Starting at the beginning. The show was scheduled to start at 12:00 noon. I had a 45 minute drive and a show up time of 9:00 am. I figured my best bet was to get everything loaded the night before. Here are two pics of another good reason to love DR200's and T-39s. This is a Chevy Silverado, 6.5' bed and flush cap.
First row, 22" T-39 and 4 DR200's.
Second row, 2-14" T39's and a few cases. The board goes on top of the Titans. You can see I'm just about halfway full at this point.
After that was cases and racks. If I spent some time at it I could probably squeeze in another sub or another pair of 200's, but that'd be it. Any more and it'd be trailer city.
The weather forecast was for rain and severe storms all day. I had the general idea that it would get cancelled, and hoped that if that were the case it would happen before we set up. Got there at 8:45 and my helpers started arriving soon after. It was decided to go ahead with the setup and see how the weather looked. We were 10 minutes from having the PA complete when all hell broke loose. Thunder, lightning, the tornado siren was blowing, wind you name it. We just had enough time to get the amps, board and racks in the truck before we got nailed. No time to get the cabinets out of the weather.
And now, a word from our sponser:
Duratex is some bad-ass stuff. The cabinets stayed out in the storm just as you see them in the photo below. And it poured, non-stop for 1/2 hour and then rain after that for another hour. All I could do was set and watch them. Everyone thought I was nuts, but they went through it with no problem. When we tore down I had to drain the Titans! The DR's dried out nicely.
Ok, commercial over.
The rain stopped but the sky looked ugly. After waiting for another hour for the festival people to call the outdoor part or move it into a way too small tent, someone finally took charge. The stage was covered, poorly, so another canopy was brought in to put on the front of the stage. You cann see the pallets supporting it in the pic. By this time there were puddles on the stage itself. There is NO WAY I would've strapped on a guitar and stood on that stage. A couple of the bands had bailed at this point, so we could move the start time back and see if it dried out. My helpers and I found an old canopy, and using good old ingenuity had fastened it to the side of the canopy and down to the subs. That was one of the only areas that stayed dry during the storm, so that's where we put the amps.
Oddly enough, the weatherman was wrong. Go figure. The wind came up a bit and we had a few gusts, but overall the sky cleared up and the day turned out pretty well. We got through the first act, which was a miserable karaoke type thing with a guy singing (?) and a CD player. Great. The next act went well, an actual band. They weren't great but passable. The third act was a throw together last minute thing to fill in an empty slot, they were surprisingly good. After that the bands got progressively better. The last 3 were pro acts, one of which is a fairly large local name. I was worried about them being one of those nitpicky jerk bands that you couldn't please.
Ok, the system. Besides the cabs in the pics I had at my disposal a QSC RMX1450 for the subs, another one for monitors, and a Crown XLS620 for the tops. Three Wedgehorn, a pair of generic monitors and a Community 12" wedge. Interestingly, the Community was the worst sounding, heaviest, and lowest SPL of the bunch. As none of the acts required 6 monitors it and one of the generic models stayed in the truck.
The area was about 80-90 feet deep, and there was a nice semi-trailer directly infront of the stage on the far side. It made for a real mess, you got to hear everything twice. The biggest problem was the width of the area. It was about 150' wide, maybe more, and the band was all the way back in the corner away from the tent full of picnic tables, where everyone ended up sitting. It was so wide I had to rotate the neareest DR's to cover the area, something I've never had to do before. There was a big open area right in front of the stage, I guess they figured there'd be a lot of people out there, as did I. Not so. I put the subs on the left side of the stage away from the tent, an error. I should've put them on the opposite side of the stage. Only a few folks ventured into the open area, and most of them stayed off to the side toward the tent.
Since we got a late start and had to set up a second time, I decided to forego all the percussion mics except for the kick. Everything else was mic'd or lined in. Bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitars, keys, depending on the band. It turned out ok, the mics were able to pick up enough sound to get the drums in the mix. I almost added the snare mic later in the show, then figured ahh...screw it.
Overall the sound was good. The only complaint I got was from tammojsmit who said it sounded boxy. I can't agree 100%, but I do admit it sounded a bit flat. The problem was that stupid semi trailer. I tried to fix it early, but adding any reverb ended up as mush from the built-in echo.
One guy walked up to me and said: "Are those DR200's, or 250's?"
"um...who are you?
He introduced himself as a guy who lives in Florida and has built Omni15's. He lurks around the forum (He promised to join!) and heard the setup would be there, since he was in the area visiting he came out. Nice to meet you, hopefully you'll join the group!
I was pretty happy with the way the system sounded and the amount of volume they put out in such a large open area. It is still surpising to me that 4-8" drivers can do what they did. Plenty of volume for the area and event, although the bass started to drop off about 45-50' from the stage. Still not bad for 2-14" and 1-22" T-39's limited to 180w each! I would've liked to have one more sub and two more tops just to keep the amps from working too hard, but we had no problems, no technical issues. Like I said in the other thread, just kick back and run the sound.
Comments from the bands? Here are some direct quotes:
"Have you got a card?"
"I can't believe this is outside. I can hear everything on-stage, unbelievable. Have you got a card?"
"This sounds like a CD. I've never heard a mix that clear, especially outside. Have you got a card?"
"How do you get the vocals so clear and out front? Have you got a card?"
"This is great. I love the bass. I can hear everything I'm playing without all the boominess I usually hear. Have you got a card?"
I could go on. I handed out a shitload of cards. Some of them asked about the cabinets, looking at them and saying What the hell is that?" I explained the system and told them the cabinets are the reason for the mix, not me. They make it sound like I know what I'm doing. None of them complained about anything, not once. I asked each band after their first song if they could hear themselves, no problems.
So, a very succesful day for yours truly. I'm thrilled with the fact I was able to help the veteran's out at this event. I'm also very happy with the way my interests as a builder and half-assed sound company were represented, as well as BF cabs. There are a whole new group of believers in these parts.
Last shot, a view from the board. You can see all of the after the fact rain protection. Ugly, but effective!
. My comment was an initial observance, but, like the other comments, the sound was clean, and well mixed, and it grew on me. My mind is made up.....from Tim's and DJPhatman's comment during a test awhile ago, and from finally hearing them, I will want to produce at least 4 of the DR200s if the need ever arises.