Some thoughts on solo performance...?

[ernstinen]

Good post, Devin! Yea, the more you can do on your own, the less the soundman/woman has to worry about. Here in L.A., even though soundmen are pretty burned out, they do get a pretty decent sound fairly quickly (usually ). When I played out with my band, we worked VERY hard to get a great balance and our own dynamics on stage. It took a LOT of work in expensive rehearsal studios, but most of our gigs were showcases for record companies, so it was worth it. --- When we later played "unplugged," we used acoustic guitars that had pickups to avoid feedback from mics. Bass would also go direct, and the only open mics on stage were vocal mics, which are pretty easy to balance by good soundmen.One tip for guitar cabinets, or harmonica amps etc. --- tip 'em back pointing at YOU. They're going to be miked anyway (in most rooms), and you can get your sound without blowing away the audience with stage volume. --- Here's a great idea, though expensive (build your own!):http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ ... ab/Another thing my drummer has done is a combination of live drums with pads. This allows the drummer to mix toms etc. to his own liking, and we even used a pad kick drum through the drummer's own P.A. to keep setup time/miking down to a minimum. The soundperson CAN mix the drummer's send up and down as needed, but it's much easier to mix a submix than scramble around 16-24 inputs and faders.For solo acoustic guitar, I usually only use a little dbx compressor and maybe a little stereo chorus, then send an output to the house mixer.Jus' a few ideas for youse guys! Ern

[mojobone]

*referring to Devin's post:That's a fine division of labor there, cuz. You get your sound and let the soundperson take care of the room. I can see why you wouldn't get much resistance, if you're taking much of the work off her hands. (many musicians live without the luxury of a monitor engineer their entire careers, at least in my neck of the woods)Experienced acoustic musicians tend to keep their monitors as quiet as possible, and I'm starting to notice that the louder amplified acoustic players want no onstage monitors at all, preferring to turn the house sound up loud enough for them to hear it on the 'bounce'.* The alternative to keeping the monitors down is plugging soundholes and otherwise deadening instruments that are supposed to resonate.* If you're in the Greater St. Louis Metro area, or the town of Carbondale, IL, check out The Whistle Pigs for an example.There is a downside to ear monitors, in that they can spoil you rotten.I recently did one of those last-minute-replacement duo gigs, using my stage rig of a PODX3Live patched through the FX return of a 1X12 Laney AOR. (app. 30W) and the Variax. Nobody seemed to notice or care that my guitar had no hole. (nor pickup!) Just used the acoustic, twelve-string, National resonator and banj-faux settings on the Variax, and a preamp setting with a smidge of reverb from the POD. Blended with my partner's Takemine bridge pickup-through-direct box vibe, the results were satisfactory as far as I'm concerned, your mileage may vary.