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I've played small parties outside before, but never a big gig. I have one coming up. I usually use an amp stand and tip it up so I can hear it and cut through. Should I do this for the outdoor gig? There will be competent sound men there and amps will will be miked.

If the amps are mic'd i would tilt the amp up at your head like a monitor if it is a combo... For outdoor shows i have played a few.. Outdoor shows i mostly use my 4x12 for the added bass on stage as in that open air a lot of smaller open back combos i own sound so thin outdoors while i'm playing. I use the stack just so i feel and hear better myself while i play... do the same..... use what will help you play better and feel better about your sound while play... have fun

WhoFan

The main thing with an outdoor gig is being mic'ed through the PA and having really great sound going out to the crowd,while keeping your stage volumes lower...If you can't be mic'd,you're all going to have to crank up really loud,which will kill your ears,and the crowd standing back a ways won't hear the band much...We just did an outside gig recently and we normally play smaller lounges,pubs,etc..so we know...

last outdoor gig i did (small backyard party), i did exactly what you are planning .. just tilt it up so you can hear yourself and let the PA do the hard work ... i sounded KILLER out front even though i wasnt thrilled with my sound on stage

have fun

cheers
t4d

In the summer period I play mostly quot;open air gigsquot; for a crowd up to 2500 people .

One advice to you is , make sure that you can hear your amp from where you are standing , don´t let the PA guy´s tell you ; to turn your volume down because the volume is comming in to high, and you will get the guitar sound from the monitors on stage. If they are pro´s they can deal with it

Because , than it´s out of your hands and you wil end up in not hearing yourself play in the middle of a gig . If that happens in the middle of a difficult solo you´re screwed

In the early days I had that problem a few times , nowadays we bring our own sound and light engineers , they know what the bands wishes are and how it must sound .

The gig will sound very different on stage than on smaller indoor gigs , I personally like the small pup indoor band sound better , less volume on stage = more control for the whole band

it's funny how things like this evolve ... for me, i've gotten to the point where as long as i can a) hear my guitar direct from my amp and am reasonably pleased with my sound, b) hear my vocals and all the other vocals in the monitors (for harmonies), and c) hear the drummer (never a problem) then i am good to go and let the sound guys take care of it out front .. i've given up on getting a balanced stage mix at a tolerable volume ... with 2 electric guitars, acoustic guitar, and keyboards all trying to fit into the same freq range, it just isnt gonna happen at our low $$ level rental PA amateur level

just play and have fun unless there is big $$$ involved to pay for higher quality sound

cheers
t4d


Originally Posted by tone4daysit's funny how things like this evolve ... for me, i've gotten to the point where as long as i can a) hear my guitar direct from my amp and am reasonably pleased with my sound, b) hear my vocals and all the other vocals in the monitors (for harmonies), and c) hear the drummer (never a problem) then i am good to go and let the sound guys take care of it out front .. i've given up on getting a balanced stage mix at a tolerable volume ... with 2 electric guitars, acoustic guitar, and keyboards all trying to fit into the same freq range, it just isnt gonna happen at our low $$ level rental PA amateur level

just play and have fun unless there is big $$$ involved to pay for higher quality sound

cheers
t4d

Exactly....Great posts guys! I've found that if I can get a good tone(that I can hear)on stage,and I don't worry as much about what's going out,that I play better...If I can hear the vocals so I know where my changes occur,and the overall band,then I'm fine....The guys running the mix to the crowd have to do their job for sure though...

i just played a big outdoor festival, and got by fine with my Mesa Blue Angel (18 watts)...and none of that was in the monitor. The amp was maybe on 3 or 4, and sounded great.
I like the PA people handle the volume from the PA.

Biggest outdoor gig i ever did was in front of estimated 8,000 when we went on and another 4,000 or more showed up as we played our hour long set. We played a Canada Festival for City Of Markham Ontario in 2001 and it was pretty extreme.. Just because of the volume of people there. We headlined the day long show but the people were not there to see us.... we happened to know the guy putting the show together and our asking price was right... $1000. Throughout the day they had kids performers, folk singers and then us at dusk before the fireworks. I hated my sound that night! I had my Peavey Classic 50 head into a small Marshall 1x12 cab.... I set it up clean and used a Boss OD for all distortion needs. A lot of the tunes were light rock with a slight country flavor.... Original tunes the singer wrote. I listen back to the cd of the show and i sound awful when i had the OD on..... i wish i had used the amps od channel instead. We played like dung too..

When you have a recording to hear yourself back it is not that great sometimes... Lots of mistakes. The Bass Player was a new player and he only remembered how to play tunes by remembering finger patterns and during one song he didn't even notice he had slipped his hand back one fret and was playing the lines flat! I missed my OD pedal for a little lead line and in my confussion i had way over bent the note and when i finally turned the OD on it came screaming on and sound like a train wreck....

But i do have to say all in all it was a pretty good first gig for a new band.... we broke up 3 months later

WhoFan