Getting bass under a balcony

Stuart Høgg

Stuart Høgg

Sophomore
Jan 12, 2011
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Glasgow, Scotland
Interesting gig the other night. Smallish venue, seats about 600 or so. Roughly split 50/50 between a large balcony and the space downstairs.

The mix position is right underneath the balcony. It was obvious that the lower frequencies weren't getting under there. There seemed to be a uniform lack of bass throughout the underbalcony area, so it wasn't just that I was getting a bunch of cancellation where I was standing.

The thing that's puzzling me is what steps I could take to minimise these problems. Simply turning up doesn't help, because by the time I've reached an acceptable balance under the balcony it's getting unacceptably muddy out front. There's no easy way to add any extra speakers underneath (especially since it's a one-off event). Would something like a cardioid sub array help?
 
Re: Getting bass under a balcony

Another thought... the balcony creates a different space with it's own unique standing waves/reflections between the floor and the underside of the balcony. Flying or ground stacked, cardioid or planar, nothing changes that. The under-balc area needs to be viewed as a separate space for the purposes of LF.
 
Re: Getting bass under a balcony

it's definitely a different situation that what most of us encounter, typically we get traps in the under balcony and hot spots. Your situation is pretty unique since we typically only need to add smaller under balc speakers to gain reinforcement. You might recommend to the building that they get something small such as Meyer M1D subs.
 
Re: Getting bass under a balcony

Kip Conner said:
it's definitely a different situation that what most of us encounter, typically we get traps in the under balcony and hot spots.
Click to expand...

One interesting point is that I noticed some "trouser flapping", so perhaps 80Hz downwards was getting through. I'm familiar with a few other venues where the balconies are real bass traps.

The venue is one that I only mix in from time to time. They have a smallish installed system which isn't up to concert use, so we're providing everything. Budget and time constraints are tight but I was curious if there was anything I could do differently.

It's not been a major problem, just the kind of thing that bugs me and makes me want to get around the problem.
 
Re: Getting bass under a balcony

This probably isn't possible, but is there a chance you could move the mix position out from under the balcony. At least that way the guest engineers won't make a muddy mix for all the people who aren't under the balcony.
 
Re: Getting bass under a balcony

Stuart Høgg said:
One interesting point is that I noticed some "trouser flapping", so perhaps 80Hz downwards was getting through. I'm familiar with a few other venues where the balconies are real bass traps.

The venue is one that I only mix in from time to time. They have a smallish installed system which isn't up to concert use, so we're providing everything. Budget and time constraints are tight but I was curious if there was anything I could do differently.

It's not been a major problem, just the kind of thing that bugs me and makes me want to get around the problem.
Click to expand...

IMO, if 80Hz and down is getting through, then your subs aren't the problem. I'd consider 80Hz and down to be the 'sub range'.

You could have a problem with the alignment of the subs and tops that just happens to manifest itself under the balcony. Maybe there is a compromise between being aligned on the floor and being aligned under the balcony?

Like Brad said, a picture would be worth 1000 words to start, and then exact measurements would help, along with rig info, deployment info, DSP settings, etc.
 
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