I just rejoined my old band and whilst I have been away they have moved to a better rehearsal room. We move in on Tuesday, so have been giving some thought on how best to set it up...
The room is roughly 8m x 8m
Band is Drums / Bass / Vox with Acoustic Guitar / Electric guitar with BV
We have a PA rig with 1 floor monitor.
Till now the problems have always been in hearing the vocalist - in the old room, they had the PA in the corners, with the Vocalist standing in front with her back to the PA, which meant that the mic picked up a lot. Drummer opposite the PA, then the rest of us in a circle, so all facing each other. upside of that was the Vocal Mic didn't pick up the drums.
Existing room
Now since I left I did a lot of acoustic gigs, so bought a monitor. Would we be better off moving the PA speakers in line with the Vocal mic, and letting the lead singer use my monitor? Our PA speakers are wedge shaped, would they work on the floor? At the moment they are suspended from the ceiling. We can do that again, but only want to do it once.
Thoughts welcome as moving into an empty room we have the chance to get this more or less right before "installing" it all.
Comments
I'm sure this will add nothing but...some rehearsal as per you would be on stage is worth doing, you'll find there are all sorts of signals you use that disappear once you are facing an audience.
Are those arrows in the picture showing the direction amps are pointing in? We're a long way from performing live, but I have heard that many people set up as if on stage. Would that mean all the amps behind us, pointing in the same direction as the drummer?
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
Then me, the singer and the bassist are standing kind of in a line across the middle of the room, with our pedalboards aimed square at our respective rigs, three vocal mics set so they're facing the same direction as the drummer (ie away from the pa speakers)
That minimises feedback issues and maximises eye contact/ communication between band members.
Most importantly, across the wall opposite the drums and backline there's a sofa and a weird hanging tapestry. This is vital.
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If you are working on songs then you'd usually rehearse in the round ( all facing each other)but if you are preparing for a gig you'd generally rehearse as per on stage ( all facing the desk in the diagram - relatively few bands play gigs in the round, although it's not completely unknown ). Wether you move the gear around to be as per a stage set up depends a) if you can be bothered and b) if it's the same gear (especially the PA) as you will be using live ( if it is then you are trying out the equipment as well as rehearsing, although bear in mind the settings you achieve ina rehearsal room won't necessarily work live).
< thumbs up >
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
Then have the guitar/BV and bassist closer to the corners near the drummer and facing more across the room or even back towards the singer a bit, so the BV mic is facing away from the PA as well.
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