Festival vs pub amp volume

fastonebaz

When you play on stage at a festival how loud do you set your amp in comparison to a typical pub gig? 

100% same
75% of pub
125% of pub

Etc

I find I'm running at around 90% of pub volume 

Vaiai

Depends if you mic up in pubs - we don't but in other venues we do and on stage vol is usually lower so for a festival it's be the same - PA does the work!

Danny1969

Generally the same volume regardless of where .... quite lowish and always mic'ed as most of the guys are on IEM's. 

Decent monitor mix is hard to get at most festivals when all you get is a quick line check.  Cranking the amp up onstage just makes hearing the monitors harder. Tempting though it can be when your in a big field

maltingsaudio

It depends on the festival, if you’ve got a big festival pa behind you with plenty of monitors then turn everything down, if your on a trailer with boxes on sticks turn everything up and drink a lot of cider

koneguitarist

Bigger the gig smaller the amp, smaller the gig bigger the amp. 
Simple. 
At least that's my theorey anyway.
a 50w 2 12 combo is fine cranked in a pub with loads of people and no stage and no mic'ing up. 
Big stage where engineer is right out front, small combo Mic'd or DI'd makes it so much easier for engineer to get a good mix. 

fastonebaz

I played a festival last night and had my stage volume too loud initially,  loads of feedback.  Got another one tonight so will defo be quieter. 

ICBM

Same volume. I've always thought the idea is to get a good acoustic balance with the drums and the bass amp no matter what stage you're on, then amplify that to the level the venue requires- whether that's backline-only for a small pub gig or through a mega-watt PA for an outdoor festival.

The real problem I've found playing on big stages and especially outdoors is not volume, it's that small amps can sound *very* small and boxy on stage and make it hard to get into the 'this sounds right' zone, even if it's actually fine through the PA and the monitors.

steven70

ICBM said:

Same volume. I've always thought the idea is to get a good acoustic balance with the drums and the bass amp no matter what stage you're on, then amplify that to the level the venue requires- whether that's backline-only for a small pub gig or through a mega-watt PA for an outdoor festival.

The real problem I've found playing on big stages and especially outdoors is not volume, it's that small amps can sound *very* small and boxy on stage and make it hard to get into the 'this sounds right' zone, even if it's actually fine through the PA and the monitors.

This- exactly. Same volume but maybe a different cab. Even an 'open back' can get lost on a big stage - surprising how much bounces off the back wall in a pub.  

fastonebaz

For last night's festival I set thr amp slightly lower than a pub gig and boosted my signal in thr monitor.  Everything sounded perfect and no feedback.   Don't normally mic amp in pub so need it loud enough to hear above thr drummer. 

theimageofall

My experience is usually the sound guy at a festival asking for the amp to be turned down on stage and relying on monitors for the majority of the on stage sound.

I don’t play massive festivals with huge stages though, so that may be a different experience again!

ESBlonde

I like to keep the band volume steady so we can all hear adequately. Those 'festivals' on the back of a curtain side trailer in a pub back garden tend to be slightly louder pub type volume. Proper festival stages where you get a line check if you're lucky are pub gig or quieter to give you the chance to hear irrispective of the monitor mix and give the FOH engineer a settled mix to work with.

I recommend bands place all backline close to the drum kit despite the size of the stage, it feels more familiar than spreading out and then trying to communicate in a strange environment where time to prepare is short.

ICBM

theimageofall said:

I don’t play massive festivals with huge stages though, so that may be a different experience again!

It's hilariously weird at first if you've only ever played typical indoor gigs and maybe a small outdoor stage. You suddenly realise that a 20' cable from your pedalboard to your amp isn't going to be enough if you want to be at the front of the stage, that your amp sounds like a transistor radio, and your bandmates seem to be in the next country...

I should say my experience has only been very low down the bill at mega-multi-band festivals, not exactly as a major act headliner . And once when I accidentally played to 150,000 people and live national TV for about thirty seconds while stage tech'ing .

theimageofall

ICBM said:

theimageofall said:

I don’t play massive festivals with huge stages though, so that may be a different experience!

I should say my experience has only been very low down the bill at mega-multi-band festivals, not exactly as a major act headliner . And once when I accidentally played to 150,000 people and live national TV for about thirty seconds while stage tech'ing .

Ha - awesome!

Lebarque

Ignore the amp volume disguise. The sole reason for this thread is for @fastonebaz to show off that he's played a couple of festivals recently. ;0)

fastonebaz

@Lebarque that's outrageous

No it was a serious question.   At festivals there is 10 mins to set up and start playing,  no sound check and I was curious what the feeling was for volume. 

Now get back to stretching out your g string

mudslide73

I'm not keen on doing them - there's so little time to set up. The sound people are good at asking you to turn down but not so good at giving enough monitor level. I'm very keen indeed on low stage volume but you've got to be able to hear yourself at least. 

We did a marquee wedding about 10 years ago without micing the backline and I played the second half with my 50w JCM900 on 9. The sound just kept on going until it hit the next village.

digitalscream

koneguitarist said:

Bigger the gig smaller the amp, smaller the gig bigger the amp. 
Simple. 

This.

At a small gig with no reinforcement, you have no choice as to the volume - you have to be heard over the snare and cymbals, and enough for the whole pub to hear it.

At a festival, on a big stage, you can set the volume to exactly what's needed to make the right sound and nothing more. You're not even relying on your amp for on-stage sound - there's no way it's going to fill it, so don't even try and just rely on monitors.

drwiddly

I did a festival a couple of years ago where backline cabs were provided. On my side of the stage there were 6 Marshall 4x12's. I just used two as I'd only brought one amp!