Quote:
Originally Posted by scootron  The tone of the individual guitar doesn't count...it is how it sounds in the mix.
I have had to prove this to our guitar players over and over again. The absolute best sound we have (as a unit) is when we DI everything and trust the sound man. The "tone" one loses from running through the cabinet speakers is negligible in the mix.
On our ast two gigs, we actually turned our cabs off and relied upon the monitors exclusively for stage volume. We were the tightest we had ever been, and the audience raved about how they could hear every instrument better than ever before. Of course, we have a really good sound person who knows our material and knows when to bring this guy or that guy up for a solo, etc.
I'll get flamed for this, but in my opinion, people who refuse to DI and let the PA work are more interested in their own sound than that of the collective. |
Well, as a guitarist and a bassist, I find your opinion respectable, since the DI way works very good for some musicians and/or some styles, I mean, when recording you can get a very nasty funky sound out of the guitar by plugging straight to the board. But in my humble opinion, I'm see the PA more as a "reinforcement" system than a main amplifier where everybody should run through and rely on their monitors. This is because I see amps (specially tube ones) as a very important source of tone and feel that just can't be beat in the stage by POD's or emulating DI's (there are some real impressive ones, but more for recording quick, or in a budget for me), I mean, i've experimented both ways and always feel better with a good ol' amp.
The problem is that some classic amps are VERY powerful, and the only way to get their classic tone is WAY UP (think about a Marshall plexi or the SVT). Strictly speaking, this babies may be obsolete in the modern world with powerful PA's, but lots of bands (and audiences sometimes) love the feel of those monsters pounding on their chests. I ALWAYS wonder about how those world famous bands with some real big rigs (100 watt tube guitar amps, x2 sometimes) playing in TV sets, small bars, and stuff, would sound like when standing right next to them. Heard some of them use their rigs as a prop and play smaller things hidden, but a whole lot of those bands sound like they are pushing those big amps for real.
For me the best way for real amp players is, in the first place, having some real sense of their amps' capabilities and having a "small" and "big" rig (you invested big bucks in a half stack, but you shouldn't get rid of that smaller combo you probably had before). In other words, you just DON'T bring a plexi to a small pub (no matter how funny it would seem), you bring a 30-50 watt combo. One great thing about tube amps is that you can get two different amps to sound very consistent between them, because they react very well to your playing dynamics, and show more of you, the player. Just see B.B. King or SRV.
The other thing would be balancing well with the rest of the band in the soundcheck, and placing those amps properly, so the amp is not vomiting decibels right in front of the audience or another band member. I find loud amps, when possible, should go well behind in the stage, so you have a better sound projection that spreads around the whole place, gets a little dampened before it gets to the audience, and doesn't leave someone (the drummer!!) deaf. But anyway, amp placement is a matter of taste, so each band should find the best results for them.
Once you've achieved a nice, big stage sound, (notice: big doesn't necessarily mean ear-splitting) the engineer can do his/her job, and then mic those cabs to get that better overall balance in the mix. Maybe the amps would be doin' the most for covering the whole place, but i find a little of them through the PA very healthy, since i find guitar cabs very directional sounding, and sound changes a lot when you move around the stage.
That way you also leave monitors to do the most for vocals, line only instruments, and maybe in big stages some light reinforcement. I find the drums drown easily on big, open air stages, so the amps in opposite sides of them, i mean, when you play bass at the right, you can't hear the guitarist at the left.
Sorry for the long post, just want to share my experience and my best results, my 2 cents.
