Nowadays, it has been taken for granted that you can bring the smallest and most portable tube amp to a gig and have the on-site house P.A. take care of amplification. Or on the other hand, bring your effects board or digital modelling setup and plug directly to the mixing board and having the in house P.A. carry the music. Well thats a lot of B.S. to me.
After experimenting with some stage setups myself and attending a disappointing (front of house sound wise) Vinnie Moore and Tony MacAlpine Shibuya Club Quattro gig, I have reached the conclusion that PAs are just that. Public Address systems that are ill suited to overall amplification of Rock Music. Don't Get Me wrong. Shibuya Club Quattro was equipped with a PA system as Extensive and big as Araneta Colliseum at one tenth the size of the Araneta. The PA could deliver in spades but... in the end solid state amplifiers and PA speakers just don't do well on guitars, bass and drums. For one because of the mix, Tony's guitars would crack on the highs that would never happen with guitar amps. Yet Tony was using two Hughes and Kettner heads into two 1x12s. Not too mention that Vinnie Moore was using a Marshall stack with two 4x12s. Clearly, we could have just turn off the PA and the amps would do the trick sufficiently. Because the only equipment pushing the boundaries of playback are in the realm of HIFI. The bassist was using an Ashdown head into a 8x10 speaker cabinet. The drummer was using a Gretsch Custom Kit that was elevated off the ground by about 3 feet. Clearly something was still wrong with acceptable standards of hearing LIVE music. They lacked the understanding of HIFI. The PA and monitors were getting in the way of sounding good.
Some FACTS:
1) Most PA equipment both power amps and speakers are 98% made in China which basically means that cost is the prime consideration more than sound design. If sound was the driver, a PA system made in Europe or USA would cost close to US100,000 for a small club. Why? Because it would follow the costing of HIFI speakers and labor. My brother in law's brother works for B&W England. B&W had started contract out to China for the mid end to low end speakers but they have to rework so many of the Chinese speakers in England because of poor workmanship. Imagine that all this junk degrades your guitar amp and guitar that costs more than the PA system?
2) Using China made PA more or less makes your band sound like the rest of the other bands because lets face it, most of the American or European Brands who make PAs outsource to the same Chinese companies -- maybe about a handful that all sound alike.
3) Contrary to yester years, as digital technology and solid state have advanced, so did tube amps. Gone are the days wherein tube amps were only made for large venues. Today, tube amps specially the boutique ones come in ALL wattages and LOUDNESS levels. In short there is a tube amp that sounds great AND right for every venue. From your 1 watt combos to your 200 watt heads and cabinets. Guitar preamps and built in attenuators have progresed. They are now better sounding and guaranteed to sound better than axeFX or Kemper. So for guitar dudes, I suggest you have several great sounding boutique tube amps for every size venue. A lot of PAs are loaded with 15 or 18 inch drivers that sound bad at amplifying guitar signal most at home on 12s and 10s.
4) On the other hand, bass guitars also suffer because the PA speaker cabinets are just not designed for bass guitar notes but more for techno and house music. What happens is that the bass guitar kinda gets chopped up in front of house. Its like you separated the bass guitar between highs and lows.
5) Drums also suffer because dynamics and transients are lost -- which are most important for a drumset because drums are not meant to sustain. The PA speaker is having such a difficult job amplifying everything in the band there buy muddling the attack of the drums.
A NEW APPROACH:
1) Give us back our great sounding tube amps. Yeah it sounds obvious but this is something that sounds against the flow -- LET YOUR BOUTIQUE GUITAR AMP fill the venue with the correct volume level. It sounds better to you and the audience. Believe me, its less fatigue. Do not have it MICed. Let the other band members hear it and adjust and so should you. You do not need to hear anything other than vocals thru the monitors if needed at all.
2) For bass, the number one priority is to get a bass guitar cabinet that sounds great. Its more important than the bass your using from the sound point of view. Again let the cabinet do the trick to fill the venue with volume. White at it, use a mosfet or tube amp and ditch the portable Class D. Class D just cannot cope up with great sounding tube amps and loud drums. Again, do not mic your bass amp. Listen to the other members of the band and adjust the volume of your bass amp without monitors.
3) For drums, the only thing you need to MIC is the bass drum. Thats it. Cymbals, snare drums and toms are loud enough to amplify themselves. It is the kick drum that needs help and please use the best kick drum mics available from Europe. They really sound much better. Again, if the drummer cannot hear the bass amp and guitar amp without a wedge monitor then he is playing too loud. Tell him to bring down the volume to let the drums and cymbals breathe. In fact, if I had my way, instead of drummers bringing in snare drums and cymbals, I would rather have them bring in a loud but musical kick drum. I mean how dumb is that? You bring in snare drums and cymbals but leave the toms and the kick drum to sound like crap. The logic goes like at least 50% does not sound like crap because I brought in something better. Yeah but most of the time the stuff you bring in is not that much different from the basic set. The better way would be to reduce the volume of the way you hit the drums so they open up and let cymbals breath by using less than powerful strikes. A good rule of thumb IS: If you cannot hear your kick drum, lower the volume of the snare and cymbals until you hear your kick. Why? The Kick sets the beat of the whole band and if you cannot hear it then your whole band is not in proper time.
4) Vocals should get 90% of the PA with 10% going to the kick drum. Thats it. To an extreme, I even bring a separate PA designed for vocals without the meddlesome 15 and 18 inch PA drivers which makes vocals sound 'tunog jeep'. Vocals should be warm and always have the highest volume which means that all the other band members should bring down their volume to make the vocals audible. If your band cannot do that even for metal, you have a lousy group.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES for small and medium venues:
1) Use as little sound reinforcement as possible because nothing sounds as good as amps designed for your instrument. In the same way, nothing sounds as good your drum shell except a better made drum shell. Believe it or NOT cymbals are meant to explode so volume adjustment is really a function of sticking technique.
2) Reduce the number of monitors to close to zero. This lessens the conflicting sound waves on stage.
3) Musicians should listen to each other's instruments in the context of the soundstage -- that is how volume is projected and mixed on stage (do not leave this to the lousy engineer because he is NOT inside the band's sound bubble). After all, you interact as a band and amplification is one way to interact.
4) Sound quality first before volume.
5) Always buy the most expensive equipment you can afford. 90% of the time they deliver. Buy boutique tube amps that sound great. Buy the best sounding bass guitar cabinets.
6) Vocals comes first -- nothing beats hearing a great sounding singer because thats a gift from God. AND there are better vocal mics out there other than Shure!!!
7) The Less soundwaves on stage the better to contribution of a more solid and clear sound which means monitors mess with the soundstage. If you cannot hear each other, either you are deaf or you are too loud -- in either case I suggest you quit as a musician.
OPTIONAL: I know I can get flak from drummers but nobody does Crashes better than PAISTE - they have the most musically and smoothest sounding crashes. Also, sa pinas -- to discipline mga drummers na sobrang lakas at walang awareness sa banda, I arm the drum set with PAISTE RUDES. Why? Because the cymbals are so thick that it tires the most overly enthusiastic drummer and eventually a tired drummer creates the correct soundstage and cut for cymbals. Believe it or Not!