Sound Design and Acoustic Treatment at 45 East, Portland, OR
Lots of people tend to be critics of sound systems at venues they go to, some enjoy certain rooms, while others like to complain. I thought I'd take an opportunity to explain a little bit about the sound system at Portland, Oregon's 45 East.
Like many venues located in old buildings, 45 East started with some interesting, and unflattering obstacles that needed to be worked around. The room is a large rectangle with a flat drywall ceiling and brick walls that run along the entire venue. In the past, the venue was equipped with a large line array and subs located in front of the stage. A very reasonable approach, however, the system wasn't installed properly, the tops never made it to the back of the room, and engineers would essentially just blow through all the people in the front of the club, trying to get the PA loud enough for the people in the back. This proved to be very uncomfortable to listen to from almost everywhere in the room, add some reflection from the brick wall, and it was almost unbearable at times.
My idea was to approach the room very differently. Realizing the stage is off to the right of the room, I felt that the best approach would be to think of the entire venue as a series of Zones. The first zone is most important, this consists of the area directly in front of the stage. The Main pit, as I often describe it, is where the most die hard of fans hang out, so that is the area I felt needed to sound absolutely incredible. The mains consist of a pair of KV2 Audio ES tops run in stereo, and 6 Lab subs. And, because i feel like the front center is often neglected at clubs, usually just covered with a mono front fill, i decided to add 2 KV2 ESD36's aimed directly at the front center, making it one of the best sounding places in the room. If you've never had the chance to listen to music on some ESD36's, I highly recommend it.
Throughout the rest of the club are numerous Zones using KV2 ESD6 and ESD36, each dedicated to a specific area towards the VIP side or back of the club. By determining the Max SPL of the speakers, and their coverage angles, I was able to figure out how to cover every part of the club with clear audio. The idea being, instead of increasing the volume upfront, i would simple add speaker to the back for more clarity, saving the hearing of the people in the front of the room, and creating a better listening environment for everyone.
Each speaker is time aligned to the Lab subs, to give a very even sound to the room. The upstairs can also be time aligned to the mains, incase the music from downstairs needs to make its way upstairs for larger events. The upstairs consists of its own interesting zone configuration, that I will go over some other time. Both the upstairs and downstairs venues are controlled though the same Midas M32 console, allowing for complete versatility and control. Shows downstairs can be played upstairs, shows upstairs can be played downstairs, and a single engineer can keep track of the meters for both shows simultaneously.
To add some icing to this already delightful sounding cake, I added GIK acoustic Bass Traps and Acoustic Panels to the ceiling over the main pit area, eliminating much of the first reflection points from the PA. This allows you to listen to the speakers, not the echoing madness that is the venue in its natural state. As with any club, this is still a work in progress, I am always looking for new areas to improve. From what i walked into a few years ago, to the way the room sounds today, is worlds of difference.
