Placement of instruments in Rehearsal Room

Hi ppl! Could you help me / us with this thing. What would be the optimal placement of our gear in this picture? We're two bands sharing the same space (faded instruments=other band). The half stack on the door wall, close to the drums is the bass stack, other are guitar stacks. We got the tip to put a big piece of cloth behind the drums better the acoustics. Ideas? Thanx for any advice. SketchUp (6.47MB)

Noumenon, I might be ale to give some help here. Its been twenty years since I practiced with a band but what we ended up doing was building a raised stage that the cabinets could fit under. Put the PA speakers up on that platform behind the drums and mic'd everything. Kinda like you would on stage. It saved a lot of floor space this way and it helped control the volume. If you have a mixed sound it is more likely the guitar player wont complain about the drum. and so on. Maybe :lol: I've been to many practice rooms since that time and most of them are pointing their instruments at one another much like yours and it sounds like a big mess meeting in the middle. Most of the big bands practice with a stage like set up. mic all the instruments and mix to desired flavor. Good luck Tom

The only thing we can put mics on is the vox (haven't showed the PA speakers though, I'm focusing on getting the other instruments together.) Seems kinda futile to mic everything up when the drums are so loud and the amps are in that volume anyway. Don't have the money to go IEM either ;) Putting it all like on stage would take alot of space I guess. Esp if both bands are to run it like that. EDIT: Did some rethinking and came up with this.

Hi Noumenon (what a Kantian name.... LOL) In general, I gravitate toward putting instruments with a lot of low end (ie, bass and drums) in the corners. That way, it takes advantage of the acoustics of the room to make things heard. Then the vocal PA and the guitar amps can be placed accordingly. Most guitarists (I certainly include myself in this...LOL) should have their amps facing them so that they can hear themselves play well. Plus you won't drown out everyone else in the room. I'm also a big fan of having the musicians stand several feet away from their amps, with the amps facing them. In a room this size you should be able to get good placement.

Yeah. Talked a bit with the band today and we came to the conclusion that what we _need_ is less mud and more guitar for the drums. I think it would be easy to put it all together if we was just one band in the rehearsal studio. We might be able to do it so that the guitars is on the short wall were the other band has their bass and drums and vice versa for them. PS. The nick is from a tune by Nevermore ;) DS.

another option - put the drums on one wall, the amps on another and have people face each other with the PA mics 90 degrees to the kit and the amps. put the monitors up high enough and aimed to the side of the mics so people can hear themselves. what this does is enable the drummer to hear everything - people can get to their amps to adjust, and the mics don't pick up quite as much from either amps or kit. ideally if you can tip the amps a bit, the guitars and bassist will hear it more directly (and tend to reduce the volume a bit) and the drummer won't have to compete as hard... get some bass trapping in the corners to tighten things up. some absorption to keep the highs under control. FWIW, depending on your options, electronic drums help immensely for rehearsals. I just spent the last few weekends up in CT and having my electronic kit enabled us to rehearse and jam until 3am... the guitar and bass amps volume were pretty low (and with effects had the necessary sounds) and we could talk to each other and sing without mics. even had an acoustic guitar in the room on a large condenser coming through the PA nice and clean... good mix, no fried ear drums, no police... from outside it sounded like a moderately loud stereo... even the 250bpm parts... :shock: