Hi,
Your competition last month brought the Fishman Solo SA220 to my attention and I'm really liking the reviews. So.... I'm thinking of how I can combine some such line array system into a larger PA rig - which, if possible, would make good sense wouldn't it?? Can you use them as monitors???

If you, say, placed an SA220 behind, say, some Mackie SRM450v2s (something else I've considered getting), wouldn't that be a tidy way to scale up a PA??

If feasible, how would one arrange such a system??... Are there possible phase cancellation problems if you place the line array 'monitor' behind the musicians (facing toward audience, same direction as Mackies)?

Many thanks, I look forward to learning a little more.
Tony

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Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me...

When you have just one speaker (for the sake of argument), all sounds come from there and all is good with the world. Adding another one that covers the same area of audience adds a lot of complications - sound from the two will arrive at very slightly different times which results in comb filtering - the phase cancellation to which you refer. Speakers a significant distance apart (for example with your line source behind musicians) is likely to result in perceptible echoes rather than just phase cancellation. To some extent this can be minimised with careful setting of delays for each speaker but they only work well for one listening position - everywhere else is a compromise.

If you need more volume, a bigger rig is the only answer - tagging on additional speakers really doesn't work well. Cabs that are designed to work together (like the individual boxes in a traditional line array) are fine but boxes that aren't designed to array won't be pleasant. Check the coverage patterns for a clue - if the horizontal angle is somewhere between 75 - 90 degrees, there'll always be an overlap with any additional boxes you set up alongside. If it's 40 degrees, you can set two side by side and cover 80 degrees but that gives you move coverage rather than more volume (although narrower boxes tend to be louder in any case as their sound is concentrated in to a narrower area).

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There's nothing we can't face... Except for bunnies

Ok thanks - what about, purely out of interest, using a Fishman Solo SA220 as a more conventional monitor - facing the musicians, in place of the wedge monitors more traditionally used? Anyone ever seen that done successfully??

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Basically you're talking about using the fishmans as "Side Fills" which are used on bigger stage setups. The times I've used it with bands they tend to have a general FOH like mix in them. This does work quite well, and there's nothing wrong with it, however, I generally use them in addition to wedge monitoring.

If the band are happy with just the fishmans as a monitor from the side of the stage, then that's all cool But I'd ask them first!

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www.exaviormusic.com
www.manninmusic.com Music Teacher, Isle of Man