Monitoring

[Glergo]

Hello,

I'm currently in the middle of setting up my home-studio and I have managed to acquire 4 speakers that I'm going to hang up on the walls in the playing room. It's not supposed to be "studio monitoring", but just something we use when we jam to get extra power when we play around.

What I'm wondering is how should I place the speakers? What I'm most concerned about is feedback because I play the piano and sing (try to), so I figure that placing the speakers randomly would just cause feedback because of any microphones placed in the room.

EDIT:
I forgot to mention that the room is a typical square room. I don't really have any pictures at the moment.

Any input would be most appreciated.

Regards
Glenn.

 

[ido1957]

Monitors go on the floor, in front of the mic stand, pointing up at back of the microphone. Hopefully the sound will not bounce off the back wall, into the mic and feedback.

 

[Glergo]

Indeed, but due to our limited space must we have the speakers on the walls instead so we can have a clean environment to work in instead of walking around on cables and whatnot.

Are there any special tricks that anyone know of to avoid feedback and the like? Maybe just trial and error would seem to be the correct approach, but I don't know.

 

[Bobbsy]

ido1957 has the right idea. Every microphone has a pickup pattern and the best way is to put the monitor speakers as nearly as possible in the "null" point with the least pickup.

With most typical cardioid mics, this is directly behind the mic--behind the XLR for a typical end-address live mic or behind the capsule on a side address studio cardioid.

However, some live mics actually have a hypercardioid pattern--and these have a small spike of pickup directly behind them. The best place for monitors with these is behind the mic stand, either side at about a 45 degree angle--if you watch, some live acts have two monitors per person in this sort of position--this is often a hint that they're using hyper cardioid mics.

In your case, if the speakers have to be on walls, still try for a location that reflects the pickup pattern of the mics you're using.

And, as somebody has pointed out, a hard surface behind the vocalists can reflect sound back and be a feedback cause--some thick curtains behind you can help a bit with this.

 

[79_Les_Paul]

any decent EQ and knowledge of how to use said EQ should keep you from having feedback issues... set it flat, start bringing the volume up slowly until you start to hear a ring, pull down 4k or whatever your EQ has for that range until the ringing stops... if it's boomy start working the low end to remove the boominess. Always cut frquencies, never boost..