CLR Level for Outdoor Gig

Matt007

Inspired
Just found out that our upcoming gig will be outside at a very small venue. I play an AX8 through a CLR and everyone else in the band uses traditional guitar and bass amps.

The gig is so small that we’ll likely get all of our sound directly from our own amps. Monitors will be used for voice and keys only.

I’m a little worried that the CLR won’t punch through as much as the traditional amps in an outdoor setting without using any FOH monitor amplification.

Anyone done this before or have any tips? Thanks.
 
From what it sounds like, the vocals and keys will have the exact same challenge as you when it comes to the drums.

If you have any stands, try mounting the CLR on a stand, that will help the guitar cut through the mix a bit better.
 
I'm very interested in your results. I play a lot of gigs like that where I live, it would be great to hear if the CLR shines in this capacity, before I lay down the $$!
 
Just found out that our upcoming gig will be outside at a very small venue. I play an AX8 through a CLR and everyone else in the band uses traditional guitar and bass amps.

The gig is so small that we’ll likely get all of our sound directly from our own amps. Monitors will be used for voice and keys only.

I’m a little worried that the CLR won’t punch through as much as the traditional amps in an outdoor setting without using any FOH monitor amplification.

Anyone done this before or have any tips? Thanks.
The CLR won't have any problem punching through a small gig/venue. Just dial your sounds to punch through and turn it up. Use good IRs, and make your presets and dial in EQ at gig volume.
 
Update—We had our gig on Friday. First time playing outside and the AX8 plus CLR sounded so good. As expected, the overall sound set up of the patio made things difficult. The keys and vocals were going to FOH monitors that were in front of the band, but the guitars and bass were using amps set up behind us as the only volume source. Our stage sound was great, but I’m learning from the recordings that the FOH sounds didn’t have enough guitar coming through. That’s our bad, just wish someone would have told me. Always happy to play louder! Overall though, a great experience with the CLR and volume would have solved our mix issues!
 
Update— Our stage sound was great, but I’m learning from the recordings that the FOH sounds didn’t have enough guitar coming through.

Why do you think you were mixed too low in the FOH? Do you think it was related to the Axe itself, stage volume with your CLR- or maybe your presets?
 
No, the problem was that we didn’t have any guitar or bass going to front of house. Our monitors were dedicated to keys and vocals only. We knew this. I just needed to turn up the CLR even more but no one told me. Lesson learned...
 
No, the problem was that we didn’t have any guitar or bass going to front of house. Our monitors were dedicated to keys and vocals only. We knew this. I just needed to turn up the CLR even more but no one told me. Lesson learned...
Hey Matt, glad you had a good experience with your CLR. I’ve gigged mine on some decent sized outdoor stages (last week was ~100x35) with no problem, at only halfway up on the levels.

A tip for you guys. Always have every instrument going to FOH, and then use the mixer to balance between the stage ambient level and the FOH mix to get the sound you want out front. Typically, FOH mix recordings aren’t great because they have a large level of things not amped onstage (vocals, keys, bass if running direct) and very little of things that make a lot of ambient noise (drums, guitars, bass if amped). If you can run a separate mix bus on your mixer for recording, you’ll be able to compensate.
 
No, the problem was that we didn’t have any guitar or bass going to front of house. Our monitors were dedicated to keys and vocals only.

Gotcha, I forgot you mentioned that earlier. Pretty much the norm with many smaller gigs where you have no control over the sound, I'm still curious how a CLR would stack up against the loud amps that I bring to most outdoor gigs, when stage volume is the only option (monitor and FOH).
 
Thanks guys, good tips. The CLR sounded great and had plenty of volume/headroom left. I think it would be fine. For reference, I was at noon on the AX8 input 1 knob and noon on the CLR master volume. I also could have maxed the input a little more on the CLR but didn’t want to get close to clipping so I backed off a bit intentionally.
 
We're using CLR's on top of kw181's for our PA. As noted above, there is no worries about CLR's being loud enough.
 
I've played live with a CLR quite a few times. It's plenty loud.

If you want to be extra super sure it will be crystal clear at top volume, maybe engage a small bit of low cut in your chain. You probably won't have to though.
 
The CLR has plenty of power to be heard in a backline-only sound situation.

Try using the CLR in a pole-mount configuration for this type of application. Be sure to set the DSP switch to free-field ("FF") when CLR is on a pole.
 
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