Page 11 - Love of Music St. Louis Magazine

Tips to Make Your Band Sound Great Live

This article will focus on speaker placement when
you are running your own sound.

LOM Staff - Drew St. John Feedback
Dispersion If your speaker can “hear” your microphone, you will
Speaker placement is vital if you are running your own experience feedback (Fig.1). If you keep your speakers
sound. The most common PA speakers have 65° disper- in front of your microphones you will cut down on feed-
sion. Use your imagination to draw lines to what part back drastically (Fig.2).
of the audience you will cover per speaker. The space
directly in front of the speaker will receive the majority of
the volume with the ideal distance being 15 or more feet
away.

• Banuelos A speaker will not disperse much above the top of the
cabinet so a professional speaker stand will get the
sound off of the ground and into your audience. A
good rule of thumb, point the speaker at the audience’s
ears.

Quite often one speaker facing the audience will cover
most of the room, this will leave the other speaker for a Feedback can occur from the monitors so microphone
monitor for the band. Credit U.S. Government Works
Mic placement is also important. The most common
Again, draw imaginary lines coming from the speaker
and place it on the floor, lying on its side, so that the microphone (ex. Shure SM58) is a cardioid microphone
imaginary lines cover most of the band. which means it doesn’t pick up sound from the backside
of it. That means that the back of the mic should be
pointed directly at the front speaker to prevent feedback.

www.LoveofMusicMagazine.com | 9