Bose line array

[paulears]

I’m at a smallish festival and without a doubt the Bose line array is the most horrible thing I have heard in a long time! Harsh, spikey, unflattering, flabby bass and sharp midrange bad. So far a mix of live, live with tracks and virtually all track acts and just the single mic between songs is terrible. The mix tent is labelled Bose too! It’s just painful.

[sunray]

doesn't all Bose sound like that?

[sandall]

doesn't all Bose sound like that?

At the risk of re-starting the whole 802 v. Marmite debate - no. Bose may be best at self-publicity, but they aren't stupid, & while their stuff is wildly over-priced it usually does the job it was intended for. Which begs the question - is this problem the boxes or the way they are rigged & driven?

[Trunker]

I'm not a Bose fan either, just doesn't live up to the price tag it has. I always thought that BOSE stood for:- Buy Other Sound Equipment.

[andy_s]

I went to a gig at The Barbican in London (Ahmed Jamal) which had a Bose PA, and each musician had one of those Bose sticky-up things for a monitor. Quite a few years ago now, I think, definitely before 2015. I thought it sounded quite nice. My pal that was at the show with me thought it sounded a bit flabby. So marmite may be a good analogy.

 

It was a showcase for their new line array, we were guests of Bose (my pal worked for Theatre Projects Consultants at the time) but it didn't seem to have much immediate penetration into the market.

 

I'd agree with Sandall about setting up and driving them properly. I've seen good shows using Bose 802s as PA - mainly in the Jazz area - I think Ronnie Scotts had Bose 802s as PA back in the day, and Loose Tubes toured with a rig of 802s, and sounded really good in a medium-sized theatre and arts centre.

[paulears]

I may have got this wrong - 8 bands/singers and they all sounded pretty horrible, until the last one - ELO Encounter. They sounded rather good - and excellent in comparison. A bit of spy work and it seems they had done the festival before and brought their own desk and (monitors )mostly IEMS. They borrowed the drum mic feeds, used their own radio vocal mics - connected their bass, violins, guitar and keys and gave FOH a left and right. Their own sound guy then went into the audience with the FOH desk EQ flat and his iPad. Still not wonderful to my ears but the nasty harsh sound was much, much less than everyone else got.

[andy_s]

I may have got this wrong - 8 bands/singers and they all sounded pretty horrible, until the last one - ELO Encounter. They sounded rather good - and excellent in comparison. A bit of spy work and it seems they had done the festival before and brought their own desk and (monitors )mostly IEMS. They borrowed the drum mic feeds, used their own radio vocal mics - connected their bass, violins, guitar and keys and gave FOH a left and right. Their own sound guy then went into the audience with the FOH desk EQ flat and his iPad. Still not wonderful to my ears but the nasty harsh sound was much, much less than everyone else got.

 

so it could be a question of different 'enginEARs'....

 

(I'll get my coat...)

[kerry davies]

I know zilch about Bose line arrays and little about line arrays in general anyway but with the 802's the more you had, the better the sound. Stacking 4,6 or 8 over subs just got better and better and, more interestingly, easier to control. The same was true of my old HK Lucas's. They too threw miles but to get them to sound really good in the nearfield the key was to cut back on driving the power and double up on speaker numbers.

 

There is also the obvious "Garbage In, Garbage Out" and "Turn it up to 11" syndromes but I can get just about acceptable noise from any old junk and if Dave Harry Martin got this lot to kick off a whole sub-culture then the EARS have it.

[andy_s]

...with the 802's the more you had, the better the sound. Stacking 4,6 or 8 over subs just got better and better and, more interestingly, easier to control.

 

That's what Loose Tubes did - as I remember it, in my 350 seat venue, they had a centre hang of 4, plus 2 left and 2 right, rather than the conventional (for the time) sub, mid and top ground stacks we had in for other bands from local PA companies - not something we did very often, we were mainly theatre and dance. Our in-house kit consisted of Tannoy Lynx, anyone remember those? two cabinets bolted together. I think the term was "dual concentric"...

[alistermorton]

My experience is that Bose can sound good, it's down to understanding how to use them. I've heard plenty of PAs that were harsh with flabby loose bass and strange squeaky vocals (at some large gigs) that quite definitely weren't Bose.

[paulears]

It was a rather curious event - when it started to get dark it was very odd to have colour changes that went down to total black on stage then up to a colour - especially as the violinist was a newcomer and was reading the music. Going dark for one beat in every bar must have been annoying in the least.

 

I know that essentially the best you get as anyone other than the first arrival is a line check and then a tweak during the first number - but the first act on were a duo - Everly brothers stuff, and with just two voices and two guitars it sounded a bit thin, until three quarters through the first song, drums and bass appeared. Another was a piano/drums/keys rockabilly band. I play the double bass and he was slapping away - trouble is all that came through the PA was a dull bong, bong bong poorly defined throb - clearly EQ was just not done. One other act appeared to have a heavily ringing snare, mega loud, and nothing else, and the same eq as the double bass had in the band before. A Strat with just bass, no mid or HF at all. No idea what he was actually playing. Yamaha digital desk, so who knows what the problem was - presumably human? Perhaps I'm unfair blaming Bose - but their branding was everywhere including the vehicle it came in.

 

If I was PM, I'd have been wanting to know when the feedback would be dealt with and when it would become nice to listen to?

[splodge360]

Just done a corporate conference job at the Mermaid theatre, Barbican. Has a bose line array installed there. All went well even sound coverage, apart from the front ( offaxis from flown rig) their little infills worked well. Horses for courses, still painted in marmite brown!