Situation:
A three day Christian festival- all the acts were lined up and we (4 piece rock worship band) were added in after the schedule was fixed. The event organizer had heard us, liked how we sounded and went out of his way to work us in. So, instead of being on the main stage or the side stage they set up a tent further out on the side "just for us". We had to supply our own system. As the schedule turned out we could have easily set up on the main stage. This was the first year for the festival and I hope it becomes an annual thing. This was, I think the first event like this for the organizer. He really went out of his way for us and I'm sure he'll do much better with scheduling the next time around.
Anyway, this was a great excuse for the band to start putting together a real sound system! We've all contributed a hodge podge of p.a. and up until now most of our concerts have been inside with p.a. supplied. We knew we had to at least come up w/ subs and start really integrating. Our bass player found a deal on a Samson 2400 and Carvin amp w/ the amp rack thrown in for $300. I bought the bottom line Behringer xover (we'll upgrade to digital later) and started building 2 30" wide T48s with 3015s. I only got one finished and it sounded great! We ran straight out of a Mackie board w/ no outboard gear. I crossed over at 100 hz into two dual 15 Community speakers. The xover has a set 25hz high pass filter which is better than nothing. I set everything up for unity gain as best I could and ran the kick and bass quite a few db below that. With no limiting I certainly didn't want to push too hard.
The sound to my ears? Very clean and true to life. Plenty of impact and really didn't need any eq. The band guys all had big smiles on their faces when they came out front to hear. Somebody from the side stage came over to ask how long our set was because they couldn't start until we stopped (nobody was on the main stage so I don't know if that would have affected them at all). Even though I didn't break in the driver I know we made the right decision going with the T48s. The bass was plenty low enough and the absence of 2nd order distortion was wonderful. Later on, listening to a band on the main stage w/ a stack of double 18s, their distortion was very evident (even though they didn't seem to be cranked up much). After I finish the other T48 I can't wait to get started on some DR cabs. I'm not sure if we'll go 250s or 280s. Since the word is that two per side is sweeter than one we'll probably go that way.
All in all I'm extremly pleased with the T48s! I had a lot of questions before I started and I am happy we're going w/ the BFM setup. I've always thought horn loaded cabs are the most elegant solution to convert electrical to acoustical energy. Why go w/ massive power consumption when we can do our part for energy conservation?
Rick
