fullstack

[Hardcore_metal4ever]

i would have posted this in the tech room execpt it looks like nobody goes into it.

 

i have a crate gt1200 fullstack and most the time when i play it as the whole stack in crowds around 400-500 people nobody can hear me.. i have it cranked aover a little more than half way, actually now that i think about it the 2 times i used the stack was runned by the same people who refused to mic my amp, yet people in the crowd complain all they hear is drums and vocals, and another weird thing is that my rhythm player seems to crank out a little more and hes running a 2x12 crate with the same specs as my stacks head, i need some help because i am doing everything right to the best of my knowledge, could it be because i played outside the one time and in a gym the other, because i know its not my eq, or when we played clubs who miced my amp then it would have sounded crappy which it didnt. thanks for reading

[musicalhair]

Hey man, welcome to the forum! You should have posted this in the guitar forum, the tech forum I think is for guys fixing gear or building gear on their own-- and living to tell about it. Even in a forum that is "low traffic" people would have seen it though.

 

When I did sound I always mic'ed the guitar amp even if I knew in advance that they guy played real loud and I'd never have to raise his fader on the mixing board. If the same guys worked two of your shows then he must have felt that you were loud enough the frist time to stick with not micing you the second-- either that or he didn't care or remembered.

 

As for why your not loud enough out in the audience, you should mention it to the sound guy before you go on in a reasonable way. The sound guy always hears from the guitarist that needs to be loud, that will go in one ear and out the other. Tell him that even though you have a "full stack", you don't crank it and would appreciate him micing it to make sure it gets in the mix. If you see the sound guy walking around the room and pausing to listen at various places during like the second or third song, then he might be doing his job.

 

As for what is going on with you and your amp's volume, well here goes:

 

1) the output of your guitar has a big impact,

2) your entire signal chain influences the output of the amp,

 

and

 

3) every knob's setting may impact the volume.

 

It is just too tough to call from here what is going on.

 

More importantly, where you sit in the mix also matters. If you and the other guitarist are basically sitting the same part of the frequency spectrum then your fighting a battle that shouldn't be fought. This involves a lot more than eq, and involves where you and the other guy are playing on the guitar and everything else that is going on. The fact that you guys are playing essentially the same amp sort of gives you an obstacle to overcome in terms of this "sitting in the same spot in the frequency spectrum" issue.

 

Some times this comes down to "attack" where just how you hit the strings compared to how he is hitting them and the impact your gear has on it. If the the amps are squishing everything, then that is a part of your problem.

 

I'm ASSuMing that you the lead guy playing single not lines while he is slamming out chords. You need to be set up so that when you smack a string it "punches" through the sound the rest of the band is making, but also so that the "punch" isn't pushing their sound out of the way-- that is always how I looked at it.

 

Also, sound travels in strange ways some times-- I'm sure it doesn't but it sure seems to sometimes. Without actually walking around and seeing how the mix sits across the whole place, you can't really know what is going on. Playing outside is tough to make a call on, where your amps are sitting and everything else matters. Sorry I've no actual answer, but think about these ideas and see if any of them apply to your situation. Also, really deal with this when you guys are rehearsing, making sure you are all "out of each other's way".