Setting stage volume for newbie?

[DirtLover]

I have a question for you guys. How do you set your volume on stage? Small venues, bars.
More specifically what part of your sound? I go from clean > overdrive > ODw/boost > fuzz/dist. > fuzz/dist. w/OD.
When rehearsing I try to keep the OD vs. fuzz (a bit of a boost) close, clean is a bit lower. If I'm working with a sound man do I just go with maybe the OD knowing that fuzz will be a bit louder and clean a bit lower? I also use my volume w/OD and fuzz to sit in the mix or stand out a bit.
the other thing is that my pedal volumes are quite low - this works in rehearsal and my tones are tasty.
Last time I played out I wasn't running any pedals - things have changed a bit.
What seems to work for you guys?

 

[loudboy]

How to sound great in a club:

Have drummer play.

Have bassist play, bring up bass until it's locked w/kick.

Have singer sing, bring up level of Ld Vox until you can hear every word.

Set BG Vox so they're down about 3dB from lead vox.

Bring up guitar and keys volume so it's balanced with drums/bass, but not stepping on vox. Clean/crunch/etc. should be at the same level - set to blend w/drums/bass.

Solos should come up to the level of the Ld Vox.

Amps should be positioned so that everyone onstage can hear everyone else clearly. You should not need anything other than vox in the monitors.

If you get everyone to do this, it will always sound good and soundmen will love you.

 

[tiktok]

What seems to work for you guys?

Well, fewer pedals for starters.

Seriously--I've used setups like that, but it was always very hard to get all the volume differences to work in a live situation, particularly without a soundcheck where you get to play a full tunes a tweak them. The frequency response and apparent loudness that you'll get in the rehearsal room is frequently way different from what you'll get in the the empty bar and different again from what you'll get once the place has a bunch of absorbent bodies talking very loudly. I found it impossible to not have the first use or two of the alternate gain stages be either too loud or too quiet.

But if you have to, set the volumes so they work at the gig, and put a volume pedal after all the fuzz/overdrive to control the overall level going to the amp and keep it less than full up so you can go up or down as needed without changing the level that the pedals are seeing. I can pretty much guarantee that the levels that will be great for the gig will be painfully loud when you go back to the practice room.

 

[gixxerrock]

How to sound great in a club:

Have drummer play.

Have bassist play, bring up bass until it's locked w/kick.

Have singer sing, bring up level of Ld Vox until you can hear every word.

Set BG Vox so they're down about 3dB from lead vox.

Bring up guitar and keys volume so it's balanced with drums/bass, but not stepping on vox. Clean/crunch/etc. should be at the same level - set to blend w/drums/bass.

Solos should come up to the level of the Ld Vox.

Amps should be positioned so that everyone onstage can hear everyone else clearly. You should not need anything other than vox in the monitors.

If you get everyone to do this, it will always sound good and soundmen will love you.

This is spot on. The only difference for us is we mic kick drum so that is first thing I bring up before bass.

 

[GCDEF]

To some extent it depends on the capability of your PA and the layout of the stage. Loudboy gives good advice, but I don't do it that way. I set up my amp so that I can hear it clearly and it sounds balanced with the drummer, which is good for me, but typically isn't loud enough for everybody else. I usually end up in the drummer and bass player's monitors, and I let the mains spread it around in the house.

 

[speedemon]

Ok,

loudboy is correct if you are speaking for/control the whole band. If not GCDEF's method works fine. If you got other guitar players in your band, diming the amp is an easy fix!

 

[Lolaviola]

OP You need to tell sound man/someone not in band that you have three sounds and you want to balance them. Should just take a minute or two.

 

[2HBStrat]

I have a question for you guys. How do you set your volume on stage? Small venues, bars.
More specifically what part of your sound? I go from clean > overdrive > ODw/boost > fuzz/dist. > fuzz/dist. w/OD.
When rehearsing I try to keep the OD vs. fuzz (a bit of a boost) close, clean is a bit lower. If I'm working with a sound man do I just go with maybe the OD knowing that fuzz will be a bit louder and clean a bit lower? I also use my volume w/OD and fuzz to sit in the mix or stand out a bit.
the other thing is that my pedal volumes are quite low - this works in rehearsal and my tones are tasty.
Last time I played out I wasn't running any pedals - things have changed a bit.
What seems to work for you guys?

I think whatever works in rehearsal should be fine onstage as well, but you may just have to tweak your overall volume to compensate if, for example, the drummer plays louder at the gig than he does at rehearsal.