I know the question has been asked for DJ and band setups, but for solo work, what do you all think? I’m confident in any gig with my Model 1 (up to 500 people). But would two Compacts cut it? Or will the projection of the Model 1 still outdo a couple of Compacts?
Model I will out-project two Compacts.
I figured as much. Just played through a Compact for a smaller gig, forgot how perfect it was for the right setting, and started wondering. I may buy one anyway for these smaller gigs.
Well, I gave in. I’m now the proud owner of an L1 Compact. My next gig is for 25 people at a house. The Model 1 can stay home while its baby brother comes to the gig 
Hi Jukebox Joe,
Congratulations on getting your Compact.
The Compact is a great tool in the right place. I use mine all the time for small gigs. I have a Compact in the car most of the time, and it’s saved gigs for buddies when they have had a gear malfunction, or just want me to sit in. Nice, and now, nice for you too.
Notes for you: L1® Compact
I own a ton of Bose gear. When I do my one man band, I like to have the backing tracks come out of one unit and the vocals out of a second one. I have found myself bringing 2 compacts to small gigs where I used to bring one L2. Unless I have to project really far, it is really a toss up as to which one to use.
I will add, that I rarely get to hear how my units sound to the audience. Last week, I got a panicked call from a religious group that had brought in a motivational speaker from the west coast. He also does a small concert with his guitar and vocals. He got to the hall they were using and refused to use the built in system for singing. By the time I got there he had already begun speaking, so I set up an L1M2, T1, and 2 B1s behind him. As soon as I finished, he grabbed his guitar and started performing. This hall seats about 400, but there were only about 150 in the audience. I went out to listen and was floored. The sound in the back was almost as full as sitting right up front - and it was not too loud anywhere. It was like being enveloped in the sound. After the gig, the first thing he said to me was “What are these and where do I get one from?”. He was doing a show in NY the next night and instructed his manager to make sure there was a Bose L1 on stage when he got there. 
Now the 2 compacts would have added a nice effect of have the vocals separate from the guitar, however, they could not have filled that large room like that with such ease.
So I decide gig by gig. That is why I make the big bucks. (Right!)
Piggybacking on this conversation, I wonder whether there’s ever an occasion for a solo singer/guitarist to add an L1 Compact to L1M2 for a show? I wondered if in some more difficult rooms having a compact somewhere onstage or out front might help?
I ask because of my new solo career and my new L1 compact! Have been rehearsing with it all week! Great!
Mary
Hmm. Interesting question. I could see a possibility in combining the two, depending on the venue. Say you have a large audience in front of you, and a smaller audience behind you. You could put the M2 facing the front and the Compact facing the back to maximize your reach, and then find the most comfortable monitoring and playing position for yourself. I remember one gig where this could have come in handy.
Another application where it might have helped was another gig I did where I played for the main bar, but there was a separate party room around the corner that wanted to hear me as well. Running a line from the M1 (or M2 in your case) to the Compact in the separate room might have worked perfectly. Obviously, I wouldn’t have the ability to hear and control what they heard, but it would allow for something I could not do previously.
Interesting. I’d never thought of combining the two. I might just try that some day!
Ouu, that’s also very interesting, Joe!
I have combined them in a pinch, in an outdoor concert where my duo partner would have been at a disadvantage using a Compact next to my L1MII. It gave him a bit more low end through my system and projected very well in a wide-open space.
But here I was thinking of some of the more sonically-challenged rooms I have played, where people honestly could not hear well beyond the front row of tables (big, oddly configured restaurant/bars with lots of barriers).
Anyway, good thoughts all.
Mary
Hi Mary,
edit: We were typing at the same time and I didn’t see your post above.
Sorry I missed this.
I think that an important point is that there’s no significant benefit to having two L1®s with same source, covering the same area (overlapping). So when you say a “difficult room” I work on the premise that you have an place in the area to be serviced where you cannot hear the Model II adequately. I can think of a few reasons why this might happen:
- Remote location.
Examples:
- You are inside a restaurant, and you want to send the show out the the patio.
- The main show is in one room, and you have another room nearby where you want to share the show but where the show is not the main focus.
I have done this at house concerts where the main space held 150 people (in silent rapt attention), and we had another room that held another 50-75 who were socializing, drinking and eating. We handled the main room with full sized L1®s and used a Compact in the noisy room. It was like a “remote feed”. - Weird room geometry (L-shaped room) although when I have played rooms like this the L1® seemed to do just fine. But if the you were facing down the long stroke of the L, I could see the possibility that a Compact could help around the corner.
- Monitoring:
If you’re on an ugly stage and you can’t get the full sized L1® in a good position to serve both you and the audience, (tiny stage, very large room), then I could consider using the Compact on the stage and running a line out to the full sized L1® sitting off-stage, facing into the room.
quote:Originally posted by MBanshee:
Piggybacking on this conversation, I wonder whether there’s ever an occasion for a solo singer/guitarist to add an L1 Compact to L1M2 for a show? I wondered if in some more difficult rooms having a compact somewhere onstage or out front might help?
I ask because of my new solo career and my new L1 compact! Have been rehearsing with it all week! Great!
Mary
Yep, I agree that in most cases, one L1 is the ticket. I have had dismaying experiences with rooms with terrible acoustics–surprisingly terrible, given no L bend, separate room, patio, etc.
I think I’ve posted shots here of a room in our town, big, friendly Friday night bar/restaurant with stage and dance floor abutting dining/bar. All one big room, though with big beams in places. We eschewed the stage, moved to the edge of the dance floor closest to diners, placed the L1MII strategically… to little avail. We were unintelligible past the first row of tables.
I doubt I will play there again (our fans sort of wrote it off) but it did occur to me that it might be the sort of room where a Compact (such as I just bought) might be a useful supplement out front. Or a monitor behind me, with MII in front.
Mary
Hi Jukebox Joe,
Except as I mentioned in my post above I haven’t found any significant benefit to running both a Compact and Model II in the same space serving the same area. Monitoring is a different thing because you’re serving musician(s) on stage as a separate area from the audience. I have done this and it was okay, but it raised the spectre of “how did I sound”, because you may not be hearing the same mix as the audience. It depends on how you do things.
The back-to-back scenario is interesting.
Hi Mary,
Of course you are right, there are some really ugly rooms out that there. With no visible explanation - they just seem to swallow up the sound. Having a Compact along with your full sized L1® can give you more options.
headspace… if you plug in 25 different toys… well then I can see not wanting your kick drum to suck up all the tone from your accustic guitar and vocals. I can’t play more than 3 things at once - ( Roland guitar synth, blended with guitar and my vocals) so I don’t run out of room - but I’d guess with bass heavy backing tracks… maybe? No? Also defined by the room?