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Stage volume with your Les Paul


rjc guitar

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Maybe a little off topic but i am courious! I play my Lester's through a Marshall TSL 100 Half stack. We are a 5 piece band and we all use "in ear monitors". The TSL has a "virtual power reduction VPR" switch to change from 100 watt to 25 watt. I like to use the 100 when permited but this last weekend i was using it @ 25 watts with the master volumes on 2.......yup.....TWO. I was told to turn down!!!!

 

As all of us are guitarists we ALL know how frustrating it is when anyone tells us to turn down!! Hell, I take it personal!! I mean, how am i going to get that nice tube tone? eusa_wall.gif And being on TWO the drums are definatley louder.

 

I am courious to find out from you gigging, past gigging guys where was your master volume at during you last show? I do lay some of this on my sound tech as when miced up he the gain on the board cranked WAY up to hear me in the mix. We are a live rock band, classic to current ( no metal ) so we are not a "quiet" band but at the same time we are not a "loud" one.

 

It has only been with this particular band where I have had this issue. Is it the sound techs mix technique?

 

So, anyone hear have the same situation or can shed some light? How loud do you play?

 

Thanks ALOT !!

 

-Rj

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Well, I'm in the opposite situation, where my band is always telling me to turn up! Especially on my leads. We have some really powerful volcals and a loud keyboard and I'm not going to try to play louder than them or the whole place would go deaf. I think I usually leave my Master volume on about 6 and use my guitars volume from there but it all depends on the size of the room sometimes. We usually don't have a sound person, so we have to do it all from the stage which can be tricky.

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I'm with saturn... when I gigged my band always told me to turn up the volume... (and I would say "it mic'ed so people outside the stage listens well anyway")

 

I guess your tech could do something... is your band telling you to turn the vol. down or somebody at the audience?

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Sorry I forgot... havent gigged in a while but am rehearsing now with a singers' suporting band, and we do it at the level we are suposed to play onstage...

 

I'm using a VOX AC30 cc2x with the gain (only use the "normal" channel) at 3 o'clock, and the master volume at 3 o'clock too (which means they are in what to other amps would be 9 o clock position... the AC30's knobs work backwards...), the only distortion/od pedal Im planning on using has two channels and I have them set so that when I use the first it only adds distortion to the sound, which remains at the same level... when I engage the second (set with more gain) channel the resulting level is a little higher (for solos and stuff).

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Depends on who told ya to turn down I guess. I find that most people don't know what the hell they're talking about when it comes to stage volume balance. Maybe you were drowning out their favorite ??? You know what volume your rig sounds good at and I say let everyone else match up.

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Depends on who told ya to turn down I guess. I find that most people don't know what the hell they're talking about when it comes to stage volume balance. Maybe you were drowning out their favorite ??? You know what volume your rig sounds good at and I say let everyone else match up.

 

That's exactly my thought! Having my master set at 2 would be about 8 oclock. But it gets to the point where I tell the band or whoever that I CAN'T turn down. ](* '](*,)

 

To answer the other question, it is the club owner that tell the sound tech to turn it down. TG, we too are a what I classifiy as a "vocal" group as we have 3 singers (with a female) and I know for a fact that the "leader" tells our sound tech to make sure the vocals are "up front" all the time!

 

I appreciate all the comments and hope to be able to figure something out soon!

 

We did perform at a club without our sound tech (house guy wanted to do it) and he actually told me to turn my amp up so he would have to crank the gain so high at FOH ! that evening my tone was sooo nice!! but that is when I started to question our sound tech......

 

Thanks again!

 

-Rj

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Well when it's the club owner ... I guess you're kinda screwed.

 

 

Vocals should always be up front

 

 

We used a house sound tech at an event once. Dude was a guitar player and seemed to want to make damn sure that the guitar was heard ](*,) even though I didn't ask him to.

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It has only been with this particular band where I have had this issue. Is it the sound techs mix technique?

 

We did perform at a club without our sound tech (house guy wanted to do it) and he actually told me to turn my amp up so he would have to crank the gain so high at FOH ! that evening my tone was sooo nice!! but that is when I started to question our sound tech......

 

 

 

I'd say you don't really need any more info than this.

 

<TRUMP> "My sound sucks, the club owner is not happy... Sound Guy, you're FIRED!" </TRUMP>

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Attenuator ...

 

I would love to use one and have considered it many times. The only reason I can not use one is that I am using all 3 channels at different levels, especially my lead channel. i have that up a "notch" higher so I don't have to worry about a sound tech turning up my solos. If there could be a way to incorporate a THD Hotplate or similar with my setup i would do it in a second!!!!

 

Now, not ever using a attenuator am I correct in the fact that you cannot use different levels because the actual attenuator is acting as your "master" volume?

 

Man, be GREAT if I was wrong

 

THANK YOU!

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Now' date=' not ever using a attenuator am I correct in the fact that you cannot use different levels because the actual attenuator is acting as your "master" volume?

[/quote']

 

for me the master volume is on the guitar<<<well to a degree,I preferr to attenuate the amp to the loudest volume(solo volume)

than use the guitar /effects to tailor the sound .annother important feature for clubs and loud amps is a voltage regulator. I find that power levels can go up and down and around at different venues, this has an impact on the amp and you can actually do some tone tweaking with it as well. atleast you get the same thing regardless of the venue. but you can't look over the importance of those guitar knobs . I know some people who never touch the guitar I think it's important.

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I don't see why you wouldn't be able to run an attenuator with a channel switcher:-k

 

In my experience, which consists of 15+ years of gigging, when a soundguy tells you to turn down, he's not very good at his job.

Every single time a soundguy *****es about our stage volume, which is basically everything set loud enough so we can hear ourselves over the drums, we hear afterwards that the sound in the room sucked. And that's AFTER us turning down...Not to mention us not hearing ourselves on stage...

We're a hardrock band, folks. We're supposed to have some volume going](*,)

 

I can understand it if a guy shows up with a 100w, non-master volume, fullstack for a bar gig, and turns it up to 11.

But I'm talking halfstacks on pretty big stages. With master volume on 3-4.

 

Everyone can claim to be a soundguy. You just need some cash to invest in gear.

 

And no, this post is not directed at soundguys in general. For every incompetent buffoon I've come across, I've come across someone who's excellent at the job and is a joy to work with.

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You need to get your amp up around your head! I'm mean your real head. Guitar tone doesn't carry as well as bass and drums and I've found that having your amp down around the knees makes it hard to hear. We put are amps up on cases to get them at ear level and on some stages we put our amps on the side shooting across the stage, sound guys love the side throw because they can get a better front mix.

Try getting your amp up in the air, you'll find our how good your tone really it:)

tfancil

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I don't see why you wouldn't be able to run an attenuator with a channel switcher:-k

 

In my experience' date=' which consists of 15+ years of gigging, when a soundguy tells you to turn down, he's not very good at his job.

Every single time a soundguy *****es about our stage volume, which is basically everything set loud enough so we can hear ourselves over the drums, we hear afterwards that the sound in the room sucked. And that's AFTER us turning down...Not to mention us not hearing ourselves on stage...

We're a hardrock band, folks. We're supposed to have some volume going'](*,)

 

I can understand it if a guy shows up with a 100w, non-master volume, fullstack for a bar gig, and turns it up to 11.

But I'm talking halfstacks on pretty big stages. With master volume on 3-4.

 

Everyone can claim to be a soundguy. You just need some cash to invest in gear.

 

And no, this post is not directed at soundguys in general. For every incompetent buffoon I've come across, I've come across someone who's excellent at the job and is a joy to work with.

 

My thoughts are the same and I have been gigging for 25 years!

 

Now to remind you, and this will answer to tfancil's comment too. We all use IEM ! so there is absolutely no "individual" complaining about stage volume which has been FANTASTIC, and to those of you who have not tried them you would be AMAZED! So, with NO monitors on stage maybe it is harder for a sound guy to mix? Since there is no stage mix to rely on to help the FOH?

 

Again, I appreciate ALL of you input and advice. I play again this weekend ( tomorrow using the house tech!) and Saturday using our tech. I will try a little experiment and set my volumes a little hotter than normal (normal being very low) and see what each tech does and or says!

 

I will post the results on Sunday!!!

 

Have a GREAT weekend everyone and if you are gigging: Rock out=d> :) :) =D>

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