MrRatty

I too have a bit of a heavy style (with a pick) and I find my E booms really easily if I'm not careful. I have that side of the P pickup down as far as I can but I still have to be very careful on the E. I'm not sure if this is usual, my pickup / bass, me or my strings.

We should have been playing but our singers sick. Here's some more ideas though: [url="http://www.bournemouthtown.co.uk/whats-on/local-gig-guide/gig-guide-local-listings.html"]http://www.bournemouthtown.co.uk/whats-on/local-gig-guide/gig-guide-local-listings.html[/url] Hope you have a great weekend.

Brilliant feedback - thank you very much. I think we'll make sure that we check for limiters when we consider new venues and probably have to turn down any venues with limiters unless they can confirm that they are OK for drum kit level music. Although we might be able to reduce the volume of the drums to keep the limiter happy, I don't think any of us would enjoy playing that way. And that's why we do it, to enjoy it. Thanks again for your thoughts and help.

Thanks for all your feedback. I think it's something we'll have to watch out for when we agree gigs at new venues and be sure that venue is either happy to bypass the limiter or has it calibrated to "Real Music". The one last night certainly seemed to be "Folk Duo" and we could only have played if we'd turned down to 1 and given the drummer money to go to the cinema!

We played our first gig at a pub with a volume limiter thingumy this evening and fortunately it is currently for "indication only" but will be active from the end of the month. It seemed incredibly sensitive and we couldn't help but push it into the red as soon as we started playing. We are a four piece rock covers band (guitar, bass, drums & vocals) and just adjust our levels to balance with the drummer (who is not amplified). I was wondering if it is normal for these limiters to be so sensitive as I can't imagine any band with a drummer keeping this particular limiter out of the red.[size=4] [/size]

Another AH200 user here, can't imagine what 3/4 of the master volume is for! We're a guitar, bass, drums & vocals band and mainly play pubs. PA is used for vocals plus a bit of kick and guitar if required.

Thank you for a great response

The son of a friend of a friend is studying music production and his dissertation relates to the development of a new type of combination effects pedal. As part of this he's carrying out a survey so if you have a couple of minutes then I'm sure he'd appreciate your opinion: [url="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SF7YWYR"]http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SF7YWYR[/url] Thank you.

Great. I missed your last one, I read the post too late. I like your vids so I'll definitely be watching.

I've never tried this approach but I feel that removing the backline amps & cabs would just mean more PA would be required resulting in just as much gear to lug around. At present our PA is used mainly for vocals with a bit of kick and a bit of guitar if needed. Our mixer gives only a single monitor mix which we keep vocals only to allow best vocal monitoring. To go the PA only route we'd need FOH capable of handling lower frequencies, more monitor cabinets and a mixer capable of producing more monitor mixes (I think it unlikely that our vocalist will want as much bass and / or guitar as the players will). Even then I think our guitarist might have trouble generating / controlling the feedback necessary for many songs. Another problem might arise when a band member decides to move on. At present we each own our own equipment and the drummer owns the PA. If we went PA only then it would be unreasonable to expect a single band member to purchase the whole PA (because it is now bigger and more expensive) so some sort of joint purchase would be required. This would complicate band member changes considerably with buy-outs, buy-ins etc. Another problem might be storage of equipment. Unless all bands go PA only then it is likely that an amp and cab will still be required when playing with second, third, etc. bands. But now there is all that extra PA to buy and store. All in all I quite like keeping things simple: bass + bass amp, guitar + guitar amp, drums (loud enough on their own), vocals + PA.

I prefer songs with words to instrumentals but I don't usually notice (or listen to) what the words are. I find the presence of sung words is important but on more than one occasion a song has been spoiled for me when I've become aware of what the words are. So songs with meaningless words are good in my book - no chance of being disappointed if I accidentally find out what's being said!

[quote name='hamfist' timestamp='1371746091' post='2117689'] [size=4]As suggested, the only way is to twiddle and fiddle and try and get the same perceived volume between your sounds. I find the best way to do this is to play them along to some backing music.[/size] I, and I think most others, find it notoriously difficult to compare volumes in different tones if just played solo. However, if played against a backing track of any sort, it's much easier to balance the perceived volume of your different tones to the backing music. [/quote] +1 to this. So many times I've set up what I think are equal volumes only to find they are way out when playing with a band.

Bah, too late Love your Youtube vids but I missed this ... grumble

[quote name='skoze' timestamp='1371209451' post='2111200'] I thought i knew what loud was 'til i got on the rail at a Motorhead gig. [/quote] +1 I remember seeing Motorhead in the 70s and it's still the loudest gig I've been to. My ears were filled with cotton wool (did they make earplugs then?) and it was still louder than anybody else I've seen. +1 to the comments about the effect of the room as well. I've played gigs with the same band in rooms which seem pretty similar but have had to increase or decrease my volume to achieve a balance. I'm pretty sure the drummer was his usual self too!

As others have said, I too think it depends on the space you expect at venues and how easy you want transport, movement, etc to be. We're just three instruments (guitar, bass, drums) + vocals with a standard size drum kit and 2x12 guitar combo but I still often only get sufficient space to stand a 2x10 on its thin end. Manoeuvring 2x10 size packages into and out of a recent pub gig was fine but an 8x10 would have been pretty tricky. But maybe we just play cosy pubs!