monitors and rain

[fireman]

just wondering how to stop the paper drivers in the floor wegdes from going soggy in the rain at outdoor gigs, I guess the easy answer is cover them with something but the stuff at most of the big festivals isnt covered over and it always rains.

 

wondered if there was something you can spray on or treat the cones with.

[RustyBrooks]

Most wedges used in pro environment are weather proofed to a certain extent at manufacture, and some, for instance the martin LM/LC line loudspeaker system can have a waterproof/sound transparentish layer put in behind the grill, but mostly its relying on the foam to wick most of the water away from the drivers, and also setting the speakers upstage of the canopy lip keeps them out of the mojority of the rain, though if its really wet, then its a case of reloading the odd speaker/swapping out wet boxes as and when. Though, to be fair, the majority of wedges shrug off a pint landing on them hurled from a knob in the crowd, so a little rain won't be so bad.

[StevieR]

Its certainly true to say that budget monitors and speakers are not really designed for outdoor use as opposed to their professional counterparts. And yes, a number of the manufacturers offer an option to impregnate the driver cones for increased protection.

 

Short of spending a lot of money on treatments, one option has been to simply cover the whole front with some thin polythene or a good old bin-bag. It doesn't affect the sound too badly and is a reasonable compromise - although it does look a bit ugly.

 

Steve

[fireman]

thanks, thats what I was thinking,spend a fortune or put some bin bags over the wedges.

 

reason I ask is that we played an out door "summer" gig and it hammered it down half way though the set, but being british, everyone carried on as normal waiting for the rain to stop. it didn't and niether did we, how profesional !, only problem was nobody could hear the mons. when we finnished and packed up we realised that the wedge angle had held all the rain in the driver cone and the horns were full as well. luckily the wegdes were only some cheapy home made jobs so we just let them dry out put some new horns in and they still work.

 

just would like to think it was an expensive wedge getting soaked .

 

cheers

[RustyBrooks]

If you put any sort of plastic cover over the front of a speaker, then run it at any level useful for a music event, the back will slap aound like a seal clapping for fish... makes quite an impressive noise.

[J Pearce]

I've never had that problem with bin bags, though I've never bin-bagged a sub.

[cedd]

Bin bags have always worked for me! Just never bag an active speaker as its not fun picking melted bin bag off of the heatsink (wasn't me but seen it happen!).

 

Actually for larger speakers wheelie bin liners are exceptionally good!

 

All my speakers are soon to have specially made covers. The blue material you get for trailer tops (not tarpaulin, the rubbery stuff) sewn and sealed to just fit over. Doubt they'll sound all that good with them on though.

[fitz_e]

We had a similar "summer" festival in Wiltshire where it rained non-stop from 11am til 8pm. The monitors were put into bin bags while the main FOH stacks were tarp'd over their backs/tops/sides and the front bin-bagged (the subs were the most impressive looking, as a couple of dual 2300W 18" subs really make that plastic flap). Almost certainly lost a bit of HF but the crowd's ears were full of water anyway ;)

[dbuckley]

Another good material is cling film on the roll; just wrap it round the sub ;)

[StevieR]

Another good material is cling film on the roll; just wrap it round the sub ;)

 

Thinking about that, you could take it one step further, get some heat-shrinkable polythene and do your whole main stack in one swoop!

 

S.

[Jivemaster]

wondered if there was something you can spray on or treat the cones with.

 

I can remember as a kid getting a punctured speaker and rebuilding the cone with model aircraft dope. Trouble was that the doped patch shrank so the voice coil pulled off centre so I had to dope the same size patch opposite to the first to pull the coil back off the pole pieces.

 

SO If you want to coat a cone make it perfectly uniform! Also they sound CR4P so use a bin bag !

[DanSpeed]

I had a load of horns in some wedges get full of water on an outdoor tour, I dried them ( magnet & diaphragm) off with a big fan the lighting deparment had for their smoke machine, and they worked fine. On a similar note, rain and monitor desks dont mix too well, I had an M7CL get full of water a couple of weeks back, it worked sporadically, then froze up completely. It passed audio perfectly throughout, and the band had to be happy with their monitor mixes as I couldnt change them ( or even mute them!)