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To both DJs and SE: How much distance you position yourself from your booth to your speakers? Any one like to share? thanks in advance.

philrev wrote:To both DJs and SE: How much distance you position yourself from your booth to your speakers? Any one like to share? thanks in advance.

Rarely in live sound do you get to pick your spot. Every venue is different and you have to adjust to the surroundings. I try to stay to the side and out of the way.

Outside venues often lend themselves to more freedom of position. Typically you'll go out as far as your snake will let you.

The two are poles apart.
When I DJ, I'm behind my cabs.

When I do live music, +1 to Bruce's post...

Mobile DJ.
I'm always behind my DRs and have noticed lately that i may need some monitors facing back at me. The only funny thing is that sometimes my subs are in an odd location, but I try and place them so they sound best in the center of the dance floor.

Casual/hobbyist DJ.

Always behind the subs and mains, with monitoring. I'm a pretty small scale setup in the scheme of things so I'm only a meter or so behind the subs, with the mains spread about 5m each to the left and right. I find the T30's to be quite directional in that there is less than half the amount of bass behind the subs as there is out front, which is a really good feature of them.

The places I've had to set up for to DJ at I was practically on top of the subs (within 6') and behind the mains. Being on top of the subs is actually helpful beatmatching as you're getting a chest kicking on time with the beat. Always have a set of monitors too, you can mix in headphones but it's awkward as fuck and I'm all about making life easier. Even a single powered monitor is a huge help.

As a KJ/DJ - yeah, cabs just out front spaced as space allows, subs in the best location crawled, with a monitor for me.

As a SE - I try to put myself in the middle of the crowd, I want to hear what they are hearing. Wireless helps here, I look just like some dude with a laptop/tablet/phone in a centrally located table.

As a band member+SE - Same as DJ. I pump everything above 100hz into my monitors. I want to hear everything relative to everything else. I even convince my band members of the necessity and benefits of doing so. E.g; changing their individual levels to fit better in the mix (as opposed to "turning up" continually, mic hogging on BU vocals, or the "more me" syndrome).

The only way to do it without a dedicated SE imo.

J_Dunavin wrote:Mobile DJ.
I'm always behind my DRs and have noticed lately that i may need some monitors facing back at me. The only funny thing is that sometimes my subs are in an odd location, but I try and place them so they sound best in the center of the dance floor.

+1

yep...make it sound best on the dance floor and through the room first. I'm often pretty damn close to the subs and it can often get a bit uncomfortable, depending on the songs being played and the volume. I keep it around 90 dB A weighted on the dance floor once things are rolling. I have to make it:

1. fit in with the rest of the room
2. good boundary loading

Doesn't really matter where as long as those are met. Just turns out that it's often close to me.