Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

Had some difficulty getting set up at our last gig so I'm developing a plan to be more efficient in the process.
I'm starting again at zero with pretty much everything.

So here is the plan and the first general question has to do with gain settings on the PA.

Allow me to set this up for you.

First off, as I play a tube amp I have set up my base sound, tweaked a little by bringing the volume down to 4 and the soak to 6 as well as adding a little bass ( 6 ) mid ( 6 ) and treble ( 8 ). This thickens the sound some from where I have been playing and I have turned the footswitchable reverb to 10 for lead riffage boost.

Then I turned my guitar's PA gain input level up to just below the peak.
If my stage environment level is not loud enough with just my amp I can add a little L & R monitor via the PA.
I've tested this through the Mains and monitors and it sounds really sweet. The 3 way mains sound just like my amp.

When the band comes out I intend to do this with each input / mic separately and then mix to the overall level for both stage environment and then for the mains in this order.

1st
Drums and bass mix
( they are on a separate PA and bass cabs with a feed to the Main PA )

2nd
Rays guitar & SS amp (which makes no ambient sound, so is controlled totally by the monitor and mains levels)

3rd
My guitar, bringing it up to match levels of the bass / drum and Rays guitar.

4th
The 3 vocal mics just above the overall instrument mix.

5th
To brighten the drum mix I'll bring the overhead condensers up. ( they feed directly into the Main PA not the bass/drum PA )

Sounds complicated doesn't it ?

So is bringing all the independent gain levels up to just below peak prior to making any volume level adjustments a good idea ?
Or did I just shoot myself in the foot ?

I've done live sound a handful of times for folks and am by no means an expert at it...
but in my limited experience...

fist step was to get every instrument on stage set to unity gain. This can be impossible without a nice mixer and LED gain markers.

when you say peak... well... on my mixer unity gain is a long way from peak.

If you actually mean 'peak' -ie just before the orange/red led start to blink... I think this is not a good idea because you have nowhere left to go if when the band starts to play someone is a hair quiet. Plus, if you are close to peak on a 'one at a time basis' you are likely going to hit peak when everyone is playing at once.

Once the band starts then the real work is done... listening and leveling for the audience while looking for ques from the band re submixed monitor levels.

Once again...Mike nailed it! Kudos man! On another note...


Sans: Do you ever have someone else run sound or is it always by yourself? The vid on my page which was a band thrown together in 3 weeks, wrote 8 originals, and did the national tour show with those songs, was able to set-up and sound-check in under 9 minutes and we tore down in less than 5 and were out of the building. Granted we didn't have to move the PA, but everything else was on our hands. Depending on the gig...it may be beneficial to look into paying someone else to run sound for you. Just my 2 cents.

I suppose " unity gain " is what I am attempting to do before the band ever breaks silence. Thus my control is based solely on volume controls.
Mixing the monitor environment with the ambient sound of the drummer and my amp first.
Then mixing the main output with the individual inputs main volume controls.
Then the master volume to raise or lower the entire mix.
I appreciate the input. I really need to be able to do this myself. Would be nice to have someone else do sound but I can't just depend on them.



Besides I'm a control freak ... OK!

thanks metal.

I guess if you have to do w/o a sound guy all you can do is make sure that initial process to set everything is as accurate as possible.

The better the mixing board the more leds you have and hence the more accurate you are going to be.

if you've got a wireless... walk out into the crowd and listen while you perform... then when you break make an adjustment. that's about all you can do.

I do have a wireless and have been able to do a pretty good job up to this last show. It's just not as "smooth" or fast enough yet.
I'm hoping that with a little more organized approach to the situation I can direct Tony to make adjustments while I go down front during our "sound check song"

When I upgrade my sound system I'll be sure my mixer has meters on each input and not just "peak" lights.
I also intend t move away from the powered mixer. It would seem your best control and versatility is a separate console, EQ and amps.


Be nice to have a chauffeur, but I still need to know how to drive just in case.

"So is bringing all the independent gain levels up to just below peak prior to making any volume level adjustments a good idea ?"




The most common method is to bring the gain right up to peak (to maximize signal to noise ratio) and then back off a bit, and vary the actual volume of the channel with the fader.

Gain staging is too big a topic to be condensed into a few sentences, but here is a good, thorough explanation:



http://www.rane.com/note135.html



Hope this helps.

Or not.

I book marked the link 90dB. So I can study it when I have more time.

I don't know why I did not see this before.

Your input is always appreciated.

Thanks !!