2 Monitor Questions..

[kerrinsdad]

1) I'm looking for a couple of active monitors for acoustic acts typically one to four people. Stage is small (approx. 10'x12'), listening area about 30'x40' , high ceilings, all wood floors, walls and ceiling....great acoustics! Any recommendations for powered monitors?

2) is there any real reason that monitors need to be on the floor? If they will be out of sight at about 4' over the heads of artists, is there a caveat?


Thanks for any thoughts you may share...

[pieterh]

One reason for having monitors on the floor is to minimise leakage into vocal mikes. Monitors at head height or above MAY increase the risk of foldback getting back into the mikes and causing feedback as the mic's dead spot is no longer in the best place. Of course if the mike is positioned for Liam Gallagher or Lemmy then that isn't such a problem.

[MikeBmusic]

At 4' over their heads (and assuming in front of the stage, pointing towards it), it's going to be too far away. and not only mic feedback but guitar feedback becomes an issue like that (floor wedges sound direction puts it at more of an angle to the soundhole).
Sometimes people are sitting, that would require a different angle, too.

Almost every half-decent powered PA speaker these days has a shape to allow it to be used as a floor wedge. For a 12' wide stage, 2 monitors should be fine. Look for a 10" PA speaker (with horn, of course). What's your budget?

[lschwart]

The best positions are either as floor wedges or as side fills, depending on space, mic angles, etc.. Sometimes monitoring for an acoustic guitar is best coming from behind, depending on what kind of pickup the guitar has. Mike is right about a 10" powered speaker (think QSC K10, RCF 310a, Yamaha DXR10, etc.) being one good way to go, and these can all be used as wedges or up on poles as side fills (either to the sides of the stage space or near the main speakers, pointing back toward the musicians). Feedback problems will depend not only on placement, but, of course, on volume. In a space with a high ceiling at low to moderate volume, you may have no trouble, even with monitors behind the band.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

1) if you're using a conventional powered two-way speaker in wedge position, remember that the horn is directional, the dispersion is going to be very wide vertically in that position, but not horizontally. Also, if two musicians are standing a little apart in front of the wedge, one is going to hear a lot of bass and less treble, and the other more treble and less bass. This gets better as the speaker is placed farther from the musicians, but then it has to be louder and sound can reflect into mics, causing feedback issues. One way around this problem is to use a coaxial monitor, which will have a narrower, but very even coverage in front (same angles both horizontally and vertically), allowing placement nearer to a single musician at lower volume as an individual monitor (the drawback here is you may need more of them on stage). Another way around it is to use a speaker like the EV ZXa1, which has a horn that can be turned 180 degrees to allow a wider dispersion of the treble in the wedge position. That will cover more of the stage, but again the drawback is that sound will be more dispersed and perhaps harder to control for feedback prevention, especially as levels get higher.

2) in wedge position the bass of the speaker will be enhanced, and that can be a feedback problem if you don't have a way of EQing those wedges. A speaker with a DSP preset switch that can give it an EQ curve appropriate for that position is a handy thing (some have that, others don't). An EQ unit in line between the aux send of your mixer and the monitors is another way to do this.

3) if you do find you need more gain before feedback in your monitors, a 31 band graphic EQ is a tool worth getting and learning how to use. There are also some very sophisticated "feedback" buster units out there that can be put either between the mixer and the monitors or--even better--between the problematic signal source (a particular vocal mic, the acoustic guitar, etc.) and the mixer.

I have found that I get much more use out of my monitors in the side-fill position than I do in the wedge position, in part because we play in a lot of cramped spaces, and there often just isn't room to put monitors on the floor in front of us.

I'm looking into getting another set of speakers for use at our larger gigs, and I'm waiting to hear/read some reviews of Yorkville's new NX10c coaxial speakers:

http://www.yorkville.com/loudspeakers/nx/product/nx10c/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS3QtVEFSAg

If these turn out to sound good, they may be an ideal solution to my space issues (and maybe yours?). They not only have a small footprint, a relatively narrow dispersion (60x60), and an even pattern in the wedge position, but can actually be mounted on the main speaker poles just below the main speakers and pointed back toward the band as side fills. I love my RCF 310a's, but they do need bass-management in the wedge position, and they take up more room either as wedges or as pole-mounted side-fills.

Anyway, food for thought.

Louis

[ocarolan]

In the circumstances as described by the OP there could well be little need for any monitoring at all.....

Keith

[lschwart]

Originally Posted by ocarolan

In the circumstances as described by the OP there could well be little need for any monitoring at all.....

Keith

That's true. Or just back lined mains. Nothing like good acoustics!

Louis

[kerrinsdad]

Funny you mention the 'no monitor needed' situation, because that's how I've felt about this setup for a couple of years. As crowds become less attentive to the dynamics of live music, more volume out front is needed. I used to use my RCF 312s (Louis, at your recommendation, love them!) just behind the performers and let them monitor off the main. I find myself needing more overall volume now and that setup lends to feed back...so monitors, but I wnt to keep them as discrete as possible..
thanks for all the input..

[MikeBmusic]

Some performers NEED monitors though, so if this is a pro/semipro setting, you've got to have them.