Dialing in the perfect live sound

[bryan_kilco]

I am curious as to how you guys approach getting your bands live sound.

I'm talking more from a band/musician standpoint rather than producer.

Obviously every venue is different acoustically, as well as the gear they have.

Do you dial your amps in at practice, and just keep the same settings for every show? Do you tweak amps EQ and volume for every show?

One thing I find to be difficult, for my band at least, is getting a balanced live sound. I try to get a decent soundcheck in but it never seems perfect. I'll be playing along and have my amp set slightly louder than practice volume, and between songs a crowd member will come up and tell me I need to turn up. This probably means that the other guitar and bass are way too loud.

I like to be able to distinguish the attack of the toms through a live mix, and that usually means guitars and bass are a lot quieter than we normally run at.

Also, everyone just wants to hear themselves and this makes for a constant battle of loudness.

Any input, thoughts, comments, suggestions?

 

[Nebulous]

From both an ausience memebers POV and having worked with some bands that tried it for the first time and liked the results; try turning guitar cabs to face the stage side on, rather than aiming at the audience members heads.
You hear more of you and the engineer can control the balance more.

Also one that I haven't yet tried but have considered for myself- use a dummy full stack. That is, only have the top cab plugged in. This way it also avoids the audience being blasted by your sound and it lifts your cab to ear level, so you don't have to have it loud as all hell to be heard.

I'd say if you can get the guitar tones working well and not obstructing the rest of the band it will be a good start to a clearer live sound.

 

[Fragle]

I feel you man....varying stage volumes, different cabs that render the sound balance you crafted in the rehearsal room pretty much useless, shitty stage monitoring....getting a decent live sound is a bitch.

All i have to say is: Since we switched to Kempers all those issues are pretty much gone. FoH sound is as consistent as it gets, and the stage sound has improved vastly too.

 

[Trevoire520]

Live sound is all about compromise, so there's no such thing as "perfect" in most venues. (at least for gigs of 300 and under which I'm assuming most guys here are playing)

Backline amps should be loud enough to get a good balance with the drums when standing right in front of the stage, this should be loud enough for you to hear yourself onstage unless your amp isn't set right. Generally the less you put in your monitor the more clear a mix you'll have. Get the backline right and you should only really need vocals and the other guitar player in your monitor (bass if you need it)

Assuming you have adequate PA then the best thing you can do for your live sound is have your own engineer who you can trust to make you sound the best you can from one venue to another.

 

[florianvantuil]

Taking our own engineer who knows our sound best definitely helps a lot for me. I'm using another cab live than in the rehearsal room because my good one is so goddamn heavy and we have to get all the gear downstairs when we play a gig. So I definitely dial in my tone differently from the rehearsal space. In most cases I also lower my volume, which results in my amp not giving the full 100% of what I like, but I have to because most venues where my band is playing are pretty small.

 

[Mago]

Live sound is all about compromise, so there's no such thing as "perfect" in most venues. (at least for gigs of 300 and under which I'm assuming most guys here are playing)

Backline amps should be loud enough to get a good balance with the drums when standing right in front of the stage, this should be loud enough for you to hear yourself onstage unless your amp isn't set right. Generally the less you put in your monitor the more clear a mix you'll have. Get the backline right and you should only really need vocals and the other guitar player in your monitor (bass if you need it)

Assuming you have adequate PA then the best thing you can do for your live sound is have your own engineer who you can trust to make you sound the best you can from one venue to another.

pretty much this, and if you don't want to have to depend on the venue monitoring, then consider in ears.

As far as amp tweaking goes, that depends on the venue.

Also keep in mind that when folks come to you telling you your guitar isn't loud enough it might depend on where they where standing at.
In most small clubs the sound in the front sucks. Most of the sound comes from the backline and the monitors, you can't count on just because the venue has a PA it is also set up right (seems house technicians just don't give a fuck after a certain amount of years, or if the club burns through house engineers with ease you'd might also know that the venue owner isn't willed to invest in proper sound) and for center fills it's too small most of the time anyway.

Since I play and also work in the live field I know both sides though, and a healthy dose of non-communication between techs and musicians also helps in stirring shit up.

 

[Terminus]

In my somewhat limited experience, the FOH guys who didn't like your music or the way you look they'd mix you badly, and if they liked you, knew you or thought your tunes were good they'd try harder. In our case, many times the FOH guy was the same guy that booked the local bands so we got lucky ftmp. It's hard to plan for these things if they are little local bars and clubs with not much PA equip to speak of. Odd thing is, the biggest show I ever played was to about 300-400 and from what people tell me it sounded like shit over the PA. Big time crap shoot. Just be as prepared as you can be, that's pretty much all I can say.

 

[xFkx]

running stuff direct has definitely made a change for the better, it's just stupid awesome.

at least one member with a wireless pack can be the ear out in the audience.

your own soundguy, needless to say, if you can afford it... best option ever.

 

[ze kink]

I just run direct. MBP running Live w/ Amplitube, and I use an Akai LPD8 for switching pedals on/off and stuff. Just one monitor and I'm good to go.

I'd like to switch to IEM's at some point, but when I once tried them the receiver couldn't handle the ride, and ended up on the floor a couple of times. Since I didn't have any other monitoring, I had to play the rest of the songs without hearing myself at all. I guess I would need to tape it or something.