Live Sound

[jake]

Hey all, question for ya. I am finally for the 1st time dialed in and in love with my tenor setup. I’m playing my Guardala Fatboy thanks to Johnny. I had a Guardala in the past from WWBW which I sold as it was in no way near these Guardalas. I took a chance on Johnny and other members recommendations and am glad I did. I have 3 Theo wanne, a Berg Larson, Meyer, Vandoren, and a few others I am going to part with. I really believe that is saying a lot for this Guardala!!
Anyways, on to my question. I have a live gig I got hired to play at the end of June with a guitar player. I’m really excited for this. I recently purchased a boss ve-20 vocal processor. I want to hone in my sound a little more to get closer to that 80’s sound. From other comments I have read I am adding a little reverb, little delay, but the sound is lacking. When I add reverb it very easily starts sounding as I’m playing in a well, don’t want that sound.
Any recommendations for setting up a sound for live playing?? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!! This boss has a multitude of options to tweak the sounds!!

[Mark Kiziuk]

Hey Jake! Just want to say I am very happy for you with your live gig coming up! The music that you played for us last time was very well polished! And now your making money from it now! That makes you a Pro! Way to go Jake!
Mark

[Mark Kiziuk]

Im glad you took Johnnys advice about the mouthpiece. He’s my biggest mentor, and I really look up to him!

[jake]

Thanks Mark. Keep up the practicing and you will soon be there too. I’ve been at it for a lil over 3 1/2 years now. Time flys. What’s nice is do some recordings. Even if you don’t share them keep them for yourself and go back and listen. Great way to track ur progress.

[Mark Kiziuk]

Thanks Jake!

[Kevin]

Jake, does the processor have a good equalizer? and have you messed with e-q-ing the sound to slightly favor those frequencies that enhance the tone? The reverb should help in filling out the sound some, but as Johnny has stated you don’t need much. I’m not one to help much on this topic, but wanted to mainly see if you had used the EQ in your experimenting…

[jake]

There are may presets and settings on the pedal. Delays, reverb, tones (low, mid, high adjustments), gain, distortion, harmonies. These aren’t just on/off, they all vary in the amount, usually 1-100, so it gives quite a range for adjusting. I may have to have a friend over to listen and play with settings while I play the sax. Really hard to hear from behind the sax. There is no EQ persay on the pedal.
Looking for what kind of effects were used back then? I specifically got this pedal as a recommendation as its suits it better than guitar pedals. Gives some really cool effects for sure. I’m trying to hone in a specific sound for my setup.

[Michael]

Hi Jake,
Good for you to get a Vocal processor, can’t go wrong there. Sounds like you’re headed in the right direction. Generally speaking, we wanna make sure these features like Delay & Reverb don’t overshadow our own performance. That old saying that less is more is a good rule to follow–use these things as a means to enhance your performance v.s. going crazy with these effects. Some guys rely too much on them and when we go too aggressive with these effects, it can actually turn people off. The best thing you can do is like you said to have a friend over and experiment. Your guitar playing friend would be the ideal guy to listen to you.

[Michael]

I forgot to mention, try playing with the Chorus effect, just a little bit, on your Vocal processor–when you add this with Reverb, it can really help enhance/fatten up the sound.

[Bill Mecca]

There is no one perfect reverb setting, it all depends upon the room you are playing in, most will have natural reverb, some can be like mud, and you will need to use the equalizer as well. Some rooms are harder/brighter and others are darker, you have to adjust. The same settings will sound different in one room to another. My rule of thumb is to knock the highs down a bit, boost the mids a touch and leave the bass alone (if you only have those controls, if you have more, season to taste), and add in a touch of reverb, and then wait for the audience to ask tell you why they can’t hear you because the drummer is bashing his brains out and the guitar and bass are turned up to 12. 😉

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