After soliciting lots of good comments from y'all, we built
two line-source floor monitors. I'd settled on some Vifa
drivers measuring 5.05" across the flats, partly because
they were on sale at Madisound for 14.50.

Mockups proved what everybody was saying was true, that the
comb filtering would be an issue. Nine drivers in a row fit
our uses in a four foot box. There seemed to my ears to be a
critical distance of about six feet between phase hell and
acceptable, if tightly focused, sound.

Balanced against the sharp transition at six feet was the
usual stage need to keep things tightly spaced. So we built
them with 45 degree faces.

Scott Dorsey's suggestion to absorb floor reflections was
handled by continuing the slant face all the way to the floor
and strategically placed dark towels. Each speaker contains
two whole skinned pillows, but no extra bracing.

Although they've been in use all season, tonight was the
acid test. Leo Kottke played in my little town.

Of course, I'd spent the whole day setting up the best
sound I could for him. The monitors were set in a shallow "V"
and rung, re-rung, and re-re-rung with a Rane RE27 and
its mic, and listening, iterated.

What a real pro he is. Besides playing the show with his
left index finger cut wide open, pausing only to spray on pain
killers, but never mentioning it to the audience, he had
jacked in his DI, sat in the house, and dialed in his guitar
sound in less than five minutes.

So how did Leo Kottke like my homemade monitors? He didn't
need them, so I struck them before the show.

BooHoo.

Chris Hornbeck