Outdoor Gig sounded great

[ReedR]

I played my first outdoor gig the V's a couple weeks ago and wanted to pass along how blown away I was with the sound. For those of you complaining of live sound... keep trying-- it's there, I promise. I've found that tweaking the kit sounds is a bit of an art since the sound range and dynmics you get through a PA is very different from the headphones, etc., that folks tend to practice through. Be sure and spend some time perfecting your sounds through a real PA before you do a live gig. Usually, playing outside with acoustics is pretty unpredictable and flat but with the V's I got a totally consistent and kicking sound that cut through better than any acoustic gig I've done outdoors. Very cool.

Cheers,
Reed

[Bagman]

It's nice to hear from someone who is happy with their e's at a live gig. I used mine inside and outside, and I'm pretty happy with them overall, although I am still working on some things (especially cymbal sounds). I have different settings for essentially the same kit (eg. Rosewood) that I save under three separate names for recording, rehearsal and live, because as you pointed out, there is a huge difference between what you hear in you headphones vs. what comes out of the PA and monitors. I found that if I am willing to change settings to accomodate the venue, I can get some good results. My bandmates are funny, though. They will ask me to tone down the snare because its to "ringy" and then two weeks later ask me to add more ring because its too flat. I smile and try to accomodate them, but it gets a bit circular sometimes.

What kind of music did you play. How big was the crowd? Any details on guitar amps, PA and monitor setup? Did you use any outboard effects? I'm asking because how good our e's sound is a relative thing, and I think we all need to know as much about the other musicians rigs and the PA and monitor setups as we can, in order to get a good balanced sound. When we play e's, we are in the electronic music world much more than we were when we played our a's, even if they were mic'ed. For example, a good guitar can get a "crappy" sound if it is being overwhelmed (or underwhelmed) by everybody else's amps.

[V-Junkie]

I think you are right, I finally found a decent tweaking on the TD-10 using the same PA in the same size venue and dialed it in about 20 minutes.

I then tried some onboard ambience, and mostly adjusted the outboard gear to finalize the sound (BBE, Compressor/expander/gate, MPX-1).

Sounds as good as my Pearl Sessions live.

[V-Junkie]

Like sex - it all starts with a little "push". If you really want the V's to sound great, just keep trying and experimenting till you get it right!

[gingerbaker]

How does it end?

[Bagman]

with a smile