coping with a loud band on stage

Paul Sutherland · Post by **Paul Sutherland** » 6 Mar 2018 11:45 am

I agree with the recommendation for custom fitted ear plugs. I have Westone brand, and they get used when needed.

However, the best solution in my opinion, if you must play with a loud band, is an in ear monitor system so you can set the volume where you want and get better tone. Unfortunately that is a fairly expensive option. I'm still trying to find the money to buy all the necessary components.

Greg Lambert · Post by **Greg Lambert** » 6 Mar 2018 7:05 pm

There are plenty of good musicians around ... dump the slugs and find another band. They will always push the sonic level.

Jeremy Threlfall · Post by **Jeremy Threlfall** » 6 Mar 2018 8:57 pm

As a one-off, I might just take my killer rig this Friday night (Dual Showman and 2x12 EVL) and give them a taste of their own medicine. I’m not normally a vindictive person, but a one-off learning experience might be just what they need!

Paul Sutherland · Post by **Paul Sutherland** » 7 Mar 2018 10:11 am

That is sort of like putting your high beams on to try to get the other guy to dim his, and refusing to dim yours until he does. So you're both blind.

Stage Rage is about as effective as Road Rage.

Don't do it.

Bill C. Buntin · Post by **Bill C. Buntin** » 7 Mar 2018 11:44 am

Jeremy Threlfall wrote:As a one-off, I might just take my killer rig this Friday night (Dual Showman and 2x12 EVL) and give them a taste of their own medicine. I’m not normally a vindictive person, but a one-off learning experience might be just what they need!

Jeremy,

It never worked for me. It became a wattage contest is all.

If you are battling with a lead guitarist, you cannot win, because the lead guitarist is mobile and can step away from the 130+dB, compared to us who are stationary.

End result, for me, in addition to hearing loss and permanent damage, was me quitting those kinds of bands and/ or getting fired because I complained.

I worked with a band one time where at the first break a guy came up to me and said, "great drummer, but I can't hear the music". I said, "Glad you like drums". I quit that nite.

This very subject is why I don't work anymore. Around my part of the world, most all of the "bands" if you want to call them that, are like this and play overdriven, over-amplified, over-synthesized, obnoxiously arranged "noise" to the point that it is what I call "death by un-music".

~Bill~

Paul Sutherland · Post by **Paul Sutherland** » 7 Mar 2018 12:02 pm

I call it playing for blood money.

Greg Lambert · Post by **Greg Lambert** » 7 Mar 2018 7:15 pm

Jeremy Threlfall wrote:As a one-off, I might just take my killer rig this Friday night (Dual Showman and 2x12 EVL) and give them a taste of their own medicine. I’m not normally a vindictive person, but a one-off learning experience might be just what they need!

LOL , I have done that before with my NV400 pointed right at the drummer. He got mad.

Warren Tavernia · Post by **Warren Tavernia** » 9 Mar 2018 5:07 pm

I`ve read all the replies on this thread and no one said any thing about suggesting that the entire band be miked thru the pa and turn the stage volume down to a healthy level it`s either that or take them out back and Smash their fingers lol It`s hard to believe that there isn`t any one in the whole band with any respect for their band mates. and are so erogant that they all think they are stars and could care less. A head scratcher for shure.

gary pierce · Post by **gary pierce** » 9 Mar 2018 5:48 pm

My wife used an Iphone decible app once on our band and it was 104, 20' from the stage. I went and bought some Ear Peace plugs, and they help, but they seem to just muffle the noise.

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 9 Mar 2018 9:44 pm

What Warren said. just didn't see the thread until tonight.

Nearly every place I played (until I had to stop gigging due to some physical issues) had a sound system and mic'd virtually everything (not necessarily individual drum mics, but at least a kick, snare and overhead). Exceptions were very small clubs where volume issues just didn't exist anyway.

The best situations - and becoming increasingly more common - were those with in-ear monitor systems that had individual mixes. Whoever was working the board only had to make sure each instrument/voice got to the mains and monitor system and then only had to be concerned with the mains and mixing monitor "sectors" with each instrument having equal levels (a simple job) - then the players handled their own individual mixes.

"volume competition" doesn't exist and the problems evaporate.

Jeremy Threlfall · Post by **Jeremy Threlfall** » 10 Mar 2018 12:59 am

Oh, everything is mic’d up properly, monitors etc.

I gave them a blast of Steel King at much louder than normal volumes and directed it across the stage rather than at me. I was (predictably) asked to turn it down after the first song. I played the rest of the show very quietly - too quietly, really, for me to hear myself properly. They were happy with that - I may as well not have been there... I did manage my ears with my cheap $30 plugs, and it was ok (a bit of a wet blanket).

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 10 Mar 2018 5:09 am

Jerry Dragon said it - bad musicians don't know HOW to play softly, they're unaware of "intensity" as being changeable by something other than volume. I mostly snorked the +5K range in my left ear playing bass, standing next to aptly-named "crash" cymbals; it has now made playing with any drummer too unpleasant, you're supposed to like what you're doing.

I think it's possible that bass playing in general makes you a little more aware of tension-inducing timing changes, pushing and pulling; if you try to discuss this with band members and they don't know what you're talking about, leave. @ssholes tend to not only play at @sshole levels, but play like @ssholes and act that way too.

Harsh but true, every problem old people tell you is going to get worse with age is true. I don't do tinnitus but I could if I wanted to play loud enough to kick it off. And (worse) a few mostly-deaf people I used to play with now sort-of hate music.

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 10 Mar 2018 10:45 am

This topic seems to pop up more than a carney whack-a-mole. Every time, with the same solutions to the problem.

There are these options, if you are in a loud band:
-Quit
-Get ear plugs
-Use IEM’s
-Turn up
-Turn down
-Discuss it with band mates
-Get tinnitus, or other hearing-loss malady
-Make the drummer the lead singer

Done.

Jeff Harbour · Post by **Jeff Harbour** » 12 Mar 2018 7:16 am

I've played in plenty of loud bands. My solutions are:
*I use an amp stand that tilts my amp towards my ear.
*I use reuseable ear plugs that I can back slightly out of my ear (to hear the natural sound more), depending on how loud the band is (and how loud I am having to be).
*I use a smooth compressor to punch through and avoid half of my notes from being swallowed up.

For the compressor I use a rack-mount DBX compressor, it is very smooth. This is a different application than when I occasionally use an MXR pedal compressor (which I use to punctuate my attack). The DBX simply 'makes your quiet notes easier to hear'. Despite popular belief, it DOES NOT make all your notes sound the same and remove your dynamics... It just makes you sound more professional. For very quiet settings (no drums, mostly acoustic, etc.), I don't use compression at all, but for loud settings it helps a lot.