Played a bizarre wedding gig on Saturday, in that the venue insists on you using their in-house PA and NO amps or acoustic drums.
Basically, we took our mixer, into which everything had to go directly - Bass, electronic drums, all the vocal mic's and my guitar. Then that goes into two XLRs on the wall into their PA which automatically limits the volume. On the plus side, instead of cutting off when you hit the threshold, it just automatically compresses and limits the volume.
Had to use an amp modeller on my Zoom pedal to get a halfway decent guitar sound...and we are talking halfway decent at best, but needs must.
Anyone else played such a gig, with no amps?
Comments
My Saturday night gig was in a very small pub and I'm starting to think the no amp thing would be ideal for small venues .... I'm not sure what I would use, Vox Tonelab probably
Haven't used the move though - the bands I got them for fell through. LOL. But the two that work sound good in a DAW
But for me personally, it was a bit dull. It is hard to get excited,
I couldn't perform my usual stage act and I had trouble getting dynamics into the songs.
If I just wanted to be on stage, it is great - but I could just sing to a backing track instead. And I want excitement, creation art and mojo - and I just can't find that with everyone going through the pa.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
As Ben says above, the audience neither notice nor care, so it is all good.
Really great bit of kit, small and not silly money.
I was in a band about ten years ago when we decided to add a keyboard player. We got a guy who seemed ideal. He fitted in well and was very complimentary about what the band was doing - for a while. Then he started taking over and dictating: Everyone should go through the PA under his control, except the drums, and there was no need for monitors because PA speakers should be placed behind the band. All protests were brushed aside. The first gig with this setup was a total disaster with constant howling feedback. No surprises there. I was positioned about three feet in front of a PA speaker and my ears were hurting. At the post mortem everyone was to blame except the keyboard player apparently. Rather than go through more of the same I quit. Not a good experience.
The audience care not at all from whence the tone cometh. Everything sounds fine just using the Fender amp sim on a Zoom MS-50G - seriously, I've had compliments on my tone just using that pedal and a Squier. Nobody knows or cares I'm not using a Mesa or whatever. The rest of the pedal board plays fine with the Zoom.
The big elephant in the room is - the sound man. Because I have no amp I'm relying on the sound guy to give me a bit extra guitar in my monitors - you'd think I was asking them to turn water into wine, however easy it may appear on the surface, they always manage to feck it up. Either too loud or too quiet. So I'm constantly stood there like a divvy trying to catch the eye of the soundman while they wait at the bar / chat with their mate / fall asleep at the back. They always insist the front of house mix is fine, but my recordings prove otherwise. However, it would make no difference to the FOH mix if I brought an amp - it would just make me feel a bit better - so I end up having to play by sense of smell a lot of the time.
/rant
No much good to you as your not on ears though