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Gigging guys, how loud do you play live?


Cirrus

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Asked this on the FX forum, thought I'd ask here too. I tend to use an AC30 on the point of breakup and hit it with volume boosts etc, so it's pretty loud.

 

How loud do you play? And what's your ideal/ philosophy in terms of stage sound, monitor mix, amount of backline sound that reaches the audience etc? :wave:

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With my old band I was usually around 4 on my Peavey Ultra 1x12 but we were way louder than necessary. With my current band I've only been at about 2.

It's loud enough to hear over the drums in practices and assuming there's any kind of decent PA live, I only want to use my amp as a sort of personal monitor and leave the mixing to the sound guy. So far things have worked out pretty well like that.

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Asked this on the FX forum, thought I'd ask here too.
I tend to use an AC30 on the point of breakup and hit it with volume boosts etc
, so it's pretty loud.


How loud do you play? And what's your ideal/ philosophy in terms of stage sound, monitor mix, amount of backline sound that reaches the audience etc?
:wave:

not even in the same zip code as that volume would be! But you would have to somewhat yell if you were trying to say something to a bandmate at 4-5' while playing. I can easily get sustaining feedback at that volume when desired, but can still easily hear my vocals w/o fighting the monitors and feedback, etc. My main thing is to be able to hear the kick well and just have a good overall stage mix. Out front we are considerably louder!!!

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It's loud enough to hear over the drums in practices and assuming there's any kind of decent PA live, I only want to use my amp as a sort of personal monitor and leave the mixing to the sound guy.

 

 

That's cool.

 

What I've found with my amp at the gigs I play is that if my amp's loud enough to balance with the drums up on stage, it's pretty much loud enough that there's plenty of sound coming off stage and filling the room unless it's a BIIIG venue. IE, by the time I'm loud enough that my amp is functioning as a personal monitor, I'm loud enough to be heard out front.

 

So like some here, my ideal is having drums, bass and guitar amps all at a reasonable balance before the PA is introduced. And if you've got a hard hitting drummer, that can be quite loud. But then just use the PA for adding punch/ depth and spreading the sound out.

 

To my mind, that's ideal because;

 

- You can be sure that people are hearing the "sound" of your band as you intend. (in terms of balance and inter-band dynamics)

- There's less of a chance the soundguy will screw it up or completely misinterpret what you want to sound like.

- On stage, you only need vocals in the monitors. The backline is loud enough to hear in a balanced way. I find that very helpful because it means the monitors are clear and uncluttered sounding.

 

 

And where it falls down;

 

- If the acoustics of the room are bad, you might be at an unreasonable volume before the PA is even turned on.

- If the soundguy demands total control, bad times are ahead for you.

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That's cool.


What I've found with my amp at the gigs I play is that if my amp's loud enough to balance with the drums up on stage, it's pretty much loud enough that there's plenty of sound coming off stage and filling the room unless it's a BIIIG venue. IE, by the time I'm loud enough that my amp is functioning as a personal monitor, I'm loud enough to be heard out front.


So like some here, my ideal is having drums, bass and guitar amps all at a reasonable balance before the PA is introduced. And if you've got a hard hitting drummer, that can be quite loud. But then just use the PA for adding punch/ depth and spreading the sound out.


To my mind, that's ideal because;


- You can be sure that people are hearing the "sound" of your band as you intend. (in terms of balance and inter-band dynamics)

- There's less of a chance the soundguy will screw it up or completely misinterpret what you want to sound like.

- On stage, you only need vocals in the monitors. The backline is loud enough to hear in a balanced way. I find that very helpful because it means the monitors are clear and uncluttered sounding.



And where it falls down;


- If the acoustics of the room are bad, you might be at an unreasonable volume before the PA is even turned on.

- If the soundguy demands total control, bad times are ahead for you.

 

 

in my experience, all of this.

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That's cool.


What I've found with my amp at the gigs I play is that if my amp's loud enough to balance with the drums up on stage, it's pretty much loud enough that there's plenty of sound coming off stage and filling the room unless it's a BIIIG venue. IE, by the time I'm loud enough that my amp is functioning as a personal monitor, I'm loud enough to be heard out front.


So like some here, my ideal is having drums, bass and guitar amps all at a reasonable balance before the PA is introduced. And if you've got a hard hitting drummer, that can be quite loud. But then just use the PA for adding punch/ depth and spreading the sound out.


To my mind, that's ideal because;


- You can be sure that people are hearing the "sound" of your band as you intend. (in terms of balance and inter-band dynamics)

- There's less of a chance the soundguy will screw it up or completely misinterpret what you want to sound like.

- On stage, you only need vocals in the monitors. The backline is loud enough to hear in a balanced way. I find that very helpful because it means the monitors are clear and uncluttered sounding.



And where it falls down;


- If the acoustics of the room are bad, you might be at an unreasonable volume before the PA is even turned on.

- If the soundguy demands total control, bad times are ahead for you.

 

 

Between this and Laura's post, my take is pretty well covered. I can usually carry my amp to a gig with only minor tweaks, because it's pretty well what we practice at. We've played quite a few gigs where only vocals go in the PA, and that's how we do at rehearsal. The drums are pretty much the only thing volume wise we can't control, so we match volume to that.

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I usually try to set my stage volume according to the drums before they are miced. Not louder than the drums, but about the same level since my cab is miced. That way it's loud enough that I can hear it and we don't have feedback issues, but it's not overpowering the PA.

 

But it depends on the room.

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I ran the plexi on 2 the other night in a 300 person banquet room. Carried just fine. I used to run the Pro Reverb on maybe 2.5 in similar venues. Practice with that band was my valvetronix at low volume.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my original band we play louder. I typically have the plexi around 7 on the high treble side.

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