sounds of a musician - part 1

Today the topic will be on volume, as a guitarist, the volume level we play upon shall inflict on the band itself in which it reflects the current position you are playing. How good your solo will be if your sound are drowned by the drummer's cymbals? How good will your vocalist be if it is drowned by the sound of the guitarist? And the worst mistake is a drowned bassist. Which ever situation i face during a peformance, i will not care on those petty factors such as the search for true tone anymore as our sound are all miked up to the mixer and released by the soundman. This ultimately means that if your sound man is good he will be able to balance it out quickly, if they are not good this in which most of the time we face, you're fucked. Simple as that.

But wait, then what does a musician need to do then you ask? Well, simple thing we need to do is to level the volume of every equipment, which is the case called sound check. playing a tune one by one is not going to cut it. You'll need to play at least an entire chorus to hear the full potential of it. it's the simple case of a jamming room, you'll need to be able to hear yourself and everyone else on the stage without being too loud or too soft, simple as that. Most bands i know who goes on stage to sound check are afraid to show their full song as they didn't want to expose their masterpiece too early, they would either play only a chorus or another song during sound check. I would say be careful because different songs requires different settings most of the time. Why do i say so? Not all songs use the same settings, some bands do and it's a bleessing but some versatile band doesn't and it's kind of a hassle to even it out at the end of the day.


Simple guide on guitar tone

A basic comparison between a solo tone and a rythm tone are that they are two different thing in this world, one is meant to jump out on specific time in the song and one is meant to be a supporting structure to the vocals and other instruments in the band. Different amplifiers have different tones, don't tell me your marshall sounds like an ibanez amplifier. It will definitely colour your guitar sound at the end of the day, you will need some time to level out the volume and eq the settings to match your favourite tone. Even if you are using a high end digital modeler such as the line6 pod series, boss gt series, or Digitech modelers. It's a different sound for each modelers and it will definitely affect the other instruments in the way it is presented. Sharper sounds will definitely be better for solo, boosted midrange are good but will be drowned if drummer goes high on cymbals, usually i will use boosted midrange and boosted low end for that low chuncky thick end sound of the chuga chuga chuga rythm. For a solo tone i will lower the bass and midrange and boost the treble massively, this way it doesn't mess the rythm part of the song while soloing, a bit of bass wont hurt though. Else I'll be drowning everyone when i play on solo. The best part about digital modelers are that they have a volume pedal built in, it is best used to lower or boost your sound at the stage, especially if you feel that your solo is drowning everyone on stage or it's too low. It's the same concept if you have a set of distortions and you fix a volume pedal to the front or the end of it. Part 2 coming up