Some of the discussions here have got me thinking about a sound
problem I had recently (and not the first time).
I got a call for a restaurant gig. Guitar, bass, drums and a singer.
When I arrived, I found that the place was basically a single
storefront. As a rough guess, no more than 20 feet wide. The door was
on the left of the front wall and the rest of that wall was the usual
glass window.
There was a table just to the right of the door and, to the right of
that, was the space for the band. It was next to the front window,
along the right hand wall. It ended atthe edge of a bar which ran the
rest of the length of the place on the right.
I don't know how clear that explanation was, but the space for the
band was like 8 x 10 or so (I'm guessing). That sounds like plenty of
room, but the problem was there was a grand piano in it -- which we
had no use for. We pushed it to one side as best we could, but there
wasn't much room left.
The drummer, who had the smallest drums I've seen, like toys almost,
wedged himself in between the piano and the bar (one cymbal so close
to my head I had to use an ear plug). The singer put the PA
electronics under the piano and set up two speaker stands. She
basically sung from inside the crowd. The bass player showed up quite
late and plugged into the PA. Fortunately, he was playing bass guitar
and liked to stand. There wasn't room for another chair.
I had my usual rig, two little amps and my nylon string. I put the
amps on top of the piano (I usually try to get them off the floor) on
some placemats and plugged in like usual. This was before the bassist
showed up.
The sound of the guitar was awful. Very harsh. I don't know how else
to describe it. I'd assume the hardwood of the piano, the glass, the
bar and not too many people at the beginning made it a live, echoey
room.
After a few tunes, I switched to a solid body steel string electric
(for reasons unrelated to the sound problem), the bass player finally
showed up, a crowd formed and the sound was fine. The rest of the gig
went well.
In the past I've found that my stuff sounds much better in a dead
room, i.e. one with lots of upholstery, carpet and people.
But I'm wondering. What can you do in that situation? Does EQ help?
Are there any tricks to improve things in a "live" room like that?
Thanks in advance,
Rick
