Different venues/finding your tone

[stevie_bees]

I had a gig last Friday where bizarrely we were placed on the upper floor, on a kind of mezzanine level playing over everybody's head. There were a few guys on the same floor as us but it was a strange setup. I had a few issues early on trying to get things sounding nice, it all sounded very harsh (normally my fingers make it sound bad enough as it is!).

It took me a while to try and dial everything, especially my Plexitone Prototype, which is normally on the money every time.

Any of you guys have tips/tricks/plans for playing in different types of venues?

 

[ErikH]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

If it's a new place, I'll start with my usual settings with the exception of any ambient effects (reverb / delay). I'll go completely dry and adjust from there if I need reverb or not. Most of the time I just need to adjust the angle the amp is at and tweak the overall volume along with the reverb.

 

[Stratman]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

This is why I keep different gear at the three clubs I play.... (Locked up)

Different room acoustics in each and it is a pain to keep caring gear to each.

 

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

That does sound like an odd set-up.

My advice is to have a really good sound guy.

 

[CTN]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

Yeah, having a sound guy you trust implicitly is good.

Alternatively, if you can get to the venue well ahead of time, and have time for a nice long soundcheck, start playing and walk as far away from the stage as you can, or just walk around the venue while playing, see how it sounds, see how it sounds on stage in comparison to that. Make adjustments as necessary.

Helps if you have a wireless or some long cables.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

I had to learn to recognize room characteristics by clapping my hands while the room was empty and/or shaking my keys to hear the frequency response, and from there learned what EQ changes to make in my rig.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

To add to the difficulty is that's it's a pub that sells food. So no sound guy, and unable to set up til about 45 mins before we went on. I had to adjust both vocals as we performed the first song!
It caught me off guard a little. The main sounds I'm using are my JTM45 with either the Plexitone or the SD 805 into it. Pretty simple and solid.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

To add to the difficulty is that's it's a pub that sells food. So no sound guy, and unable to set up til about 45 mins before we went on. I had to adjust both vocals as we performed the first song!
It caught me off guard a little. The main sounds I'm using are my JTM45 with either the Plexitone or the SD 805 into it. Pretty simple and solid.

Lots of upholstery and bodies, more treble and mids, moderate bass.
Lots of tile, straight flat walls and wood floors, less treble and bass, maybe scoop mids.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

i find that every room needs a different volume/eq setup. They also change depending on how many people are in the room. Be flexible and keep your ears open while you play.

There are also some tricks to set up a vocal PA so that it sounds good straight away if you dont have time for a soundcheck, but it takes longer to write than i can be bothered right now. Drop me a line if you are keen to find out.

The bottom line tho is to always be flexible and aware of what is going on around you as you play and dont be afraid to use drastically different settings than you use at home or in your regular practice environment.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

id love you to write that out if youd be willing

 

[TimmyPage]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

The biggest mainstay on my pedalboard, in almost every recent incarnation, is a TC Electronic Spark Booster. I think any clean boost with a bit of an EQ would work just as well. If theres no sound guy/the room sounds weird/the backline we've been given sounds meh, I'll adjust the EQ and gain/thickness/sweetness with the pedal. Keep in mind that I play gigs almost entirely with a single clean tone, so your mileage may vary.

 

[Nacho8807]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

I've played all sorts of weird setups like that. In many small bars and pubs, there is no sound guy, no such thing as a soundcheck, and often times it's too far away to see the venue before you get there that day.

If I am lucky enough to have a PA and sound guy, I will dial my amp fairly neutral, and leave it to him to make it sound ok in the room.

If I don't get mic'd, I find its less about how I set my eq, and more about where my amp is pointing. I face it in toward center stage, so that most of the crowd is at 45 degrees to my speakers.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

Most venues here are small enough to only require a PA for vocals, although I'd like to mic up snare and bass drum for a bit of oomph.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Different venues/finding your tone

id love you to write that out if youd be willing

okidoki. Stevie wanted the rundown so here is what i typed for him:

cool man. Well obviously there are a few differences in PA's but this should cover most types. Dont let anyone talk or play thru the mic's while you are doing this.You will hear all kinds of ambient noise coming thru the PA such as footsteps and clinking glasses (possibly even some of the in-house background music bleeding into the mics). Thats ok, we will dial that out later - just make sure no-one is touching the mics or mic stands, or playing an instrument.

1: Pull everything back to no signal and turn it on (including mic gains as well as master and channel sliders).
2: If there is a graphic eq in the PA system, pull all the sliders down to no signal (a graphic is a godsend for fitting the sound to a room...there's more on this later)
3: Turn all the mics on if they have an on/off switch and slowly bring all the faders up to zero db.
4: Slowly bring up the master faders to zero db (or less if need be). Important: if you hear any feedback at this stage, pull the master back until its gone. Some PA systems do not have adjustable mic gain. Those that do should not get any feedback at this stage. Once the master faders are set, that is your ceiling. Leave it there.
5: If the PA has mic gain controls, slowly bring each one up until you hear the beginnings of feedback then back them off a scratch until the feedback is gone.
6: If the PA has a graphic, slowly bring each fader up from minimum until you hear them begin to feed back on each bandwidth. Bring each one back until they are as high as they will go, but with no feedback. Its good if you can set everything with zero db as the the max, rather than boosting any frequencies. This way you get maximum power from your PA amp, and the eq is really just cutting the frequencies that are troublesome. At this stage you have matched the PA to the room's resonant frequencies and all channels have their maximum settings.
7: Pull all channel strips back to no signal. Get each player or singer to use their mic and bring up the fader until they are happy. Adjust the channel eq to taste. Its usually a good thing to pull some bass out of vocal mics to increase the clarity, but its often a preference thing. If you have miced up the kick drum, roll off some treble.
8: you should be good to go with little or no soundcheck. From here in, you will not have any feedback issues and you know that to get the maximum out of any channel, you just bring up the slider until it reaches zero db because you already set that up as your maximum. Small, on the fly adjustments are easy using the channel faders and the channel eq's.

This has worked for me for hundreds of gigs with various PA systems, whether its been mine, or an in-house one. I never get any nasty surprise feedbacks or pops. Take your time and be methodical.

There are other considerations too, such as foldback setups, but you can pretty much juts follow the same principle with them. Just start everything at no signal and work up from there.

Hope this process is useful.