Maximum capacity of soundset in party tents

[Roel Elzinga]

Hello sound enthusiasts!

As a 4-man live cover band (keyboards, electric guitar, amplified acoustic drums and vocals), we recently purchased a new sound set. This concerns 4x sub QSC KS212c, 2x QSC KW122 and an A&H SQ5.

In the months of may to september, village festivals take place every week in party tents here in the north of the Netherlands. These can be party tents made of fabric or aluminum with dimensions of, for example, 30 by 10 meters. The sound volume must be such that people can dance and party to it.

When booking our band, the question is often asked: is our sound set sufficient for this party or should we rent additional equipment?

The music store indicated that this set is more than sufficient in a party tent for 300 to 350 people. A sound rental company indicated 'up to a maximum of 200 to 250 people'. If I submit the question to QSC, I will probably get a different number...

Who has experience with this same set and can tell me from experience what this QSC set can reasonably handle?

Thank you in advance for your response!

Yours sincerely,

Roel

 

[Jeff Babcock]

Hi,
There is no exact answer to your question. As with many audio questions like this, the answer is: It Depends.

It depends in this case on how loud you intend to be, the style of music you play, and the type of overall mix you are going for (balanced, bass heavy, etc).

I personally would want a bigger system for a large tent. You mentioned 30x10m which is about 100x30 ft. When I have done shows in tents that large I am typically bringing 4 double 18' subwoofers and running 2 3-way tops per side (such as KF650) or some compact line array cabs.

However, your system will get pretty loud, so if you don't need it to sound like a rock concert, then your system is probably fine as is. I would suggest the best option is to work with what you have for a bunch of shows. This will give you a better understanding of your system's limitations to then decide if any changes are needed.

Best wishes.

 

[Roel Elzinga]

Thanks Jeff Babcock for your quick response.

I am aware that there is no single answer to my question. But based on the information I mentioned, I hope to at least gain some more certainty about the surface area of a party tent/the number of party goers that we can reasonably play with our set.

As indicated, it is a cover band. We play a repertoire of party music and guitar music, but 'purely nature' without the enormous pounding low end that you hear a lot in music nowadays.
Loudness, as mentioned earlier, is such that both the people at the front of the stage and further down in the party tent get into the party atmosphere and sing along and dance,

Our soundset is more than sufficient for our gigs in the catering industry and village halls. However, the party tents usually have (much) more visitors. And we would like an indication of what we can reasonably assume. We feel that the subs will be sufficient for our purposes in party tents, but we doubt whether the KW122 is sufficient. This may be too little compared to the subs.

Any further additions or tips are very welcome. Thank you again Jeff Babcock!

Greetings,

Roelof