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GUITARLIVE SOUNDWeymouth, UK

How do you keep stage volume under control in a small pub?

owenliversidgeSoundcheck

Small pub stages can get out of hand very quickly: guitar amp beside the drummer, bass cabinet firing at knee height, wedges competing with the backline, and nobody able to hear the vocal clearly. I have had better results since treating stage volume as a band arrangement problem rather than asking the sound engineer to fix everything at the desk.

My current approach is to raise or tilt guitar amps towards the player, keep bass low-end out of the vocal mics, ask the drummer to balance the kit acoustically, and build the monitor mix around vocals first. We also try to agree a sensible maximum amp setting during soundcheck and avoid turning up once the room fills.

What practical changes have made the biggest difference for your band? I am especially interested in solutions that work when there is little or no dedicated front-of-house engineer.

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Replies

plastiqueboutiqueukSoundcheck

Tilting the guitar amp is probably the cheapest improvement. A player often turns up because the speaker is aimed past their legs, while the audience receives the full beam. An amp stand or even a solid chair can make the perceived level on stage much more useful without increasing the room level.

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juvanieminuzaSoundcheck

We put vocals into the monitors first and only add instruments when someone genuinely cannot hear them. In a tiny room the drums, guitar and bass are usually already present acoustically. Filling every wedge with the whole band just creates another layer of noise.

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