Off Topic Stage Volume

[slipagent]

To combat the directionality problem and help with the stage sound mix, we always put our amps on stands angled 45 degrees up, and turn them around backwards. the stage sounds is well mixed this way, I can hear everyone else(even the guitar player on the other side of the stage) and no one on stage or in the audience gets the blasted feeling of having an amp pointed right at them. We usually don't mike everything unless we are outdoors or in a bigger venue and since we have started doing this, people have raved about the mix of our sound.

 

[Spudmurphy]

In the past I've used open back cabs - facing the other way.

I've thrown blankets/coats/keyboard players over the cab to deaden the sound so I could turn my volume up.

Good comment re the fact that audience placement when hearing the speaker will always sound different to the perception when on stage. You can be "in the flame" of the speaker in the audience and it'll make yer ears bleed - step about 5 yards in either direction and the sound perception will change.

Outdoors is a nightmare - I've only done it a couple of times and hated it.

(I hate foldback too!)

Get a mate to stand at various vantage points in the club and ask for his viewpoint - a soundman is usually perched behind the desk in a set position.

Just my thoughts.

 

[angelspainter]

I play in church, and use a Hughes & Kettner Tubeman preamp direct into the PA. It has a Red Box cabinet emulator built in. The only stage volume is from monitors which are controlled individually (little monitor mixer on a stand). Works.

 

[MarcoSilo]

Obviously the easiest solution is having a pre-amp with speaker simulation, and feeding that over a floormonitor. But I can image you'd rather just use a tubeamp, which makes sense in some ways. I wouldn't point the amps towards the wall or something, unless some of the miked signal is going to be amplified through the monitors. Cause in the end, most guitarplayers want the guitar to be loud enough to have the extra sustain that comes with volume. I think the best way to solve the problem is to fit some beamblockers and to point the amp towards your ears (put it on a flightcase, angle it, whatever it takes), if possible on the side of the stage. This way the guitar will be plenty loud without deafening the audience or bandmembers.

I've tried most of those things. In the beginning the amp was standing on the floor behind me. Never again. You'll dial in too much treble resulting in a harsh sound which is also too loud for the soundguy (but you'll hear almost no guitar...). Getting tired of that approach I've tried a few modeling devices amplified through floormonitors. Ideal for the soundguy and the stagevolume can be loud enough, but I found that modeling took me too much tweaking. Now I'm doing the amp-aimed-at-ear-thing, and it works great.

 

[Fusionman]

You may want to consider using an attenuator like the THD Hotplate. You place the device between your amp and the speakers. It will allow you to run your amps volumes up as high as you like to get the tone but then back down the attenuator vol to almost whisper like output.

It sort of works like a second master volume but doesnt squash any tone no matter how loud or soft you set the overall output to.