Thought I'd toss a few details about an event I provided sound for this weekend.

First act was a sequenced solo acoustic player.
(1 vox, ipod DI, and Guitar DI)

Second act was just a solo acoustic singer/songwriter. (1 vox and guitar DI)

Third act was a full 5 piece band.(4 vox, 2 guitar DI, 2 SM81 condensers on a set of steel drums, Bass DI, and electronic drums DI)

Fourth act was the headliner - Mac McAnally - singer/songwriter. (2 vox, guitar DI, 2 piano DI, and mandolin DI)

Event was originally slated to be on the outdoor stage with 400-600 expected to attend.
70% chance of rain turned into 12+ hours of a steady downpour so everything was moved to the indoor stage. (large vaulted ceiling room, open to the lake, but with roll down walls to keep out the rain)

FOH: Allen & Heath GL2400/24, rack of dbx compressors, Lexicon effects, Tascam CD player, dbx Driverack, AB and Peavey graphic EQs, and assorted Audix wireless units.

STAGE: Three JBL PRX512m monitors, Yorkville LS700pb subwoofer, and two Bose L1 towers.

I ran the L1 towers full range with the handheld mixers attached. I pulled a bit of the low end out of them and added just a touch of the highs. Ran true stereo for the day with each side feeding 1 L1 tower (ch1).
Ch1 in each tower was set to 4 and on the remote Ch1 was about 4.5 and the master at 5.5.
(almost 12:00 and just past 12:00) Never saw a red light flash the entire night. The Yorkville sub was fed thru the Driverack crossed over at 140hz. The amp on the sub was running at about 45% the whole night and it too amazed the folks who knew PA systems - "how does a dual 10" sub make that much bass?" was asked several times thru the night.
There was a wonderful lobe of audio if you happened to be the musician behind the L1 tower so monitors were really there to fulfill the rider requirements for Mac. Stage volume was minimal. (steel pans were probably the loudest. Bass player had a small kickback Hartke amp)

Probably had 300 folks in attendance and the Bose L1 towers were the perfect speaker for the room/event.

Venue typically has Yamaha or Yorkville front loaded PA systems with the weekend bands and there are complaints over the volume being too loud and the quality of audio being sub par.

They cap the weekend bands at 90db (A weighted) and have a really hard time staying under that.
I read mid 80s up to low 90s all day and you could hear everything crystal clear, with a solid kick drum, and not one person complained the entire event.
(I later found out we were cleared with the local police dept. to reach 100db.)

Worst part of the day was having to run a 100' snake to the back of the room and then gaffers tape it down. (would have LOVED to had a Roland digital snake - 40 channels over 2 pieces of cat5 cable)

We only needed 15 or 16 channels to do the entire day but I really considered linking two Bose T1 mixers together and running a single TRS to XLR cable from FOH to Stage....
(that would have been a bit more work on the front end: ie. getting each act up for sound check, setting their compressors, eqs, and Aux feed for the PRX floor wedges. Then storing it in the T1 memory and moving on to the next artist and repeating the process. From there you simply recall that preset in the T1 for each act and then adjust gain structure as needed.)

BUT, then its sometimes hard to justify your company's fee for providing lights and audio when your mixing console and effects rack fit on a TV tray. HAHA!

But I am considering that very thing for my band......

Great gig - TONS of compliments on the quality of the sound. The headliner's road manager was probably the most impressed that so much sound was coming from such a tiny PA system. And everyone who did know anything about audio couldn't believe the dispersion and its even sound throughout the room.

Lucky for me my Classic and ModelI did the job.
(and the big speakers all stayed on the truck)

I did notice that the Model I was louder but a slight nudge to the Classic brought them up to an equal volume. Tone wise I really didn't hear any major differences.
But I think I'm about to buy a Model II to add to the inventory.

Better pics to come when the photographer gets her files uploaded.

Thanks for reading (if you made it this far down)

PIC: Bose towers are on front lip of the stage to minimize feedback (even though all mics were SM58s and could be eq'd). Sub is on stage as well on right hand side.

Cool and interesting Rain!

How was Mac? Love the guy - can you go on a bit about his performance, and if he noticed the Bose stuff?

Thanks, Mike

Mac was his usual humble laid back self. Just like he had invited you over to his living room to hear him pick a few of his tunes and tell the stories behind them. He's the real deal!
(and up for 2 more CMAs this year)

He did about an hour and a half. Started with a track off his new CD - Blame it on New Orleans.
Then went to the Piano for some of his older tunes. Back to guitar. (he and Martin designed this one - it has "nobody" inlaid in the neck).
And he did one tune on Mandolin. We couldnt get his clip on mic to work on the mando so he just held it up to the vocal mic. Didn't bother him one bit - said the mandolin was just a gimmick anyhow. (He has a whole story about how good the acoustics are in his car and that the guitar was too big to play in the front seat.,.. but the mandolin is perfect. SO he writes tunes on it while driving with his knees. etc etc)

Me introducing Mac.

Pics of the venue:

So, if I read your note adequately, the monitors where just for "show" ... that you didn't use them?

Mac's ride called for two monitor mixes.

The solo artists pretty much kept minimal voice and guitar in them.

And the band used them (steel pans and drums were on the back of the stage while the L1 towers were up front).

During sound check I noticed a rather large lobe of audio if you stood behind the L1 so it is possible to do gigs standing behind them.

quote:

Originally posted by Rain Jaudon:
... it is possible to do gigs standing behind them.

I'm (sitting!) behind an L1 every Saturday & Sunday (rehearsal and worship) -- it works.