Amps when playing live : more mids ?

[Sly]

What do you think of this ?

When we (my band) play live we always have a great/good/decent sound but I have the feeling that the guitars sound a bit scooped. Tuning is Drop C, we use a 5150 and an Engl Powerball (soon replaced by something else). We have the mids quite low with the settings which worked great on our last recording. For example, the mids knob on the 5150 is set @ 2 (9 o'clock), on the rythm channel, we use EMG pickups and tubescreamers and they have pretty standard settings. It sounds good but it seems the guitars lack a bit of definition on some melodic riffs.

Do you generally use more mids when playing live ? I imagine this should work great especially when we play small gigs (when a balanced stage sound is very important)

 

[Trevoire520]

Definatley. Midrange is what you need to help you cut through the drums in a live setting. Even just putting the dial up to 3 or 4 should make a big difference. You can try cutting the bass knob a bit too to get a bit more clarity.

 

[MetalJonesy]

well the natural thought live is that when turning up to volumes where our ears naturally compress is to boost your mids due to the fletcher munson curve and how we percieve frequencies at higher spls

 

[if6was9]

yep, definately more mids for live playing

 

[Chryst Krispies]

I'd put the mids at 4 on my 5150.

 

[Skinny Viking]

yes, use more mids for live situations

 

[Sloan]

love me some midz y'all!

 

[Erik Monsonis]

My partner and me use our amps with mids up to 10 (5150 and Cobra)
That really works for live situations, note definition is the key there. Don't be afraid to use the mids past the 5 mark

 

[GarethSE]

My partner and me use our amps with mids up to 10 (5150 and Cobra)
That really works for live situations, note definition is the key there. Don't be afraid to use the mids past the 5 mark

honk honk

 

[Chryst Krispies]

Yeah , I wouldn't throw too many mids in though dude; it ends up sounding like Peanut Butter.

 

[xFkx]

I have been a midrange freak for some time, now I believe the keyword in live tone is "balanced". Having _too_ much mids makes the guitar sound honky and loses clarity to my ears.

 

[Erik Monsonis]

Well, in the 5150, there is not too much difference between 5-10, at least not on my buddy's
And the cobra only sounds ok to my ears that way

 

[GarethSE]

I have been a midrange freak for some time, now I believe the keyword in live tone is "balanced". Having _too_ much mids makes the guitar sound honky and loses clarity to my ears.

Definately.

I used to be all OMG MIDS AT 10 MIDS AT 10 but through a 5150 that flat out sounds like shit.
The best metal tones I've heard are the ones where it's fairly scooped but not so much that it becomes mushy and clarity is lost, where there is a thick but tight low end, and a good amount of treble.

I'd say mids at 4 on a 5150 live would be more than enough.

 

[xFkx]

Definately.

I used to be all OMG MIDS AT 10 MIDS AT 10 but through a 5150 that flat out sounds like shit.
The best metal tones I've heard are the ones where it's fairly scooped but not so much that it becomes mushy and clarity is lost, where there is a thick but tight low end, and a good amount of treble.

I'd say mids at 4 on a 5150 live would be more than enough.

This, and you have to give the soundguy some room to work with.

Oh, and I have a cobra, and although I dig the tone with mids on 9, it saturates very nicely, I think that it makes the tone muddy live.

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeah, too much mids obscures attack and makes the tone very "stuffy" and unresponsive (in feel, which is a very frustrating experience!)

 

[Ermz]

Too much mid can be one of the worst things, in particular if the cab is aimed at the crowd. I've had so many instances where the guitars have overpowered the vocals, and entire mix. TBH I don't treat guitar sounds differently between live and studio. A good tone is a good tone, regardless. Simply because adding more mid makes our jobs easier outright live doesn't mean it's the best solution. My best live mixes, without fail, have been done with guitar tones that were more scooped in nature. It allowed the vocals to breathe, a lot of space for verb to develop and also more room for the delay.

It doesn't help that most amp mid stacks tend to be centered at '500hz' or thereabouts, which is just about exactly the region you don't want. As always it becomes a matter of well-appropriated mids. You need to cut the low-mid shit out of there and keep some nice, textured core mids in there, suck away the presence/bite region at 3k (this will help with vocal clarity immensely) then make up the difference with a high shelf (ie. add the air back in). That's my cookie-cutter approach to general live high-gain sounds.

 

[ze kink]

I are a mid cranker. I never have my mids under 12 o'clock, and on my practice amp (Marshall 8420) I've had them completely cranked or almost cranked for a long time. Works for me and cuts through well.

Well enough that our ex-guitarist would constantly turn his volume louder and louder and wonder why he still couldn't hear himself I never looked at his settings, but he really seemed to like the gain and scooping... his tone was always pretty much a fucking loud "CCCCHHHHCCHCHCHCHCHCHCHCH", even the other members of the band who don't know much about gear still joke about it

And just to clarify, it really depends on the amp and setting. I don't have my mids on 11 all the time. I want to hear my guitar, not a tuba.

 

[drew_drummer]

I usually have the mids around 6 on my VH100r, bass at 5, and treble at 4.

 

[greyskull]

6 on my JCM800. with a telecaster. OH YEAH

 

[Seizure.]

I love alot of mids live, but it depends on the amp obviously..
Jmps and Jcm800 i loooooveee cranker on mids!