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If it sounds good FOH does onstage matter?

#61
multiman said:
That's completely irrelevant. My point is it has to sound as good as possible TO ME. I need to hear myself and the balance of other instruments as best I can. THEN...it's up to the soundman to take THAT and make it sound as good as possible out front.

If I can't hear myself or I'm trying to manipulate a sound by "guessing" it's not going to sound good out front no matter what.
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No, it's not. The operative phrase in what you say is the "as possible". No one will disagree with the point that we all want as good an onstage mix as we can get, but most of us must compromise with the conditions we encounter at a gig. I have had (as I postulate most of us have) gigs from hell where we could not hear what we needed in order to play our best and our performance has suffered. No contest. No one wants that, but it happens and when it does, we tough it out. Sometimes we decide to never play that venue again.

I don't think we disagree, fundamentally, but in difficult situations, the FOH mix trumps the monitor mix and the show must go on.
 
#62
The stage sound is the most important because you want to be able to hear each other in order to perform well together. Anyone who doesn't understand that doesn't deserve to call themselves a musician.

Of course, this means communicating with the sound crew and the rest of the band.
 
#64
modulusman said:
Here is a little light reading for you.[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] BTW how do you know that I don't know about monitors or live sound than the dixie chicks? Do they run sound for themselves. For that matter how do you know they were useing effects in their monitors were you and Natalie singing a duet together?
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I hate to disappoint you, but I have no plans to read anything you link me to.
 
#66
In certain situations,where stage sound is bad and guitar and other high frequencies are dominating everything, I have found a very simple solution personally, as opposed to a volume war, is a cheap pair of basic foam earplugs, not claiming it works for everyone, but for me personally as a bassist and vocalist, I find the plugs help drown out highs and other noise, while still letting me focus on hearing and feeling the bass a lot better, and my voice is louder in my head to the point where I don't even need a monitor and I'm not blowing out my voice. It just seems that I can hear everybody much clearer and perform better once all the highs and things are muffled. I realize it takes some getting used to for some people, but its worth giving a shot at least. Vocally, I almost prefer earplugs over trying to haggle with a monitor mix on occasion.
 
#68
multiman said:
That's a separate issue. Personally, I like my amp to be my monitor. Other than that, I want just a touch in front, plus my vocals. I can hear everyone else on stage.

The problem with 90% of stage mixes is everything starts getting louder than everything else. How loud does the drummer need to hear the vocals? Does he not know where he is in the song? Why do I need to hear other vocals when I can hear the pitch of the instruments. People want everything up and THAT is the problem. They don't know how to get a good stage mix.
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I'm agreeing with you.. the problem is people THINK they need to hear everything, so they start with that as a baseline. when I run sound, I ask them what they would like for me to turn DOWN so they can hear what they need more effectively
 
#69
Audiophage said:
The stage sound is the most important because you want to be able to hear each other in order to perform well together. Anyone who doesn't understand that doesn't deserve to call themselves a musician.

Of course, this means communicating with the sound crew and the rest of the band.
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That's a straw man argument. No one is saying that you don't need to hear each other. The gist of this discussion, the way I interpret it, anyway, is whether you allow the FOH mix to suffer in order to get an ideal stage mix. IMO, the answer is no.
 

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