Setting up a rehearsal room

Teetonetal

I just rejoined my old band and whilst I have been away they have moved to a better rehearsal room. We move in on Tuesday, so have been giving some thought on how best to set it up...

The room is roughly 8m x 8m

Band is Drums / Bass / Vox with Acoustic Guitar / Electric guitar with BV

We have a PA rig with 1 floor monitor.

Till now the problems have always been in hearing the vocalist - in the old room, they had the PA in the corners, with the Vocalist standing in front with her back to the PA, which meant that the mic picked up a lot. Drummer opposite the PA, then the rest of us in a circle, so all facing each other. upside of that was the Vocal Mic didn't pick up the drums.

Existing room


 
Now since I left I did a lot of acoustic gigs, so bought a monitor. Would we be better off moving the PA speakers in line with the Vocal mic, and letting the lead singer use my monitor? Our PA speakers are wedge shaped, would they work on the floor? At the moment they are suspended from the ceiling. We can do that again, but only want to do it once.

Thoughts welcome as moving into an empty room we have the chance to get this more or less right before "installing" it all.

Stuckfast

I think it depends whether you want the rehearsal room experience to be 'like a gig' or not. Assuming that's not essential, then I'd suggest simply swapping over the positions of the singer and the drummer. That way the PA speakers will be firing towards the back of the vocal mic, and further away from it, so you won't have so many problems with feedback. You shouldn't need a separate monitor -- the PA system is in effect being used as a monitor system, since there's no stage and no audience.

Teetonetal

Yes - That is what I was thinking. 

EricTheWeary

Rehearsal rooms are generally set up as per the diagram or as @Stuckfast said so you can rehearse 'in the round.' Unless your PA is really crap,or you are painfully loud you shouldn't need any monitors ( or if that room is enormous I guess!). 
I'm sure this will add nothing but...some rehearsal as per you would be on stage is worth doing, you'll find there are all sorts of signals you use that disappear once you are facing an audience. 

ijonty

I'm going to a space tomorrow and wanted similar advice. We've got two guitarists (one on vocals), bass and drums. Similar to the diagram, but the PA speakers are either side of the drums, not opposite him. Is our set up the layout @Stuckfast is suggesting?

Are those arrows in the picture showing the direction amps are pointing in? We're a long way from performing live, but I have heard that many people set up as if on stage. Would that mean all the amps behind us, pointing in the same direction as the drummer?

Cirrus

Our rehearsal room is set up so that the drums are set up against the back wall facing into the middle of the room, the bass and guitar amps are either side of the drum kit along the back wall facing the same direction as the drummer, the PA speakers are ALSO against the back wall, in the corners firing into the room, so the entire backline is basically all in a line against the back wall.

Then me, the singer and the bassist are standing kind of in a line across the middle of the room, with our pedalboards aimed square at our respective rigs, three vocal mics set so they're facing the same direction as the drummer (ie away from the pa speakers)

That minimises feedback issues and maximises eye contact/ communication between band members.

Most importantly, across the wall opposite the drums and backline there's a sofa and a weird hanging tapestry. This is vital.

Teetonetal

@ijonty arrows show the direction of sound. We ended up moving pa to either side of the drummer pointing to oposited corners.  Works really well and vocal mics don't pick up too much spill

EricTheWeary

ijonty said:

I'm going to a space tomorrow and wanted similar advice. We've got two guitarists (one on vocals), bass and drums. Similar to the diagram, but the PA speakers are either side of the drums, not opposite him. Is our set up the layout @Stuckfast is suggesting?

Are those arrows in the picture showing the direction amps are pointing in? We're a long way from performing live, but I have heard that many people set up as if on stage. Would that mean all the amps behind us, pointing in the same direction as the drummer?

If you have the PA either side of the drummer rather than facing them ( like the diagram in the OP) it's less likely that s/he can actually hear what's coming through the PA. 

If you are working on songs then you'd usually rehearse in the round ( all facing each other)but if you are preparing for a gig you'd generally rehearse as per on stage ( all facing the desk in the diagram - relatively few bands play gigs in the round, although it's not completely unknown ). Wether you move the gear around to be as per a stage set up depends a) if you can be bothered and b) if it's the same gear (especially the PA) as you will be using live ( if it is then you are trying out the equipment as well as rehearsing, although bear in mind the settings you achieve ina rehearsal room won't necessarily work live). 

pintspiller

Teetonetal said:

@ijonty arrows show the direction of sound. We ended up moving pa to either side of the drummer pointing to oposited corners.  Works really well and vocal mics don't pick up too much spill

That's the way I'd have done it

< thumbs up >

ijonty

Cirrus said:

Our rehearsal room is set up so that the drums are set up against the back wall facing into the middle of the room, the bass and guitar amps are either side of the drum kit along the back wall facing the same direction as the drummer, the PA speakers are ALSO against the back wall, in the corners firing into the room, so the entire backline is basically all in a line against the back wall.

Then me, the singer and the bassist are standing kind of in a line across the middle of the room, with our pedalboards aimed square at our respective rigs, three vocal mics set so they're facing the same direction as the drummer (ie away from the pa speakers)

That minimises feedback issues and maximises eye contact/ communication between band members.

Most importantly, across the wall opposite the drums and backline there's a sofa and a weird hanging tapestry. This is vital.

Dammit, my tapestry is at the dry cleaners. Will an old towel do?

ijonty

Thanks all - really useful!

Danny1969

All you gotta do is turn round the singer so the PA speakers are in the mic's dead zone. At the moment the PA is in the mics capture zone so yes it will feed back 

ICBM

I would move the singer far enough back - to where the desk is - so they're in between the PA cabs, facing in the same direction - moving the cabs forwards a bit if necessary. That will put the mic behind the speakers, so again won't feed back.

Then have the guitar/BV and bassist closer to the corners near the drummer and facing more across the room or even back towards the singer a bit, so the BV mic is facing away from the PA as well.