Fro
Experienced
I’m in a couple of bands right now. One is an old school style rock band. We have amps one the stage. I use a CLR as backline. We use whatever PA is provided, or bring very little. We just show up, kick ass, and take names later.
The other band I’m in has a more “polished” production. We don’t have any amps on stage. Everything is direct. We are all on in-ear monitors. The drums are still acoustic drums, but behind a drum shield. We also use some backing tracks. The backing tracks are just keyboards, because I can’t play the keys and guitar at the same time, and we don’t have room on most stages for a 5th member.
I’m starting to second-guess the approach of the second band. The main reason we ended up running everything direct is because I was tired of hearing sound guys bitch about how they couldn’t mix us with the drums too loud, or the guitar too loud, or whatever. So in defiance, I decided to remove everything they were complaining about and give them a blank canvas to work with.
I do appreciate some of the advantages to the no amp, in-ear set-up. It’s easier to sing. I can hear my vocal mix the best this way. I am also able to keep my guitar as loud as I would like. The Axe Fx sounds killer with the in-ears. But it really does come down to getting the mix just right. We do run a Presonus board with Qmix. More often than not, the mix is decent. But I’m not one to want to sit a tweak all night. So if it’s close enough when we start, I just run with it. I miss the ability to just walk around the stage or lean over if I want to hear something more or less.
I do feel the isolation with using the in-ears. We do use ambient mics, which helps some. The isolation isn’t so much with the audience, but with the other band members. We’ve had this current line-up for a year now, and I have yet to play a show or rehearsal with the drummer and bass player without the in-ears. I wonder if we would be making a better musical connection if we went back to a traditional set-up.
I would also like to be able to just walk into any environment and play. Right now I need to bring a split snake, the Presonus and a computer every where we go. It seems like such a hassle and extra set-up. Truth be told though, the sound guys love it. The extra time it takes to set it up is won back by not needing to spend time getting monitors set and tweaked. It’s more work for us, but less work for the sound guy.
I also wonder with the smaller club shows how strange it must sound for anyone who gets close to the stage where you can’t hear the mains as well, and then only hear drums. I can see where it wouldn’t matter so much in a larger venue where people aren’t crowding the stage, like at a festival. But we even had some issue with that where the PA was flown, and when you got close you were under the PA. Then it was all drums again.
We’re making our own list of pros and cons, and are trying to decide what direction we want to go with moving forward. I was just curious if any of you had similar concerns or thoughts or discussions. For reference, we play covers, 80’s 90’s rock, pretty standard stuff.
Thanks!
The other band I’m in has a more “polished” production. We don’t have any amps on stage. Everything is direct. We are all on in-ear monitors. The drums are still acoustic drums, but behind a drum shield. We also use some backing tracks. The backing tracks are just keyboards, because I can’t play the keys and guitar at the same time, and we don’t have room on most stages for a 5th member.
I’m starting to second-guess the approach of the second band. The main reason we ended up running everything direct is because I was tired of hearing sound guys bitch about how they couldn’t mix us with the drums too loud, or the guitar too loud, or whatever. So in defiance, I decided to remove everything they were complaining about and give them a blank canvas to work with.
I do appreciate some of the advantages to the no amp, in-ear set-up. It’s easier to sing. I can hear my vocal mix the best this way. I am also able to keep my guitar as loud as I would like. The Axe Fx sounds killer with the in-ears. But it really does come down to getting the mix just right. We do run a Presonus board with Qmix. More often than not, the mix is decent. But I’m not one to want to sit a tweak all night. So if it’s close enough when we start, I just run with it. I miss the ability to just walk around the stage or lean over if I want to hear something more or less.
I do feel the isolation with using the in-ears. We do use ambient mics, which helps some. The isolation isn’t so much with the audience, but with the other band members. We’ve had this current line-up for a year now, and I have yet to play a show or rehearsal with the drummer and bass player without the in-ears. I wonder if we would be making a better musical connection if we went back to a traditional set-up.
I would also like to be able to just walk into any environment and play. Right now I need to bring a split snake, the Presonus and a computer every where we go. It seems like such a hassle and extra set-up. Truth be told though, the sound guys love it. The extra time it takes to set it up is won back by not needing to spend time getting monitors set and tweaked. It’s more work for us, but less work for the sound guy.
I also wonder with the smaller club shows how strange it must sound for anyone who gets close to the stage where you can’t hear the mains as well, and then only hear drums. I can see where it wouldn’t matter so much in a larger venue where people aren’t crowding the stage, like at a festival. But we even had some issue with that where the PA was flown, and when you got close you were under the PA. Then it was all drums again.
We’re making our own list of pros and cons, and are trying to decide what direction we want to go with moving forward. I was just curious if any of you had similar concerns or thoughts or discussions. For reference, we play covers, 80’s 90’s rock, pretty standard stuff.
Thanks!