Tech Note #2: Sound Dispersion - Egnater Renegade 112 Owner's Manual

TECH NOTE #102 Sound dispersion
Ever wonder why your 4x12 cabinet
sounds better when you stand off to the
side? Did you consider why the pros mic
a speaker from the edge instead of in the
center? Ever have people in the audience
tell you your guitar tone is really loud
and shrill but it sounds great to you on-
stage? This is a result of the directional-
ity of loudspeakers. Speakers inherently
do not project all frequencies equally. As
the frequency increases, the dispersion
decreases. In non technical terms, this
means the higher you play on your guitar
neck, the more directional your sound
will be. By nature, speakers tend to be
somewhat non-directional at lower fre-
quencies. This means you can stand off
to the side of your cabinet and you will
hear basically the same bass and lower
mids as your audience is hearing right
in front of your speakers. On the other
hand, and this is where the trouble starts,
higher frequencies tend to "beam" from
the speaker. While you are standing off
axis from your cabinet (not directly in
front of it) you are hearing an even bal-
ance of lows, mids and highs and feeling
pretty pumped about your awesome
tone. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to
you, the listeners directly in front of your
cabinets are being killed by the high end
that is "beaming". FYI, contrary to what
one might deduce, having more speak-
ers in a 2 by 2 arrangement, as in a 4x12
cabinet compounds the problem and
makes the beaming even worse. Next
time you play take a moment to walk
from side to side and squat down in front
of your speakers. You will be amazed
at the difference between listening off
axis (to the side) and listening on axis
(directly in front). Have you ever seen
a band in a small place where you are
hearing the stage volume and wonder
why the guitars sound so bright? Doesn't
that guitar player hear that obnoxious
high end? That knucklehead must be
deaf!?!? More likely he is standing close
to his cabinets and all that high end is
just blowing past his/her legs so he/she
doesn't even hear it.
OK..so now I've pointed out how
we've all been playing for years believ-
ing everyone in the crowd thinks our
tone is as awesome as we think......or is
it? Great, so what can you do about it?
The key is to place your speakers so you
are hearing the same thing as everyone
else. If you can get the cabinets far
enough behind you, you probably will
pretty much hear everything just fine.
If that is not possible, try placing the
cabinets pointing across the stage side-
ways instead of forward at the audience.
At least then you will only be killing
your other band members instead of the
audience. Chances are you often want to
kill the drummer or bass player anyway,
right? The best thing you can do is to tilt
your cabinets so that they are pointed at
your head. I guarantee you will set your
controls way different from what you
normally do.
There are a number of possible op-
tions to combat the beaming problem.
A few companies make a solid disc that
you install in front of the speakers to
help disperse or attenuate the high end.
These discs have met with some suc-
cess though they do introduce some
phasing issues. Also, because there is a
solid piece in front of the speaker, if one
places a microphone in front of the disc
(which happens quite often at shows),
it can sound weird because the disc is
altering the sound into the mic. There are
some other smart people attempting to
address the problem. Most involve using
some form of foam piece in front of the
speakers. The method we find works
best for both live, and when placing
a mic in front of the speakers, utilizes
a sound absorbing 4" x 1" foam disc
placed on the back side of the grill cloth
directly in front of the speaker. The discs
are made of an acoustical foam material
that attenuates the beaming highs instead
of blocking them.
I'm always surprised whenever this
subject is discussed and many guitar
players make the statement "I hate the
way my guitar sounds when I stand in
front of my speakers". The answer is not
to simply stand off to the side so it only
sounds good to you because everyone
else is still hearing the sound that you
hate. Remember why we play music? It
is for others to enjoy. We should always
make a conscious effort to think about
what the audience is hearing, too.
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