Why NOT use stage volume?

[billfitzmaurice]

But after hearing how an amp that I always thought was way too quiet to fill a house (or even fill a large stage) not only fill a house but do it at a volume that left me with plenty of headroom, I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that most of us have rigs easily capable of filling a small to mid sized room (possibly even a very large room) at a good volume and the vast majority of us are playing at levels too loud to not bleed greatly into the house, even when we think we aren't.
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I only run a 1x10 cab, not off the shelf of course but still it's not a huge rig, and it's got plenty to handle any room. I'll run just the mids and up through my PA in rooms to 200-300 seats for dispersion purposes. Larger rooms than that I let the house provide the PA and let whomever's on the FOH do what he's paid to do.
As for bleed, that's a low frequency matter, so again let the mic handle the mids where your tone lies and bleed is not a concern, and DI your lows where tone isn't an issue and bleed is. If the FOH doesn't need the lows coming from the DI he can lower that channel or even kill it entirely as required without losing those mids that define your tone. An FOH guy with studio experience will know where that technique's coming from.

 

[JimmyM]

I only run a 1x10 cab, not off the shelf of course but still it's not a huge rig, and it's got plenty to handle any room. I'll run just the mids and up through my PA in rooms to 200-300 seats for dispersion purposes. Larger rooms than that I let the house provide the PA and let whomever's on the FOH do what he's paid to do.
As for bleed, that's a low frequency matter, so again let the mic handle the mids where your tone lies and bleed is not a concern, and DI your lows where tone isn't an issue and bleed is. If the FOH doesn't need the lows coming from the DI he can lower that channel or even kill it entirely as required without losing those mids that define your tone. An FOH guy with studio experience will know where that technique's coming from.

That's a pretty cool technique I'd like to try, micing the cab for the mids and highs and let the PA do the bottom through the DI, or using stage volume for the bottom. I'm still very high on the stage volume in small places, but maybe I should give them a little more control with the mids and highs. Most soundmen I work with seem receptive to pretty much anything I want to try, so I'll give that a shot next time. Thx Bill...

 

[Colonel_Claypoo]

at which frequency would you roughly set apart the lows from the mids here? 100hz?

 

[billfitzmaurice]

at which frequency would you roughly set apart the lows from the mids here? 100hz?

Whatever sounds best. 100Hz to 200Hz would be the likely range. Depends on the capability of the board too.

 

[JimmyM]

Whatever sounds best. 100Hz to 200Hz would be the likely range. Depends on the capability of the board too.

I've seen that a lot of people we work with who have really good PA's will cross over even lower, but with full ranges on poles + a sub, I'd think you'd have to cross over at 100 or better just because the full ranges don't often do below 100.

 

[billfitzmaurice]

I've seen that a lot of people we work with who have really good PA's will cross over even lower, but with full ranges on poles + a sub, I'd think you'd have to cross over at 100 or better just because the full ranges don't often do below 100.

Depends on how the PA is set up. Pro-touring boards have filters on each channel, so the mic can be set up with a high-pass, the DI with a low-pass. 100 Hz is a bit low for the mic/DI crossover, but with lower end boards is the easiest to implement via auxiliary fed subs. Many who have started using auxiliary fed subs have found that in most rooms they don't end up sending the bass auxiliary feed to the subs, or do so at a very low level, that the feed to the mains only has all or almost all that they need.

 

[JimmyM]

Depends on how the PA is set up. Pro-touring boards have filters on each channel, so the mic can be set up with a high-pass, the DI with a low-pass. 100 Hz is a bit low for the mic/DI crossover, but with lower end boards is the easiest to implement via auxiliary fed subs. Many who have started using auxiliary fed subs have found that in most rooms they don't end up sending the bass auxiliary feed to the subs, or do so at a very low level, that the feed to the mains only has all or almost all that they need.

That would make sense, especially if you're trying to make the bass sound clear around the bass drum (and who isn't?). As always, you're a highly informative read.