Problems Playing Through the PA....

[Butch Snyder]

Hi guys,

Since joining a new church, I am now playing guitar in the praise band. I use my Line 6 Flextone III direct to the house. It has stereo XLR outs and I use only one. The problem is that, at home, my amp sounds great. At church, my sound is horrid. The cleans are a bit distorted. I am toooo bright, and the distortion is buzzy. Also, when I step on the volume pedal, I get that annoying feedback that is the high squealy kind. My guitar is a Fender Telecaster with Tex-Mex pickups. Normally, everything sounds great. We do run a fairly hot mix on stage.

Personally, I think the sound man has my trim adjusted toooo hot. I think he needs to bring down my highs and give me more low and high mids. I like going direct. It makes for a quieter stage because I can turn my amp all the way down and it doesn't effect the house because I have my own trim control on the back of my amp that controls the amount of signal I send to the house.

What do you guys think? I've never experienced this before. In my last church, I sounded fine. No eq or feedback issues at all. I have almost given up and asked to just mic the amp...

[depravity]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

I don't have a lot of experience mixing live music, but I think you are on the mark. What you are describing is the sound i get when i have the level up to high on my little 6 channel mixer. I use a pod x3 by the way. If you used the same method previously with good results, i think it would have to be a front of house problem. Good luck sorting it out.

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

have these guys do your live sound:

[woemoejack]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

are you using any cabinet modeling in your patches? maybe bypass that if so, otherwise the FOH guy should be able to fix the rest.

[kmcguitars]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

Got to be the sound guy! If your sending him to hot a signal? He should be able to deal w/t it Or let you know to make a adjustment .

[eschoendorff]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

Clearly, you need to just go back to your old church.








j/k



Can you and the soundman meet in the church to do some soundchecking and just try out some other settings? Granted, your sound will be different with a full congregation... but you should be in the ballpark.

[Butch Snyder]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

Can you and the soundman meet in the church to do some soundchecking and just try out some other settings? Granted, your sound will be different with a full congregation... but you should be in the ballpark.

We're meeting this Sunday pretty early to see if we can resolve the issue. I believe we can. In my last church, I was able to go to the board and tweak how I wanted. In this one, the sound room is locked and the sound man has a conniption if you're in there without him. In can understand that. There's a lot to be mixed and he knows what he's doing. He's just not used to dealing with a hot guitar signal. Our other guitarist uses a Vox ToneLab LE. His tone and signal are very nice.

[marvar]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

yeah, it's always the sound guys fault!
Not really, I'm a pro front of house guy, too many tours to mention, now I do the audio at my church.
Remember, a PA is only gonna' reproduce whatever the source it is given.
We soundguys have a saying- you can't make chicken salad out of chicken scratch,
Your amp at home isn't going to sound anything like it does thru a large PA/monitor system.
If he was running your trim too high- it would overdrive his board, if it's a digital board, it would be making all sorts of really ugly distortion noises.
You don't like the way your amp sounds thru the monitors? the house? your own speaker? You really haven't been too specific- tell the soundman what you want to hear, and no offense, but every guitar player thinks their tone is awesome, and they know all about sound-and in reality, some do really suck.
THe sound man isn't out to get you- maybe he needs to mix you that way so your tone fits in the overall scheme of things. At worship, it isn't all about the guitarist- the PA and soundman generally try to run the system as flat as possible, for max headroom, and efficiency
There are so many variables when mixing front of house and monitors.

[marvar]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

Got to be the sound guy! If your sending him to hot a signal? He should be able to deal w/t it Or let you know to make a adjustment .

Why to people think that sound guys are magicians?
You can only fix so much in the mix-
and as I said before, you can't make chicken salad out of chicken squat.

[andrizzle]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

Solution:

Get some of these:



Add one of these:



and BLAM-O! Instant tone problem fixed!

[Butch Snyder]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

Marvar,

I understand what you're saying. This system is a totally different system that the one at my last church. It's much higher quality and more complex. I saw VU meters so I don't think it's digital. I also know that it's not all about me. I've been playing for a pretty long time and my job is to help enhance the overall worship experience; not to monopolize it, so I know where you're coming from. Our sound man is good and he's a good guy. I think it's going to take tweaking from my end as well as his.

Do you recommend different settings when going direct than when miced? I have thought about throwing an SM-57 in front of my amp. Being that it is a modeling amp, I never felt the need like I did with my tube amps. However, he has said, in the past, that he would rather mic me than have me go direct.

[Butch Snyder]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

Solution:

Get some of these:



Add one of these:



and BLAM-O! Instant tone problem fixed!

I don't think that's the solution. With tube amps, even the small 15-watt models, you have to crank them to get the sweet spot. I need my stange volume to be be well under control.

[marvar]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

There is a guy here in town, he's actually a semi-well known rock historian and author, he has a Line 6 flextone 2, he always goes out of head into the PA and it always sounds KILLER, but, he has done some serious tweeking of his settings. He also used to be a Nashville studio guitarist, so he's had the opportuninty to sit with the real amps next to his Line 6, so he was able to really dial it in. All I ever did was run him flat thru the board.
If you can run direct, there is less chance for feedback to occur, every open mic on a system causes a 1-3 db loss in overall system loudness.
maybe you need to ask him to turn you down in the monitors, and you can turn your amp up a bit more, using it as your monitor.
More than likely, he has your house eq settings pretty flat- and on most boards, the eq section on the channel has no effect on the monitor send, then the sound guy eq's the overall monitor mix.
So many times, I run into guitarist that are used to playing at bedroom levels, then when they get out, and have to turn the volume up, it sounds not so good- and they always say: "It sounds great when I play at home, that's my sound!'' but it doesn't always translate in a bigger setting.
My main concern when mixing for worship, is making sure the vocals (message) gets heard.

[Reload in 5]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

Maybe just turn your send down a little.
And adjust your eq to fit the new place.
We use a pod xt, and it sounds great. It has been adjusted 10,000 times to get to this spot though.

[andrizzle]

Re: Problems Playing Through the PA....

I don't think that's the solution. With tube amps, even the small 15-watt models, you have to crank them to get the sweet spot. I need my stange volume to be be well under control.

AHA!

Then an isolation box as well... Here ya go!