[medium jim]

I disagree. Loud bass used with taste can be a very cool effect and adds to the music. Sorry you have never experienced this.

+1

Jim

[Wayner]

I disagree. Loud bass used with taste can be a very cool effect and adds to the music. Sorry you have never experienced this.

It's a non-musical event. Everything in the bar/club will vibrate. The drummer's skins will make noise, the
microphone diaphragms will buzz (and probably feedback), drink glasses will vibrate on tables. You call this
a musical experience? It's nothing more then a sound effect.

Maybe doing it once to impress the audience is going to be "cool" for a few, but with repeated use, it's simply
going to piss off people, and probably the club owner.

The worst thing a band can do is "turn up the volume". If you've got talent, then let's hear it by what you
can play, not how loud (or deep) you can play. If your keyboard buddy want to sound like Rick Wakeman, try
playing to match the talents, otherwise, IMO this adventure is foolish.

Wayner

[Chromisdesigns]

I don't really have a horse in this race; it's more I ran across what I thought was an interesting speaker design problem, and thought folks here might have something to contribute.

@Wayner -- I'm not a big fan of the "Tyranasaurus Rex School of Bass" approach, myself;  however, I will note they do play a lot of festival gigs outdoors, and that was also an issue the keyboard player was attempting to address, as well as medium-sized indoor venues.

I'll also note I've heard live organ concerts in some great church installations, mostly in Europe, and been suitably impressed by the pedal notes.  If I was an all-out organ music nut, I'd certainly try the best I could to have a system that could actually play the fundamentals, rather than doubling them.

I suspect fans of synth-heavy music might feel the same?

[DaveC113]

It's a non-musical event.

Thanks for letting us know what we should consider music. Personally, I can't stand it when a band plays a note between 3212 Hz and 3816 Hz. So unmusical... 

Also, clubs vs. real music venues are 2 different things. Bands playing clubs must try to suit the atmosphere of kthe club, but at a music venue people come to hear the music and the volume should be up to the band and what they think sounds best.

[7x57]

Beethoven said that bass is the basis of western music, and he used more than the usual number of bass instruments for performing his symphonies. He also destroyed many pianos with his playing and was responsible for vast improvements of the pianoforte. A violinist once said that if an orchestra plays a Beethoven symphony or concerto and there are not some broken strings on the stringed instruments, then the performance was definitely subpar. It sounds like this keyboardist would be beloved by Beethoven.

I can't agree with Wayner. Pipe organs go down to 16 Hz and the designers thought it was appropriate and necessary and we have no complaints from the audiences about things vibrating all around them after a few centuries of their use. They would probably not care if Wayner packed up and left in disgust.

Tell the keyboardist to look at the design of Eminent Technology for their subwoofer that goes to less than 1 Hz at high output. The cheapest route for the keyboardist will be to build many cabinets out of baltic birch plywood and install some good low frequency subwoofer drivers. Another route is a portable subwoofer pipe organ. Smaller tuned pipes can be inserted into larger tuned pipes for transport purposes. Enough pipes for only the lowest octave of music isn't all that much. Pipe organs do not burn out woofer coils, but you will need a source for a rather large volume of air to feed the pipes. 20Hz at 120dB SPL is not going to be cheap in a large venue, but I think that pipe organs were the first instruments to successfully solve the problem. They have been working for centuries and seem quite reliable and durable, but not at all very portable.

[jonbee]

Years ago VMPS sold several of their larger subs to NASA to simulate rocket bass frequencies. They would be a good resource. I owned a couple and they go well below 20 hz. and play loud without distortion.
You might take a look at them.

[Vic]

I'd suggest looking into a used Bag End ELF Integrator, ELF cabinet/s, and a modest 400 watt QSC or similar amplifier. Using home audio products in a road environment is not exactly sensible. The sealed ELF 18" cabinet is compact, carpeted, and easy to handle. The system is flat well below 20Hz.  The Integrator controller is geared towards live instrument or PA use with gain and concealment adjustments.

If there is an issue it will be in dealing with the FOH sound system and possibly over loading the stage sound.

I use this system in conjunction with a modest Bag End 2-10" coaxial bass cabinet to form true full range Bass amplification. The ELF system can flesh out and control the gain of the low frequency overtones from both Slab and Double Bass. Even though the low E or B strings have their frequency limits the instruments themselves create overtones below the string resonance. Even the best Bass cabinets begin to roll off around 40Hz.

Another option to look into would be powered subwoofers from Meyer Sound Labs.

[spectralman]

Look into this guy's designs, esp the THT: http://billfitzmaurice.net/

[rollo]

  JBL commercial subs. GR Research custom subs.


charles

[jtwrace]

http://www.danleysoundlabs.com/products/subwoofers/tapped-horns/

[medium jim]

http://www.danleysoundlabs.com/products/subwoofers/tapped-horns/

They would do the trick....the folded horn design is a bit Bose, but so what.

Jim