Playing a quiet stage (no backline)

Roland

Last night was a new one for me. We’ve been putting everything through the PA for a couple of years. Last night, for the first time, I didn’t turn up my backline, relying totally on IEMs. I can report that it worked. Suddenly the IEMs weren’t fighting against so much external volume, and I was able to hear more clearly.

Since we bought a digital desk we’ve been able to run individual IEM mixes. I’ve always run a guitar monitor because the IEM sound quality was so poor. Yesterday I figured out how to EQ an individual IEM mix. I knew it was possible, but finding these things from an iPad during soundcheck isn’t easy.

The down side is that I can no longer make my guitar feed back. We’ve got one song where I like to hold the guitar on the point of feedback. That isn’t going to happen any longer. Apart from that I’m feeling that I should have done this years ago.

Anyone else run a “quiet” stage? Are there any pitfalls that I haven’t notice in my enthusiasm?

ToneControl

you can buy a pedal or plugin to get feedback effects, not sure if enough audio would come back from the PA to make it work, but quite likely . I used to use the soft tube plugin about 8 years ago

or a fernandes sustainer

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

@Roland so what is your actual rig? Are you using a Helix/Kemper type modeller into the PA, or a more traditional board + amp but DI'd out to the PA with the amp's speaker off? Or something else entirely?

ICBM

http://www.bossarea.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/BossArea-Boss-DF-2-SUPER-Feedbacker-Distortion.jpg

This works even on a silent stage because it's not real feedback at all, it's essentially a monophonic synth oscillator that latches onto the frequency being played through it, and will generate a 'feedback' note without any acoustic volume at all.

I used mine exactly like that to do the 'feedback' intro of a song I played, in places where I couldn't use an amp at enough volume to do it naturally.

Sporky

Or a Sustainiac will give you something very much like acoustic feedback. 

Roland

Dontgiveupyourdayjob said:

@Roland so what is your actual rig? Are you using a Helix/Kemper type modeller into the PA, or a more traditional board + amp but DI'd out to the PA with the amp's speaker off? Or something else entirely?

AxeFX. Output1 goes to the PA, and Output2 goes to a Matrix Q12. That means I’ve got separate front panel knobs for both output volumes. Last night I ran with Output2 volume at zero, but with the Matrix powered up in case the IEMs went haywire. It was a new venue, right next to Rock City and the Rescue Rooms, and we weren’t sure how much electronic noise there would be.

Sporky said:

Or a Sustainiac will give you something very much like acoustic feedback. 

Yeah, a pedal isn’t going to do it because I like to get different harmonics going in the feedback. A Sustainiac might, but would mean changing pickup configurations. I’m not against building another guitar, but it’s not a quick fix.

Instead of a pedal I could set up a frequency tracker on my AxeFX. At this point I don’t have a spare button on my midi board, so it will mean adding another external button, or sacrificing something else. Again it’s not a quick fix.

An ebow would work. It would mean both picking up the device and messing with the guitar volume. That’s not going to be a smooth or instant transition.

This probably doesn’t need a technology solution. At this afternoons gig I’ll just lean down and turn up the Ouput2 volume when I want feedback. If that works then I could hook up another volume pedal just for Output2.