So I've seen my share of bands with both shitty and excellent live tones, most specifically with the guitar setups. What do you guys suggest as far as achieving thick, rich, and big tone when playing live? A lot of bands sound great in the studio, but when it comes to live they sound very thin and brittle. Do I need certain additions to a rig (pedals, etc.) or does it have more to do with the amp settings perhaps? Maybe there are a bunch of different variables here I'm not taking into consideration...Theater acoustics, sound engineering at the venue, etc. Help me out! Hopefully I'll be playing a lot of shows live next year and I want to sound as good as possible.
Live Tone
- Thread starter Jeebo
- Start date
James-Doolan
Member
Pandoras box dude
yes you are correct there are so many variables the acustics of the venue being imo the biggest factor some places have just a crap sound no matter how good a sound guy or how good your gear is.
An examples never play a gig in a indoor basketball court i did sound was worst we ever had very nasty sounded like we were playing through mg's
uke: There is no secret to having a big live sound other than practice and a lot of experience and of course a good sound guy helps! Best advice i can give you from my experience is get an eq pedal and learn how to use it.
you will find during your sound check that what sounds good on your amp in your bedroom sounds way different in a certain venue (lack of bass to much bass ect) this is where eq pedal and knowing your own amp settings comes in.
Another trick is suss if the sound guy is worth a damm during sound check (i have run into some pretty bad sound guys in my time) if he is crap try if possible to play with stage volume dont let him touch it with a mic for the gig this is alas not always possible
TheDude
Jocke Skog
And the fact that you don't usually have enough time to put the microphone in the perfect sweet spot, not to mention several microphones, and if you do, some dumbass will probably trip on the stand and ruin the whole thing...
chaosmonger
Member
I guess the answer is simple: more mids, less high, lows and gain. At the end you'll get a sound you won't like that much onstage, as it will prolly sound not brutal enough and even a bit honky, but your riffs will be "understandable" for the audience.
I guess the "brutality" or "heavyness" factor on live gigs is covered by the high volume inherent to live gigs.
A brutal guitar sound that sounds awesome recorded will most likely be lost in the mix when playing live. For me the most important thing is that my riffs sound clear to the audience.
The reverb of the venues, the shitty PA's, the bad placement of the mics, etc, act together to steal definition to your sound, so you have to alter your regular tone a lot to deal with that.
.... but that's just me ... hahaha
I guess the "brutality" or "heavyness" factor on live gigs is covered by the high volume inherent to live gigs.
A brutal guitar sound that sounds awesome recorded will most likely be lost in the mix when playing live. For me the most important thing is that my riffs sound clear to the audience.
The reverb of the venues, the shitty PA's, the bad placement of the mics, etc, act together to steal definition to your sound, so you have to alter your regular tone a lot to deal with that.
.... but that's just me ... hahaha
Nebulous
Daniel
I'd say that some things that could help you, is to get an engineer you know and trust, so that when he makes a recommendation, you know it can't be too bad. Also, during soundcheck, get as far away (but stay infront) from your amp as you can and have a good listen. That's what the audience will hear off stage. Adjust to taste.
