EBS_freak

@BadHands - the use of FX is still achievable - you just tap the DI out to the PA post the FX. As above, if the amp is a big part of the resulting tone (through colouration, distortion, speaker etc), then go to a amp modeller, or speaker emulation that can emulate it. You can tap a DI (using a special DI box that allows for speaker level outputs) from a speaker output on the amp - and then you'd just have to EQ for the speaker, or use a speaker emulator. As for pushed air - it's the PA speakers that do that for you. The signal is the same, just the amplitude that changes - and arguably where Fletcher-Munson comes in. People tend to like and think that things sound better for being louder. This is where compromise I talked about comes in - you can run your stage volume loud - but it will have a negative impact on what you can do with your FoH mix - unless you have a big enough stage to get the separation between audio sources and mics. As for jazz/fusion - no different to what has been explained in the rest of the thread.

Oh wow. Nice. Counting Crows August and Everything After territory that.

On the amp block, look under controls, and you should find gate/release in there somewhere.

Yes, it should work as long as both pedals are triggered in the same way (either an open circuit becoming closed, or a closed circuit becoming open - if both pedals are different, only one will work)

I always wanted to try a Reeves and a Divided by 13 also. But I couldn't be doing with reliability/annoying nuances issues. I used to run a lot of guitar valve amps - and whilst awesome, they all had something about them which was annoying. Random pops, tubes going microphonic, random rattles - usually all tube related in some ways. I remember changing or ditching tube protective cases... buying all sort or rubber dampeners and bits and bobs. It's all good fun... but also slightly annoying. Others call it authentic, I guess.

Given the nature of your band, there's a couple of things to really consider - I presume that you are loud... and micing up a drummer is always a challenge due to the spill. What I would recommend is making sure that your mic technique is absolutely bang on and your lips are centred on (and lips touching) the grille of the mic. This will greatly improve the signal to noise ratio and give you more gain before feedback. I would recommend an Audix OM mic - something like an OM3 for SM58 kinda money or something like a OM7 (this is where the sweet spot of the range is for me) or more if you want to splash a bit. Audix mics have great off axis rejection - but as a consequence, will punish you if you dont sing with your lips up to the grille. As for the drummer, I would go the same - but also budget for an optogate... this will enable you to gate off the mic until the drummer approaches the mic to sing. If the gate is set to the right distance, the bleed from the kit will be minimal and you won't hear the gate open or close. Again, this relies on your drummer adhering to the "right on the mic" techique. Personally I'm not a great fan of the SM58 or Beta - I'd always go towards the Sennheiser 935 or 945 instead. In this situation though, I would use Audix - because the ability to control the bleed and avoid unwanted feedback is more useful than a mic that, although I may prefer the sound of, give me or the engineer a nightmare when mixing. Forget about condenser mics - unless you are on big stages, their sensitivity is going to give you more problems than benefits - plus stoner/doom rock really doesn't point to condensers! Echo above though - if you do go Shure, don't buy used - buy from a reputable dealer - because the amount of fakes now is just ridiculous. And yeah, if budget is a concern, the AKG D5 is defo the go to mic. You can't really get better for the price imho.

I bet many people would have lusted (and still would) lust over that. Peavey stuff tends to be forgotten - but it's Classic series is certainly full of tone, and made very well. I'd be intrigued to hear what this setup sounds like! Yeah, I 'm thinking that the LXII with a real high end studio pre would beat a lot of these high priced bass centric offerings hands down.

@tonyf - here you go. I don't think it's the same video I was looking for - but it's got a lot of the key parts in there. All being played live - but all the events being controlled digitally.

It's nut's isn't it? I remember sitting in on a desk in the West End - the sound crew are definitely one of the hardest members of the crew there. The engineering line by line scripts are amazing - everything cued by slider number, scene changes etc... and you have to keep your eyes on the stage, and on the score giving you all the cues, whilst actually listening very careful to make sure that everything sounds smooth and perfectly balanced. This is a pretty cool watch - (and imagine missing a cue) Of course, similar happens on band gigs - but there's usually a lot less going on fader wise. Basically, you are going to be riding the faders of the lead vocalist(s) and have a grouped backing vocal on a VCA. And then of course, the slider pulling back the guitarist for when the gain goes through the roof as the solo is taken. A lot of pop shows are automated now - and I really dig on it. I managed to get a sneak peak of the Katy Perry gig when she was in Birmingham... and you would not believe the amount of automation going on. Yes, they are playing to a click - but thats a midi sync - so all the patch changes etc are done for the players so that they can concentrate on their performance. I seem to recall there was a video on it. I'll see if I can find it, it will totally blow your mind and make you rethink how gigs can be done. Of course, off the same sync track... you can control your lights and stage fx. It's freakin' amazing. I'll see if I can find the video for you.

Especially for you - I found out the Ryan Adams track I was referring to earlier. Although, given the sexual and emotional abuse allegations, Im not sure whether he's completely socially acceptable to bring up in conversation. Anyway... Amp on the right channel, miced up electric guitar on the left. As for micing up the instrument, yeah, you'd need to be micing it up on the side of the string that vibrates to have it make something representing a usable sound. You did remind me of a period where I was experimenting with piezo pickups. It was one that I made from a bottle cap, a piezo from Tandy mounted inside, with a jack on it. And you know what, I used that for recording all sorts of stuff... from violins, acoustic guitars... and.... an electric bass not plugged in. I had it mounted on the body with a cross made out of masking tape holding it in place. I haven't got any recording of it anymore (they were all on hissy tape anyway) - but it produces a kinda overly trebly bass sound. I bet on a real double bass with some processing, it would do just grand.

I always quite fancied having a go with a fryette rack power amp and some crazy nice tube mic pre.

You've seen the folk that mic up Marshall amp heads and SPDSXs though...?

I'm not sure if this is tongue in cheek or not... 😕 I know Ryan Adams did some stuff where he was recording his electric guitar acoustically in the control room whilst his amps were in the live room. In the mix, it was raised quite high, so it was quite clearly there, sounding like an unamplified electric guitar. This was a recording thing though - I can't imagine bothers doing stuff like that live, certainly not with mics anyway... far too much bleed in most situations for starters.

Can't argue with that!

This is all very true - and as stated earlier in the thread - you are compromising. If you are running just a bass amp, you are flooding the stage with low frequencies and reducing the ability to hear yourself as clearly (and others ability on stage as bass is very omni directional - the common side effect is that everybody starts to turn around to their amps and turn themselves up... and this gets worse as the gig progresses as your ears begin to tire and the high frequencies response begins to get lost - hence the guitarist is more likely to turn around and meddle first). If you were to cut the lows on stage, then the front of house may sound bass light. If the only thing coming out the vocal PA, you will be able to hi pass the relevant vocal mics - but more often than not, the inbuilt hpf on analogue desks are too high (especially for male voices) and can make the vocals sound thin. That's not to say it doesn't work - because it does and is good enough for most bands. But it won't get you as good a sound as you could. But having dedicated FoH and monitoring brings challenges - like who owns the PA - and the shift in "but I want to play through this massive rig, it looks cool". If people have invested heavily, or play with loads of different bands, there is that inevitable reluctance to change. - I dep with lots of bands (or at least used to) - but my rig is modular enough to work as a separate bass rig, or part of a foh and monitoring setup... or silent stage. Your second point contains a key point - you are working with the sound guy and have trust in what they are doing. I guess that has been one of the key messages I have been trying to land (well, for anybody who cares to listen at least!) As is your third point - you have to trust that these people know what they are doing. A lot of them are cowboys, granted - who have just gone out and bought a load of PA to be part of the scene - but it's there ears that are out there, not the people on stage. Of course, this all depends on the size of festival and band - because again, if you are big enough, you bring your own engineer who knows the deployed desk (or at least knows how to press start on a playback).

Guessing you haven’t read the rest of the thread then? 😛

Yup - ok so you don’t see this down your local music venue but this is certainly common place with bands touring with their own engineer where the set is known inside out. Not saying this is required for your average pub gig but demonstrates how the engineer can be a big part of the performance and not someone who is subservient to those on stage.

Not wanting to go against what cuzzie has said - but it depends. Depending upon the driver and the cab design (which becomes of minimal importance if the speakers are close miced), the speaker can be flat(ish) or display certain characteristics, such as pushed mids, recessed highs, recessed lows or a combination of all. A bit like a mic really. The thing is, speaker emulations are generally EQ based - so if you do take them out of the equation, you can get a fairly decent approximation without too much effort, certainly good enough for live situations. If you want to go further, then yeah, you can get some very comprehensive modelling on the go - with IR response and all! All this stuff is built into your modern modellers. The idea is that the modeller gives you the sound of the amp and cab you would hear if it was miced up in a studio... and then that sound is plugged directly into a live sound desk and off you go. Plug it into a FRFR powered cab (e.g. a cab that is flat and characterless - hence doesn't influence the sound) and you have a traditional rig replacement where you don't have to run it stupidly loud to get all the valve drive etc that people desire.

There's nothing wrong with amps - I love amps. Tech has moved on, which gives people more options now, options that actually sound good (unlike modelling solutions of yesteryear) - and depending upon your situation, you can make life so much easier, both in terms of moving gear about and getting a better band sound. If you haven't figured, I'm all for silent stages and IEM mixes. Being able to hear all the detail (and no post gig tinnitus) in your monitors and cleaner feeds to mix the front of house with. To be honest, between the big name modellers, they can all produce great bass sounds. I use a Kemper - and actually use a channel strip profile instead of an amp. I can plug that in, any volume, I know it will deliver the goods. Same with a Helix - I know plenty of people using Helix now, both for bass and guitar. They don't miss their amps and enjoy the additional flexibility of carrying around a load of modelled amps and fx. The key point is, these things are indistinguishable from the real thing now, especially live. Anybody who thinks otherwise, is kinda kidding themselves. Blind tests have confirmed this! If you look around on bass chat, theres a fair few that have made the move to modellers and IEMs, or modellers and FRFR setups. I don't know anybody who has regretted the move. In fact, a great deal of them have sold off all their traditional bass rigs.

You rotter, you.

I watched his youtube video earlier. That was a long video to regurgitate the same as what the hosting company put out!

Indeed - you got to start somewhere! In a modelling world, if you get it right, then assuming you are playing with moderately consistent gigging volumes, then your desk is EQing to primarily cater for the room. Of course, if you have the ability to tweak these sounds in a band context, you are making the sound guys life that bit easier (assuming you have a good ear that is!)

Brilliant - good to see you round these parts again

To our American friends. Buckfast is banned in the US. Apparently mixing large amounts of caffeine with wine is not good for keeping the peace.