Hi all
I played at an outdoor event the other day, solo accompanied by my acoustic and a bit on a stage piano. Was fun and have always fancied trying to play in that kind of setting more regularly, but it reminded me of a few issues I always encounter and thought I'd ask here for any tips on how to get over them.
Basically, when I'm playing and singing at home or when I used to go to an unamplified folk music night, my playing and singing sounds better than when I'm amplified and with background noise. As soon as I'm stood behind speakers and I can no longer really hear my playing and singing acoustically that well, my pitching goes to pot and for some reason I seem to speed up as well which doesn't help. The last bit is probably just a confidence thing and me going into a bit of panic.
Admittedly there was not a monitor speaker at the event I played but I think even when there has been I've struggled with the disconnect a bit. I also think I have some level of misophonia where background noise disrupts my hearing of foreground noise - on the flipside I can often hear very quiet things that others around me cannot hear, as long as they are at the right frequencies.
Anyway, is there a best way to practise to try to overcome this issue that I can do at home? I don't have a lot of time to go to open mics and my music isn't necessarily suitable for those settings anyway.
Or would I be best looking to put together an IEM type setup with a preamp box that can handle the guitar and vocals, so I can hear myself in my ears and just give the sound guy an XLR output from it? As I'd be able to practice with that at home quite easily then and it would translate directly to an on stage setup.
Thanks
Comments
Also chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them.
I'm not sure if just using earplugs would work due to the instrument as well being a bit quiet but I suppose it's worth a go. Or worth considering not playing guitar lol
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Also chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them.
Do guitar and mic,
Seconded. I use one of these with a reasonably loud pub rock band. Much easier to pitch your voice than relying on spill from the main PA, and (perhaps surprisingly) I've found it better than wedges too (ours are EVs, so quite reasonable).
Downside is that although it cuts through, the sound is a bit harsh (as you might expect from a little 5" speaker).
The other downside is that it probably takes more than 20 seconds to set up so is maybe not ideal for a quick-change-over open mic type situation.
you could alternatively run a small mixer for both vocals n guitar to iems and direct to house feed too …
You can further compound that experience by applying reverb to your vocals so it sounds as alien to you as hearing yourself through a PA.
This should get you used to pitching secondary sound, rather than trying to hear your unamplified voice.
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Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after youWhen I record I do wear headphones (over ear not in ear, but suspect it could still work) and I'm happy with doing that. I normally like how my voice sounds when I record that way so looks like that will be the way forwards.
I think I saw a headphone amp/earbuds combo for sale in the classifieds so perhaps that's the way forward. I'm not sure a physical Monitor speaker would fully solve it, though it would be better than nowt I guess.
Is it just a case of being careful not to trip over the wires when using the IEMs then?
Say if I had my mic plugged into my TC Helicon Voicelive via XLR, guitar into the same via Jack lead. Dual mono output on the xlr outputs, one goes to the desk and the other to my headphone amp which is on my belt - I suppose you could tape the guitar cable and output cable together to reduce the trip hazard and they'd roughly go to the same place
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
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However if I were to find my mythical unicorn guitar (ie an electric that I could use instead of my acoustic for finger picking stuff) then that could also work. Interesting! Thanks
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
Do what you have to in order to give a great performance. I use a Bose PA so it can sit behind me and I can hear myself, while it also disperses the sound out to the audience at 180*. Something else I've done with a more traditional PA is use a small Fishman acoustic amp and put it on the ground in front of me. It can be used as a sort of DI with a pre-eq line-out to the PA.
I don't particularly want it to sound like an acoustic as such (or indeed a simulation of an acoustic), I just fancy something I could play finger picking on that isn't as massive a body as an acoustic, and would be just played clean through an electric amp (or amp model, in the case of the Voicelive). I only play acoustic really because that's what gets me more opportunities to play, but obviously then it's a bit cliché and I just sound like all the others who do the same. However playing Acoustic techniques on an electric sound nicely different and I'd hoped could result in me being a smaller bodied guitar as I'm a small guy and acoustic guitar bodies are quite hard work for me.
This is the kind of sound I mean
But that would have been on a Gibson L5 which is a massive archtop that costs more than my car. I like a rounder neck radius for electric playing with a chunky profile, but for the kind of Acoustic style playing I do I need a flatter radius and thinner profile (in terms of depth) but wide enough to have space for broken chords finger picking - so it's kind of out of my knowledge area and more than likely significantly above my available budget haha
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic