017, 02:53:33 PM

How many people were at the event?

Ha, the (sad but) funny thing is they were hoping for 500+, but there was maybe 125.

FWIW, the guy organizing the thing told me he paid the sound company $800 for this, plus 2 crew (who also sat in with one of the bands).

Cheers,
Doug
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Steve Crump on November 14, 2017, 03:07:14 PM
Ha, the (sad but) funny thing is they were hoping for 500+, but there was maybe 125.

FWIW, the guy organizing the thing told me he paid the sound company $800 for this, plus 2 crew (who also sat in with one of the bands).

Cheers,
Doug

 What a trip. They definitely were not charging by the cabinet.
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Kemper Watson on November 14, 2017, 04:14:41 PM
They could have cut that whole pile and used the SRX boxes on the outside of the piles. They appear to be SRX.

My thoughts exactly. Someone was trying to grandstand..
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Stephen Kirby on November 14, 2017, 05:11:41 PM
Back in the day I knew folks who would pile up empty cabinets to look impressive.  First 5 way system I saw at the the Honolulu International Center arena for George Benson and was two 5 ways per side.  The best I ever heard in there.  Huge pile of horn cabs in a tray over the stage to look impressive but there was nothing in them.
Maybe not all of these were on.  Then again, being Texas (my father's from West Texas) maybe they were.  ;)
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Doug de Werd on November 14, 2017, 05:43:12 PM
Huge pile of horn cabs in a tray over the stage to look impressive but there was nothing in them.
Maybe not all of these were on.  Then again, being Texas (my father's from West Texas) maybe they were.  ;)

I checked from behind and they all had Neutrik connectors connected, and given the amount of comb filtering I heard, I would definitely say yes they were on!

Cheers,
Doug
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Mike Caldwell on November 14, 2017, 08:33:59 PM
I'm going to guess they use the same set up at every show, pile them up and point them all straight ahead.

More than likely that was their first ever big show so they called all their buddies, borrowed their equipment, piled it all up and called it rock and roll.
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Bob Leonard on November 14, 2017, 09:27:05 PM
The SRX would have done the show by themselves even if more than 500 people had shown up. Such a shame, an $800 dollar backstop.
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: John Fruits on November 14, 2017, 09:56:55 PM
Maybe they had sort of read something about that Wall of Sound thing and figured, "how hard can it be".
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Chris Hindle on November 15, 2017, 07:49:37 AM
Maybe they had sort of read something about that Wall of Sound thing and figured, "how hard can it be".

Nope. "Hey, we're playing the "Big field", get all the speakers we can find..."
Chris.
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Keith Broughton on November 15, 2017, 08:41:35 AM
$800!?!?!?!
And we wonder why customers expect so much for so little $
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Mike Smith on November 16, 2017, 07:22:00 AM
Ha, the (sad but) funny thing is they were hoping for 500+, but there was maybe 125.

FWIW, the guy organizing the thing told me he paid the sound company $800 for this, plus 2 crew (who also sat in with one of the bands).

Cheers,
Doug

They were negotiating ransom. For $1600, half the speakers would have stayed home.
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Scott Slater on November 18, 2017, 09:56:07 AM
Unfortunately some event coordinators are "impressed" by a setup like this, so this guy will get the job over a guy with a pair of SM80s and some TH118s, since it "looks more impressive".
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Mike Caldwell on November 18, 2017, 10:18:18 AM
Unfortunately some event coordinators are "impressed" by a setup like this, so this guy will get the job over a guy with a pair of SM80s and some TH118s, since it "looks more impressive".

Unfortunately true.

Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Jeff Lelko on November 18, 2017, 11:54:45 AM
Unfortunately true.

Yep.  I've been in that situation many times, having to explain why I'm quoting XXX for only 4 speakers when this other guy is quoting half the price for 12 speakers!  I already have my canned "Not all speakers are created equally" and "Sometimes less is more" speech ready to go for clients like that...  And for what it's worth I generally quote for the service, not on a per-speaker rate, but some clients like to see a system spec'd out on quote (which of course opens the door for non-apples to apples comparisons between vendors). 
Title: Re: Speaker stack from last weekend
Post by: Geert Friedhof on November 19, 2017, 05:50:02 AM
Yep.  I've been in that situation many times, having to explain why I'm quoting XXX for only 4 speakers when this other guy is quoting half the price for 12 speakers!  I already have my canned "Not all speakers are created equally" and "Sometimes less is more" speech ready to go for clients like that...  And for what it's worth I generally quote for the service, not on a per-speaker rate, but some clients like to see a system spec'd out on quote (which of course opens the door for non-apples to apples comparisons between vendors).

Well,

I've been on the organizer side many times, and sometimes (new) bidders don't specify what they will bring for a certain (fairly low) amount. They will i.e. quote something like "nexo array with subs", which tells me nothing. I want to know what and how many they bring, so i can check if the service requirements are met. I agree with you that after a while one should be able to trust the production company. Ofcourse there are many other deciding factors.

Usually the quotes you get over here is quite well specified, with coverage and stage plots etc.