Live Sound Problems

[Ric5]

Hopefully, your suggestions/tips will not include answers suggesting that the guitar player to turn down. That is not an option.

when someone is that inflexible then you may just have to move on ...

 

[Rip Van Dan]

My brother band seem to have the opposite problem of that ,, THe bassist is loud but not much fatness in the bass in the mix.. HE is playing an Ampeg SVT 300 tube and the ampeg 610HLF ported cab in a fairly small room in the cellar which has been nicely padded many places to avoid standing waves.. . I tried a cheap squier jazz bass through the rig... Strange sound in that room,, not much clarity from the cab and a heavy resonance on the F3 (175Hz) and F#3 (185Hz) note on the A string.. In that room using that cab I would feel more inclined to decrease the 220Hz mids with around 8-10dB to get the balance right.. A freq that this cab with 10" are good at amplifying and an area that pretty much sits right in the range of the bass guitar (A3=220Hz)

Different rooms react differently to sound as does placement of your speakers and the stage itself. It's always best to try to "dial in the room" ahead of time if you can. Best to do this with a second person helping. If you have a wireless, all the better, use it. Get out into the room where your audience will be or at least to the back of the dance floor. Then set everything else at flat and set mid-boost to 3 o'clock, which should really boost the heck out of it.
• Next play a run that goes across all four strings and from low on the neck to high on the neck.
• Now listen to what your playing. If it's all nice and even then go on and change your frequency selector to the next frequency
• Play again and listen again.
• Continue this method until you have gone completely through the available frequencies.

As you are playing along with these frequencies boosted, if you come across on that the room is sucking out, it will get noticeably quieter. If you hit a frequency that the room is augmenting it will get noticeably louder. It's not a subtle difference.
• If it gets quieter, then you've found the frequency that the room is sucking out. Set everything else back to flat and just boost that frequency to about 1 o'clock or 1:30 depending upon how sensitive your boost/cut is.
• If it gets louder on that frequency selection, then you know hat the room is augmenting it and you'll want to cut that frequency down to 10:30 or 11 o'clock.

Since you only have that one semi-parametric control, you can only do that with the the mids. Good news is that it will really jump out at you when you hit the frequency that is being reinforced or sucked out by the room. Then you just need to play with the bass and treble a bit. If the low bass sounds boomy and muddy, cut it a couple of clicks or more. Don't expect the low bass to thump you in the chest, it won't. It will get a rounder and more pillowy sound and can really muddy things up in a room that reinforces those 40Hz and lower frequencies.If you are getting a lot of fret and string noise, cut the treble.

If you didn't find any problem frequencies, then set everything flat and go ahead and boost that #1 (220Hz) a bit. If you want more thump in the chest, boost it a bit more. It doesn't really sound great by itself but is particularly good in the mix when you are playing.

 

[Honch]

I play in a five piece band... guitar, drums (electronic), bass, acoustic guitar and piano/keys. We are a loud band... mostly because of the guitar player.

This piqued my interest. How is the acoustic guitar heard at all, anyway? Is it the same gtrd that changes between electric/acoustic?