Body work them
Fiberglass back panels
Paint them
Build melded arrays (including jigs!)
Wire arrays
Install drivers
Install corners
Mount top hats
I had my work cut out for me, and I was scrambling, but I got them 'finished'. I had to be there to set up at 7:30 and I was literally soldering the arrays at 7:15! Luckily I only live ten minutes from the venue. I cut it so close that I didn't even have time to test them before I left!
When I get there and unload, the bassist see the T39 and asks if it is as loud as it looks. I never thought it looked loud, looks more like a strange black box, but I responded with 'louder' anyway.
I set up one oTop 12 on either side of the stage and my T39 just in front of the left oTop facing the wall, no corner available. I ran the two oTop12s off one side of an XTI 2000 and the T39 on the other channel. Plenty of volume that way. I set a few bands of parametric EQ for the oTops blind based on the graphs. I had the channel with the otops at about 5 clicks in (9 o'clock) and the T39 more like 2 o'clock. Miced up the whole stage except the drums:
Kick
Keys
GTR 1
GTR 2
Bass
5 vocal mics
1 trombone/harmonica mic
I've done sound for this band several times and always have trouble with volume since the drummer plays very loudly and the lead guitarist wants to just crank it. Fortunately these guys were getting paid for this gig and wanted to sound their best so he agreed to keep his amp to a monitoring level and let me mix. Drummer was still loud. They have 5 vocal mics and they all sing, so feedback is usually and issue. I had the bassist cut the bass in his amp and sent it through the sub. I used a borrowed pair of 15"+horn for monitors. located at the front of the stage high passed at 200 Hz and run through a Behringer feedback destroyer, just in case.
The venue was long and narrow with the majority of listeners 50' or so away. I had instructions from the manager to keep the volume loud but not too loud that he can't hear drink orders. OK.
All I can say is WOW! The sound was the clearest I've ever been able to make them. The kick was hitting solid and the bass had all the low end needed to shake your pants. Vocals were clear and having the control over the guitars, bass, and keys was so helpful. I was able to bring them up during lead parts and down when vocals were prominent. Got nothing but compliments all night. The drummer loved the bass from the T39. Usually this band asks for a lot of changes to the monitors, but none that night, probably from keeping the amps on stage down.
After the show, the manager said he loved the sound and that after hearing their CD he was really excited to have them and said they more than lived up his expectation. They already got booked again for February. The band of course had most to do with that, but I like to think I had something to do with it too.
Pardon the quality, but here is a snippet of a recording from my Blue Mikey and my iPod. It gives an idea of the balances I was able to get.
http://tunes.artofnoiseaudio.com/downlo ... %20you.wav
And of course some pictures.
The back of my head.
And while I was in such a rush, I might just have stumbled upon something useful. I didn't have time to mount the tweeters properly, so I put a few layers of foam on the top and bottom and wedged the array into place. It actually holds surprisingly well. I can carry them around like that with no fear of them falling out. If you made some quick disconnects, you could potential have easily swappable arrays. In this case of being fight next to a wall, I would have preferred a flat array if I could have.
bottom.
top.
out.
in.
And one last pic of the oTops and T39 back home. Should have them finished for real in a couple weeks between installs.
Robby
