We are a 6 piece band that plays a huge variety of music including Blues, Country, Rock, and top 40/dance music. We use the Bose L1's as our only amplification/monitor on stage and have yet to be disapointed. We now set up and tear down in 30 minutes complete with drums and lights. here's a few pics of our setup.

Madcat, have you ever tried running the sticks out in front of the band, and if so, what was your experience? We're a 5pc country band and we're just now getting this system into our mainstream. Had a small gig the other night, 10 minutes to set up the PA makes me enjoy playing again!

Hi Greg, Actually, we always use them as intended, behind the band because they are also our monitors. The only time we vary from this setup is when we set up in a corner or have a very deep stage where we can put the Drummer behind the Bose systems. This allows the drummer to hear without being blown away or wear ear plugs. We Just purchased another tone engine and will be trying it out this weekend. we are going to split the vocals into 2 L1 T1's, with just vocals on one, and vocals and bass guitar on the other.

Thanks for the info! Yeah, our drummer's ears are our concern here. Funny how after 30yrs of playing, he can still hear well. Wondered if moving the speakers out front would help him, but still allow us the clarity they provide as monitors. I suppose trying is the only way to know. Speaking of drums, do you guys mic his kit? We play an L1M2 with 4 B1's, and I never could move the air I wanted with a traditional mic. Last week I purchased the Porch Board (porchboard.com) and holy shnikes! That's taken the place of his bass drum. He'll still bring it for looks only, but he's now playing the bass "pedal" through the porch board. It provides an amazing low-end experience, and I believe it's going to be our permanent solution. We were going to buy a pair of powered subs to handle that task, but I don't think that's going to be necessary anymore. Our first "full band, larger venue" show is tomorrow (Friday) so I am looking forward to hearing the new sound. And I'm dang sure looking forward to a 30 min setup instead of a 2.5hr setup!

Agreed with the hearing, We always try to set up in a corner now, so the Drummer is behind the T1's and the rest of us in front of them. this is ideal for everyone. When that is not possible our drummer uses Hero's ear plugs and that works ok. We also are fighting with the missing punch of the kick, the Porcchboard seems very interesting. We have been considering adding a 18" sub out in front as well. We run the kick and my bass thru my modle 1 with 2 B1's and the volume is there, just kinda missing the punch that really gets people dancing. This weekend we are going to try running a line out of the low out ont the model 1 to my bass amp with a 15" that we will place in front of the band on the dance floor. How did your gig go?

P.s. we only mic the kick so far, havent needed to mic anything else yet, considering an overhead condenser to help capture the rest, but honestly the vocal mics pic up enough to to the job.

The gig went great. There were a couple folks at the bar who wanted us to turn up, but everyone else, including the entire staff, said it was perfect--never too loud. One said "it was refreshing to be able to hear my drink orders for a change and not have to ask you guys to turn down like we do with every other band!" Seems like the public is just used to loud volume, and we're going to change that, one venue at a time! I run 4 B1's for our kick drum and my bass, and it works well. Certainly not as chest thumping as traditional 18" subs, but it worked well. And we were able to successfully mic the kick drum instead of using the porchboard. I will say that doubling the B1's made ALL the difference in the world regarding low end. It's remarkably better, and once you spend the money to do so, you'll never look back. We mic'd the rest of the drums through the one L1 model 1 we own and a single B1. Otherwise, we had my Model 2/4B1's, and another model 2 running a pair of B1's. We've just ordered another Model 2 and that's going to be used for the other guitarist. With 4 systems onstage, we'll handle any venue we've ever played with plenty of headroom.

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We run the kick and my bass thru my modle 1 with 2 B1's and the volume is there, just kinda missing the punch that really gets people dancing.

Hi Madcat Bassist

One of the things I’ve found is, it is better to run the Bass guitar in one L1 and the Kick drum into another. There is documentation about this in here somewhere. I would be putting the kick in with the vocals and the bass in with the rest assuming they both have at least 2 b1 each.


Greg said

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I will say that doubling the B1's made ALL the difference in the world regarding low end. It's remarkably better, and once you spend the money to do so, you'll never look back

I've come to the same conclusion as Greg except I would still separate the Bass Guitar and the Kick drum. If the Bass guitar has to share an L1 with the kick drum then I'd make sure I used the Kick Gate settings on the T1 for the kick drum. It sure helps keep everything clean.


If I'm playing a Pop or Rock gig I'll use an L1 with a packlite and four B1s just for the drums. The extra B1s and the proper kick drum tuning will get those people dancing.

This is just my opinion. I sure hope it helps.

Starvin

Starvin, I'm gonna hop in here and say thanks for your words about separating the kick and bass. We're going to give our drummer his own system and see how the separation does for us.

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Starvin, I'm gonna hop in here and say thanks for your words about separating the kick and bass. We're going to give our drummer his own system and see how the separation does for us.

-Greg

Hey Greg


Do you think you could post your findings here? I’d be interested in knowing how things worked out and it might help others.

Thanks in advance.

Happy to. Next show is Jan 9, we'll be able to report back after that.

Ahh, time for the report. Since last message, we've added a 4th L1. We now play through 3 M2's and 1 M1. We've put the drummer through the M1 and gave him 4 B1's and a packlite, where previously I was playing my bass through an M2 with 4 B1's and the packlite, and put the drums through it as well. I discovered that I could get along just fine on 2 B1's, so we put the others on the drums. Everyone else now has their own M2 running 2 B1's, so none of the systems are taxed. The lead vox are run through one of the guitarists M2's. Our balance is now perfect. In fact, the drums were too loud on the 9th, and consequently we all turned up too much. Hindsight, we would have backed down at least 10-15%, and mic'd less drums. To summarize, drummer and bass guitar are now separate, and drummer has 4 subs, bass guitar has 2, and everything is just fine.

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Originally posted by Greg - SexyTractor:
Ahh, time for the report. Since last message, we've added a 4th L1. We now play through 3 M2's and 1 M1. We've put the drummer through the M1 and gave him 4 B1's and a packlite, where previously I was playing my bass through an M2 with 4 B1's and the packlite, and put the drums through it as well. I discovered that I could get along just fine on 2 B1's, so we put the others on the drums. Everyone else now has their own M2 running 2 B1's, so none of the systems are taxed. The lead vox are run through one of the guitarists M2's. Our balance is now perfect. In fact, the drums were too loud on the 9th, and consequently we all turned up too much. Hindsight, we would have backed down at least 10-15%, and mic'd less drums. To summarize, drummer and bass guitar are now separate, and drummer has 4 subs, bass guitar has 2, and everything is just fine.

I bet that it sounds fantastic and will wager that the venues love you guys even more now.

Absolute fact: every venue we've used the Bose so far, 2 of them being without the knowledge and amount of systems we have today, the response from the staff has been 100% positive. Nobody has asked us to turn down, nor up. In fact, had a conversation with our sound engineer yesterday about this topic. He is still missing the big "wall of sound" from the traditional PA. I asked him:

How many times were we asked to turn down, prior to Bose? Nearly every show.

How many times were we asked to turn up? Never.

How many times have we been asked to turn down with the Bose? Never.

How many times have we been asked to turn up? Never.

Staff from every show so far has complimented us during or after the show with statements like:

• "Best PA we've ever had in here."
  
• "Best volume we've ever had in here, especially from a band your size."
  
• "I could hear my drink orders!!"

With confirmation like that, how could we not love this arrangement?

Thanks Greg for the report. I’m glad you came to the same conclusion as I did


Madcat

I hope this helps you out.

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P.s. we only mic the kick so far, havent needed to mic anything else yet, considering an overhead condenser to help capture the rest, but honestly the vocal mics pic up enough to to the job.

I do the same on the smaller pop or blues gigs.

I use one overhead for the bigger gigs.It gives me a very natural sound but if you are going for the processed drum sound you will probably be better served with close micing the full kit.
I should also mention that I have my own T1 for my drums that I keep right beside me. I've been close micing my snare on my jazz gigs and only turn the snare mic on when I'm using brushes.
I found the brush sound was dropping off before it left the stage. Putting the brushes through the L1 sends my mix evenly to the back of the room.

This is what's been working for me.I hope it helps your drummer find what works for him.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I have been pretty busy so havent been able to respond until now. We have added another tone engine so we now have 2 m2's 2 m1's and 3 tone engines, but I feel we prolly need another tower to get the job done. I run lead female vocals, bass, kick, and bass backup vocals thru my m1 with 1 t1 while lead male vocals, drummer vocals, and 1 guitar go into another t1/m2 the other m1 uses inputs 1&2 for lead guitar and his vocals, and the other m2/t1 is all keys and key vocals. everyone has only 1 bass module but me with 2 b1's into m1 with t1 bass and kick/lead f vocals. our biggest problem is the female lead vocals keep clipping. still working on this but we deff love the bose!

We are about to receive some new subs from a guy who custom builds them for the Bose units. I'll be running them with my Peavey CS4080hz, which is as heavy as one complete L1M2 system with 2 subs, but it's compact, and should deliver more bass than we could probably ever use. I'll keep you posted when they arrive!