Obtaining guitar clarity in a venue with hard surfaces

[Rich G.]

A venue we play at regularly recently renovated their interior. It's more open now with hard surfaces everywhere. For a lot of my standard sounds I use the HBE amp. When I went out front to evaluate the sound. I've never really had a problem with the HBE, but this time it seemed like it was just a mash of higher frequencies. The definition really seemed to be lacking. What would you do in a case like this? Perhaps go with a lower gain amp model? Reduce high frequencies? Increase high-mids (1k)?

 

[jefferski]

Yea, maybe back off the treble / high-mids a touch, and also trying lowering your reverbs (mix and/or length) because they'll also bounce around more in a bright room and just create a lot of competing noise. I'm not specifically that familiar w/ the HBE (I know, sacrilege!) but as a general rule these should help...

 

[barhrecords]

Try using EQ to notch out at 100hz and 3.5K.

Especially if you are facing a hard back wall.

 

[Tahoebrian5]

I played a venue once where the reflections were so bad I was actually playing out of time because I was hearing the reflections and playing to the delayed sound. We ended up taping out areas on the stage that you could not stand in. Not gonna help FOH sound, but finding the sweet spot on stage may be a help to you.

 

[barhrecords]

I played a venue once where the reflections were so bad I was actually playing out of time because I was hearing the reflections and playing to the delayed sound. We ended up taping out areas on the stage that you could not stand in. Not gonna help FOH sound, but finding the sweet spot on stage may be a help to you.

I played an outdoor show where this happened. FOH was bouncing off brick buildings in a town square and creating distinct slap echoes out of time with the songs. The volume of the slap back was pretty significant too. Hard as hell to play that show.

 

[dpeterson]

get a lot of bodies in there, stuff will change when it's full with people. we played at this one venue a few times and it was glass and concrete with a metal roof. totally different once it filled up.

 

[Geezerjohn]

+1 on Dave's comment.

 

[vangrieg]

trying lowering your reverbs (mix and/or length)

Life has become much easier for me since I stopped using reverb at all as a guitar effect. At least with distortion.

FOH can always add some if needed, but they cannot remove the damn thing.

 

[pauly]

G'day
Definitely lose the reverb and potentially back off delays you may be using. Also, as stated above, getting bodies into the venue should change it quite a bit.
Thanks
Pauly

 

[jlynnb1]

yeah, unless you're hearing it full of people you aren't getting a good idea at all of it will sound. I'd err on the side of brightness and trust that the bodies and ambient noise will dampen anything unwanted....unless it's just stupid bright

 

[Rich G.]

I rarely use reverb live- especially in a venue like this. The natural reverb of the room sounds better so I go with that rather than adding more... unless the song really calls for it (Wicked Game, Girl Crush).

As for adding bodies. lol- that's a whole different topic. When your a 50-something guitar player, your friends tend to want to do family things on the weekends. Getting people to fill places gets a little harder as time goes on. but, yes, the sound dampening provided by bodies in a room can reduce reflections thus clearing up the sound a bit.

 

[Tahoebrian5]

A few beers will sweeten the mix up nicely

 

[sskkmm]

I played an outdoor show where this happened. FOH was bouncing off brick buildings in a town square and creating distinct slap echoes out of time with the songs. The volume of the slap back was pretty significant too. Hard as hell to play that show.

I would have ripped into some Who Live and Leeds licks...