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Hey guys! I'm new in this forum. I just want to ask, what's the best way to setup the amplifiers live. Should it be facing us? Facing the audience? Or facing sideways? Note: We doesn't mic up the amps. The keyboard and the mics go to the PA's.

 

THNX!

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Welcome Justin to our little corner of the web.

 

Firstly;

Why do you not mic your guitar amps? Are they too loud? Do you have enough channels on your mixer if you did?

 

Secondly;

What type of music do you play? How big of venue do you play in? How many people is your typical audience?

 

Thirdly;

With the information you provide to the above, we will be able to better help you answer the question you asked.

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Hey guys! I'm new in this forum. I just want to ask, what's the best way to setup the amplifiers live. Should it be facing us? Facing the audience? Or facing sideways? Note: We doesn't mic up the amps. The keyboard and the mics go to the PA's.


THNX!

 

You're looking for live performance tips?

 

Here's a few:

 

1) Get to the venue early.

2) Do things industry standard if possible.

3) Get to the venue early.

4) If the venue has a system for doing things, learn to go with the flow and make the best of the situation (because everybody else is).

5) Get to the venue early.

6) Oh, and get to the venue early.

 

And: Angling you backline gear into the band is A-ok. Ain't nobody gonna have a problem with that. Work toward getting the sound on stage that you have in your practice room... and let the FOH system (and soundperson) get it out to the crowd... which might involve more mics than you're used to.

 

And carefully pick your soundcheck songs and opener songs.

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You don't mic the amps and you're asking if they should be facing you or the audience???

 

6Imzadi asked some good questions.

 

I play in a typical weekend cover band. We mic everything. I wouldn't think of doing any gig no matter how small without micing everything. Stage amps are usually mainly facing forward, but slightly angled in to provide coverage to the other side of the stage. I'm the guitar player. My volume is loud enough so that when I'm standing 10 feet or so in front of my amp (or whatever distance the stage allows), I hear myself comfortably mixed with the drums. Bass player does the same.

 

At those levels, you really can't hear the instruments well when you get 30 or 40 feet from the stage, so stage volume while loud, is also controlled. The PA does the work of blending the sounds out front and delivering them around the club.

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We started out some 6 years ago with the traditional set-up - guitaramps placed behind the musician either at an angle or suspended. Our first leadguitarplayer used 2 amps- a Vetta and a Blues deluxe - both amps placed nexto to eachother behind him at calf height - unneccessary to say he weas so f****g loud he easily overpowered our (at that time) small PA. At start-up everything was OK but then he moved out of range, couldn't hear himself and powered up. By the time we were ready for the 2nd set het was so terribly loud that audience only heard him he completely drowned-out the rest of the band. When confronted with this he just replied that he didn't care to hear the rest of the band as long as he could hear himself - we very quickly got rid of him. Now we have a better PA and we basically mic everything now - at small gigs the amps of our guitarplayers are placed at an angle in front of them facing them so our soundguy has a much easier job. At larges venues there's no problem even if their amps are behind them - but always placed at an angle. Funny though - if you consider the placement of your ears it should be quite obvious where the sound should be coming from - still guitarists need to be convinced as to why placement in front facing them is better - that's also the reason that 300w full stacks don't really work in band situations - a 30w tube amp is more then enough - we even find using the amps' (or pedalboard's) line-out far better then miking amps - less feedbackproblems - ofcourse our drummer using an electronic set also helps keeping the volume on-stage bearable - just my idea though

 

Greetz

Will

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+1 on micing everything.

 

Our band has a guitarist/singer (me), keyboardist/guitarist/singer, bassist, drummer and female singer.

 

The bassist, and I, do not use amps on stage. He uses a Sansamp. I use a Digitech GSP1101. We are extremely pleased with our sound as well as the extra room we have gained, on stage.

 

Unfortunately, our keyboardist has not yet understood the benefits of not hauling around tons of gear for very little return. He has a very noisy Marshall guitar amp/semi-solid guitar combination. When he turns up the volume knob on the guitar, the room fills with a buzzy hum. We also have to deal with the problem of him "needing" to point his amp at the crowd. Oh, did I mention that he mics his guitar amp by hanging the mic from the amp's handle. In other words, the mic is hanging in front of the speaker, pointing at the floor. After fighting the feedback, for several songs, I had to cut his channel input gain 50% just to get through the rest of the set.

 

He also has a huge Behringer keyboard amp that he uses for his keyboards as as well using it for his monitor send. All in all, this is not too bad as it keeps yet another monitor from cluttering his side of the stage, however, it only has one EQ that he adjusts for his keyboards. That, in turn, affects his monitor feed which, again, causes some very nasty feedback.

 

The rest of us wish he would get rid of his Marshall and use a guitar processor, then use either a near-field monitor or IEMs. That would solve the majority of our stage sound problems.

 

Sorry for being long-winded, but I wanted to give some concrete examples of why it is good to keep stage volume low, or as low as possible, if you have an acoustic drum kit.

 

mike

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Before we all go hog wild on getting the OP to mic his amps, maybe we should get more info about the capabilities of their PA and the size of the venues. Miking everything and trying to get 10lbs of sound out of 5lbs of PA is rarely the best answer.

 

Plenty of bands have played lots of small venues for decades without miking guitar amps. Granted, most don't do it very well, but they do it. Usually with the amps pointed toward the audience and in my opinion, best results are usually obtained by tilting and or angling the amps so the performers can hear said amps with the ears on the side of their heads rather than the ones on the back of their knees or ass cheeks.

 

Winston

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We mike everything except in very, very small venues. I've played onstage for 40 years and there's no doubt it sounds better, fuller, and more balanced out front when everything is miked thru the PA. When I started out in this business, nobody had a PA system like we have today. You couldn't mike everything thru a 4 channel mixer. Thank goodness for the boom in technology. Mike everything and make your guitar player play at an acceptable volume.

 

 

Life's short. Live it to the Max!

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Oh, did I mention that he mics his guitar amp by hanging the mic from the amp's handle. In other words, the mic is hanging in front of the speaker, pointing at the floor. After fighting the feedback, for several songs, I had to cut his channel input gain 50% just to get through the rest of the set.

 

 

Make him get a Senn e609 if he's stuck on doing this...

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It can work just as well miced or unmiced but the band members must balance themselves out and play so the sound coming off the stage is a reasonable blend or mic of the back line if you are not going to mic everybody.

 

In fact, it can sound a lot better in some cases if you don't mic the band and it forces then to play as a group instead of a bunch of individuals that happen to be playing the same song AT each other rather than WITH each other.

 

Oh, and arrive early.

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