Accomodating for different room acoustics

[Oogie Wa Wa]

We played a new bar Saturday; quite different than others acoustically.  It is a big room, relatively, slightly deeper than wide, with a lower ceiling than most places, we were set up in the middle of the wall, and the entire place is carpeted.  Typical chairs/tables, pool tables and other bar-like stuff.  Most places are tile or concrete or even hardwood floors that we play, higher ceilings, longer/narrower, stuff like that.

Jeez was I boomy.  Some of the lower notes really hit hard, like an open E and the F and somewhat the G above it really seemed to "ring", albeit a low ring.  So did the same notes up an octave, even on different strings (tried that), but to a lesser extent.  The whole room seemed somehow deeply rich, but somewhat dull, if that makes any sense.  The band as a whole sounded wonderful in there, well, except for the bottom.

My cab was on the floor, about 6 inches from the back wall, and because of a low-hanging TV, it was in the middle of the stage with the drummer set up off to stage left (which didn't help matters any, playing in a different configuration.)

Overall, the room sounded really odd to me, and it kinda threw me off; I could hear myself fine, but it just didn't sound right.  I ended up playing lighter on the boomier notes, and I'm sure my playing suffered because of the oddness.

Suggestions on how to handle a situation like this?  I dialed the Bass knob down to about 10 O'clock and it seemed to help a little, but no matter what I did with the mid (even tried the shift button) and treble on the E300T it just didn't feel right.  My horn was set to about noon on the single cab D115XLT.

The guitar player/leader/experienced guy said that some rooms are just that way and not to worry about it, but hey, if I can make it better...

A small riser or sound pad under the cab?  Further from the wall?  Point the cab more away from the mics and room center somehow?

TIAs!  You guys are such a great resource!

[Rip Van Dan]

Hi Oogie Wa Wa,

I'm not sure which amp you're using.  Is the E300T the all-tube 300 or the newer solid state E300 with the simplified controls (no semi-parametric controls)  There are some EQ options depending upon which amp you have.

In any case speaker placement has a lot to do with the way the lows are produced, due to sonic coupling, and using a single 15 cabinet is going to give you strong old-school sound on the lows anyhow.  

When you place your speakers on the floor, that boosts the lows by 3 db.  If you place your speakers against the wall, that boosts it by another 3 db.  If you put it in a corner, that boosts it another 3 db because of the second wall.  With all 3 of those working together, it will sound just about the same as if you boosted the bass up to about 4 o'clock or so because you are boosting 9 db by placement and the max your bass EQ will boost is 15. I'd suggest that if you run into that problem again, move your speaker cab up off the floor and away from the walls.  Really need to be about 4-6 feet away from the walls and a foot or two off the floor if you can. Plastic milk carton crates work if you can get them.

If you have the semi-parametric controls, it's much easier to find the offending frequencies and cut them, but I don't think you have that on your amp do you?

Dan

[Oogie Wa Wa]

Hey, thanks Dan.  Yes, it's the tube amp, only 3 tone controls and a shift switch for the mids.

You confirmed what I was considering, getting the cab away from the wall and uncoupling it from the floor.  I'll see if there is something I can rig up to raise it up; would like 4-6" help much?  It wasn't near a side wall, but I'm thinking being under that big flat-bottomed TV mount was about the equivalent.

I also found that when I was going over (cleaning) all the pots and jacks on everything that I left the cab horn pot dialed down to about 10 O'clock, I'm sure that didn't help matters any, either.

Thanks again; we got invited back, so I should have a chance to try it soon enough.

[TobiasMan]

Horn at 10:00?  That's not generally too low. Most of us leave the horn at about 9:00 (just enough to not burn the Lpad out), but if you are looking for more sparkle in your tone, you can turn it up a bit.

Most find the tweeter/horn in Eden cabs to be a bit harsh sounding, so leave them just about off.

Dan's about covered it for actions to reduce the boominess in the room.  If those actions don't cure it, then you've run into a room that has the acoustics of a bass drum - not much you can do about that.[]

[Oogie Wa Wa]

Thanks again guys.  As an update, I've started playing a different bass, active and fretted, and ended up with the horn turned down to about where most people have it.  Apparently with the fretless/flatwounds/DiMarzio Pups combo the highs were suppressed somewhat.  Not that that was a bad thing, mind you.

I also made a hinged, fold-up, H-shaped stand for the cab to sit on out of three pieces of 1x6, and will try moving the whole thing a two feet or so away from the back wall this time, since we got invited back.  Must not have sounded too bad, heh, between that and another place we just played last month, we just picked up 16 gigs next this year already!