playing direct be like

[Orvillain]

So we get sound guys that aren't used to micing up anything, so we have to rely of straight-to-FOH setups.

Those aren't sound guys. They're monkeys!!

 

[Orvillain]

If I ever manage to get a live band together for my Sloganyear project (the new stuff is all drums+bass+guitar+synths+vocals) then I think I'd like to try going direct with everything except the drums. This is literally not something I've ever done before aside from plugging a laptop into the PA for Ableton Live stuff, because every band I've ever seen do a setup with IEM's and going direct and all the rest of it, has taken a lot longer to setup than my old band ever did.

I remember quite a few instances where we ended up with line checks because one of the previous bands soundchecks overran by approximately twice the allocated length.

How do you guys keep the setup times down??

 

[ian_dissonance]

I play guitar in an industrial/EBM style band, we're usually sandwiched between DJ's on Goth Nights, and other bands that have a more electronic-based setup.

So we get sound guys that aren't used to micing up anything, so we have to rely of straight-to-FOH setups.

Our drummer (I use the term loosely, he hits percussion pads, never practices.....don't ask), is highly autistic with ADHD, he won't have anything to do with IEM's as he's not the one who came up with the idea. So we have to rely on a good mix from the monitors so he can keep in time (which is 50/50).

You need a new percussionist lol.

 

[ian_dissonance]

If I ever manage to get a live band together for my Sloganyear project (the new stuff is all drums+bass+guitar+synths+vocals) then I think I'd like to try going direct with everything except the drums. This is literally not something I've ever done before aside from plugging a laptop into the PA for Ableton Live stuff, because every band I've ever seen do a setup with IEM's and going direct and all the rest of it, has taken a lot longer to setup than my old band ever did.

I remember quite a few instances where we ended up with line checks because one of the previous bands soundchecks overran by approximately twice the allocated length.

How do you guys keep the setup times down??

Cut the house out of the monitoring process entirely, bring gear that serves the show instead of individual egos. We put a rack on stage, everyone runs 1-2 lines to the rack (or powered speaker then rack), hand FOH a split loom of the channels we monitor. We also don’t try to mic a whole drum kit for the split, just an OH and a kick trigger. The drum change over takes longer than getting guitar/bass/keys in and out to FOH, usually.

 

[spawnofthesith]

We have an XR18 in our practice space but have yet to bring it to a show. We typically just get aux sends from FOH directly into our P2s and have the sound guy mix our IEMs instead of wedges. Sound guys are good and competent at the venues we play in the area and this is basically never an issue.


quick and painless and not a bunch of extra equipment/setup time


We've only ever had an unpleasant experience one time and that was a dude who was running FOH for the first time ever unsupervised. He didn't even know what an "aux send" was

 

[Sascha Franck]

View attachment 49813


played my first show w no amp on stage on sat. it actually went really well. tone was really good and the mix was great in the crowd but i missed my stage volume. i kept asking for more but the guy was kinda a dick about it. i def enjoyed not hauling my amp and 4x12 hahahah, we got setup and torn down so much faster than the other bands.

Get your own wedge. Wouldn't want to live without one.

 

[sleewell]

It's hilarious how guitar players turn something meant to save on bringing gear into something involving bringing lots of gear lololol

All I needed was for that fat fuck to give me more guitars in the monitors haha. We are probably going to play maybe one out of the next fifty shows direct so buying expensive iems or bringing one of my QSCs that are ceiling mounted just defeats the entire point of being lazy for one random show. Really what I needed was to tell their sound guy to go somewhere else for our set and have the person that does sound at our venue run it bc they would have done great.

 

[ian_dissonance]

Sounds like you should have brought more gear if you were going to mad at the sound guy.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Oldie but a goodie

https://thegearforum.com/threads/th...lready-made-up-my-own-mind-about-thread.7957/

 

[sleewell]

Haha touche

Really I wasn't mad and the post wasn't meant to come off that way. It was a fun show. Random ppl said we sounded good and we sold merch and cds.

Everyone has their own ways and preferences that work for them and that's all good. I do appreciate the advice and suggestions from ppl with much more experience.

I'm actually kinda surprised it went so well and wasn't a clusterfuck tbh. It was just one minor thing that was easily doable that could've made it even better.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Haha touche

Really I wasn't mad and the post wasn't meant to come off that way. It was a fun show. Random ppl said we sounded good and we sold merch and cds.

Everyone has their own ways and preferences that work for them and that's all good. I do appreciate the advice and suggestions from ppl with much more experience.

I'm actually kinda surprised it went so well and wasn't a clusterfuck tbh. It was just one minor thing that was easily doable that could've made it even better.

Even when I know we have a good sound man i still end up bringing a pile of gear. Its inevitable

 

[spawnofthesith]

I stopped bringing “the backup box” to gigs a while ago… hasnt bit me in the ass…. Yet…..

 

[sleewell]

I stopped bringing “the backup box” to gigs a while ago… hasnt bit me in the ass…. Yet…..

Man don't say out loud hahaha. Next show you'll need need it lol jk

I haven't been either tbh



Mainly I was just laughing, wasn't meant to be a dig at anyone at all. I just found it funny that like as guitarists, totally guilty of this too Im def not innocent, that our go to reply to nearly anything is like well you need this piece of gear or the solution is more stuff. At first the idea of going direct sounds ultra convenient in concept but then you slowly bring more gear to where it's like Baba said you might as well have brought your amp. It's like a quirk in our DNA or something hahaha


And also I'm never one of those ppl that's rude to sound guys. That's a really bad look imo. If anything I'm too polite or too timid and they kinda just do what they had in mind originally.

 

[ian_dissonance]

Man don't say out loud hahaha. Next show you'll need need it lol jk

I haven't been either tbh



Mainly I was just laughing, wasn't meant to be a dig at anyone at all. I just found it funny that like as guitarists, totally guilty of this too Im def not innocent, that our go to reply to nearly anything is like well you need this piece of gear or the solution is more stuff. At first the idea of going direct sounds ultra convenient in concept but then you slowly bring more gear to where it's like Baba said you might as well have brought your amp. It's like a quirk in our DNA or something hahaha


And also I'm never one of those ppl that's rude to sound guys. That's a really bad look imo. If anything I'm too polite or too timid and they kinda just do what they had in mind originally.

I agree for the most part, there’s always an excess of gear. I think the myth of the “pedalbag in one hand, guitar on the other” rig works great for particular musical situations (ones where the drummer has the option the play very dynamically ie soft). For shit where the drummer needs to hit their drums to play the songs right it’s just about what gear you want to deal with so you can hear everything. Amp you can crank to hear yourself or rack you can control to hear yourself. I guess the only downside to the IEM for us when we are playing someplace with a fuckass PA and we have to bring the “big” speakers anyways.

 

[spawnofthesith]

I can “one trip” the rigs I typically bring to shows these days….. it’s just super unpleasant to do so

(Guitar on back in gig bag, excessively large pedalboard over the shoulder, Mesa mark in one hand thiele in the other )

 

[spawnofthesith]

^that said a 2x12 or 4x12 aith casters would actually be less of a strain to “one trip” as I could just push it along

 

[Chocol8]

^that said a 2x12 or 4x12 aith casters would actually be less of a strain to “one trip” as I could just push it along

Until you come to the flight of stairs they forgot to tell you about. Bonus points if they are rickety wooden stairs built unevenly into a hill sometime in the 80's with minimal maintenance and repair since then.

 

[Baba]

^that said a 2x12 or 4x12 aith casters would actually be less of a strain to “one trip” as I could just push it along

I have instituted a STRICT, "one trip from the car" rule, but, you should see how far it is from car to stage at some of the places I play.

 

[hunter]

Who paid for the IEM rig? I think the biggest issue I forsee on this process with bands is getting everyone on board and willing to chip in. I'm not spending $3k of my own gig money to get this going for our band if everyone else isn't going to do their part.

This is where I am. Everyone in the band is on board for a Behringturd Wing/Rack based IEM rig but the drummer is a dick about it.
As it’s about an investment there is no majority pressure. It’s been on hold forever. We do have shit stage sound or no monitoring at all a lot on gigs.

 

[EOengineer]

I still have nightmares about the show where we couldn’t anything but drums and vocals in the wedges with bass and 2 guitars direct. What an awful feeling.

I need to get a consistent IEM setup for the band. We have a great system for rehearsal but shows are YOLO.