Trumpet Gig Rig

[indigruuv]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and need advice on building a gig rig for trumpet/flugelhorn.

 

I have 2 effects units: an Alesis Quadraverb, and a Digitech S-100. To this I would like to add a good workable EQ, a foot switch or other controller to switch patches and perhaps EQ settings, an amp to use as an auxillary monitor, and some means to adjust volume on the fly.

 

My goal is to have more control over my sound and to gain greater consistency from gig to gig.

Ultimately I would like to have the same sound on stage in my monitor loop as I do going to the house including any effects etc.

 

I also want to be able to adjust for switches from trumpet to flugel and to mute work without the delay in adjustment caused by innattentive soundpro.

 

Does anyone here have suggestions or experience with this type of setup?

 

Thanks

 

Freddie

[stanner]

i cant help but you should check out mark isham, one of the most electronic trumpet players out there. he has quite an elaborate setup-but i think thats the direction yer lookin for.

good luck

s

[indigruuv]

Thanks Stanner,

 

I checked out Mark Isham's website and it looks like I'm on the right track. However I don't really intend to go totally over the top with the electronics. I'm more interested in having tight control over my tone color and verb plus being able to vary my volume some from the stage to cover solos and mute work as well as to account for horn switches. Thanks for the referral to MI he sent me some good info that will help while keeping my outlay reasonable.

 

Indigruuv

[Tedly Nightshade]

I don't think you have a chance of having the monitoring sound anything to you like the sound sounds to the audience. First, you got all this bone conduction, so you're hearing things the audience will never hear, and loud, and second, you have a trumpet a foot from your ears, behind the bell, where the audience is hearing in front of the bell from many times the distance.

 

Almost certainly, the trumpet is loud and clear to everyone in the joint without any amplification at all, so whatever FX you are mixing in and whatever unaffected trumpet is being amplified are making a very loud instrument even louder. The trumpet itself sounds far, far superior to the nearly-clipped mic through various cheapo digital converters and back, then through the PA, so even though it might seem neat in theory you're mixing in a decayed digitized distorted sound that will never have the clarity and power of the acoustic trumpet, and will never mix with the acoustic trumpet- the trumpet itself will be clearly audible as a separate sound.

 

On less than a stadium scale, it's a losing proposition.

 

My opinion as a fellow horn player- there are lots cooler noises you can pull out of the acoustic horn with various mutes or without, plenty psychedelic and wild.

[Franknputer]

It sounds like what you need is a remote-controllable preamp system. That way you can have presets for trumpet & flugelhorn & mute, and then just send a single feed to the front for the PA.

 

IMO, trumpet & flugelhorn are similar enough to simply use a good-quality preamp, shared between the 2 (or, you could easily use a 2-channel pre with 2 mics, 1 for each horn). The mute, however, is going to be much lower, and is thus going to require a significantly different preamp setting. Adding individual EQ to each as well starts to get hairy - but with programmable units it's not hard at all (once you get it set up).

 

The the Summit Audio MPE200 programmable mic pre/equalizer, for example, is MIDI-capable, so you are able to switch between settings on the fly with a foot controller.

 

Now, it's not cheap - list is $5000, but it would go a long way towards achieving your goal. I don't have personal experience with the unit either, but Summit (and Rupert Neve, the designer) is known for good stuff.

 

Anyone have expeience with other remote-control preamps?

[Franknputer]

With regard to what Ted posted: it's true that trumpets are generally loud enough on their own, but still you want to get some in the PA if it's of any significant size, i.e. larger than a medium-sized club stage (it doesn't have to be a stadium!). Otherwise it doesn't blend with the other horns that are not as loud & are mic'd (assuming there are other horns, of course).

 

I have had very good experience with using an Audix D3 on trumpets. It's a very low output mic (meaning that, if placed side-by-side with, say, an SM57, the preamp gain would have to be cranked way up to get the same level out of the D3) but very clean, so it doesn't color the sound so much. By being low output I can run it alongside other types of mics & still run the preamp hard enough so that it doesn't sound anemic (as opposed to turning the gain way down). Gets the horn in the system without overpowering the other stuff very nicely, IMO.

[Tedly Nightshade]

How can you help getting the horn in the PA, if there's a mic on the stage anywhere?

[Franknputer]

For the same reason you mic a Marshall Stack.

 

Seriously - you can rely on ambient pickup in certain situations, but get outside on a medium-size stage & you'll quickly see the need. Like anything else, it depends on the actual situation. A good trumpet player will not take your head off with every note - and that's the guy who will most benefit from having a mic to add him into the mix.

 

Generally, I find it much easier to turn off a mic I don't need at the console than to scramble across the stage during a set to plug one in.