peavey bandit 75 for gigs?

Squidgy Black

we're playing in the thinktank in temple bar in about a month,
and since it's our first gig, we were wondering would the bandit be loud enough?
the venue holds about 300 people, and it should be more or less full.

Sandvich

Yes. They will almost invariably have a PA if not.

Squidgy Black

sweet, thanks.

Sandvich

Also, it's not just about "Loudness" in a gig. To stand out in a mix, you might need to turn up the mids(especially the higher mids) more than you normally would. If you have an EQ or anything throw that in the loop. Look up "Fletcher Munson curve", and shape your EQ basically the opposite of that. That will help you stand out no end. A lot of people newer to guitar and amps will scoop the mids to get an apparently "Heavier" tone. Your Boss SD-1 will give you a natural midboost too, use it to make leads stand out.

CianRyan

Ugggh, I hate scooped mids...

sorry, O.T.

Sandvich

CianRyan wrote: »

Ugggh, I hate scooped mids...

sorry, O.T.

They can be alright on a record. If you've ever heard a Big Muff on a record, or really any fuzz, it's probably scooping the mids. Same with most acoustic guitar Piezo pickups. Some scooped metal tones can be alright too.

Live it just disappears in the mix unless you have a 100 watt tube amp through a 4x12.

Eoin Madsen

Almost all amps have a dip in their middle frequencies by design, even with flat tone settings, so cutting mids is definitely a bad idea. But if you don't muddy up your tone with cheap equipment or pedals your guitar will stand out in the mix just fine. Electric guitars are not subtle sounding. Trust the engineer and don't make his or her job harder by trying to mix from the stage (or worse, the practice room). A guitar that's a bit quiet is easy for an engineer to bring out in the front of house PA - a guitar that's too loud on stage will kill the vocals and the whole mix, and there'll be nothing the engineer can do about it short of jumping on stage and turning you down. I'd probably do it, but most engineers will just let you suck. :pac:

Sandvich

Eoin Madsen wrote: »

Almost all amps have a dip in their middle frequencies by design, even with flat tone settings, so cutting mids is definitely a bad idea. But if you don't muddy up your tone with cheap equipment or pedals your guitar will stand out in the mix just fine. Electric guitars are not subtle sounding. Trust the engineer and don't make his or her job harder by trying to mix from the stage (or worse, the practice room). A guitar that's a bit quiet is easy for an engineer to bring out in the front of house PA - a guitar that's too loud on stage will kill the vocals and the whole mix, and there'll be nothing the engineer can do about it short of jumping on stage and turning you down. I'd probably do it, but most engineers will just let you suck. :pac:

Or doing some phase inversion trick - I have a switch at the back of my Lunchbox cab, normally adding the extra cab makes it sound twice as big, but flipping the switch makes it sound half as big. Really weird because you can feel louds of sound coming out of the speakers when you put your hand up to it, but you can't hear it!

The problem is that most tube amps and even some SS amps have to be turned up fairly loud to sound good, and getting a lower wattage amps can be risky for clean headroom and for venues without PAs, or with crappy PAs. I'm thinking of using primarily SS amps for that reason(and my little AC4 for when I can mic up), though the Transtube stuff I'm looking at from Peavey still needs to be cranked a bit.

Eoin Madsen

Sandvich wrote: »

Or doing some phase inversion trick - I have a switch at the back of my Lunchbox cab, normally adding the extra cab makes it sound twice as big, but flipping the switch makes it sound half as big. Really weird because you can feel louds of sound coming out of the speakers when you put your hand up to it, but you can't hear it!

Destructive interference only works like that when two speakers are practically on top of each other. It can't be used in any useful way with a PA and an amp. It happens anyway at different frequencies at different amplitudes at different places in the room.

Sandvich wrote: »

The problem is that most tube amps and even some SS amps have to be turned up fairly loud to sound good, and getting a lower wattage amps can be risky for clean headroom and for venues without PAs, or with crappy PAs.

This is the eternal conundrum, indeed. But having the greatest guitar tone on earth isn't going to matter a damn if you're drowning out the vocalist. People will think you suck. :pac:

Eoin Madsen

I stopped doing live sound because it's a horrible series of compromises unless your venue is fantastic (read: not in this country). And bands really don't help. :pac:

Sandvich

Modeler to the PA the best solution? A lot of guitarists don't like that though. Reasonable volume SS/mid wattage tube amp mic'd up probably the best solution. I know that's how one guy I know does it.

CianRyan

Sandvich wrote: »

They can be alright on a record. If you've ever heard a Big Muff on a record, or really any fuzz, it's probably scooping the mids. Same with most acoustic guitar Piezo pickups. Some scooped metal tones can be alright too.

Live it just disappears in the mix unless you have a 100 watt tube amp through a 4x12.

Try a 120watt tube amp going through a 4x12.

I like a really gritty crunch sound for most of the songs I right, I usually leave my mid between 6-8.

Only time I've ever been into it is on Siamese Dreams by The Smashing Pumpkins.

Sandvich

They rarely used the Big Muffs live during Siamese Dream as they couldn't get them to cut. To be fair, it's not impossible as bands have been using Muffs live since forever. I think the problem is that they weren't using them to "Cut" in a mix a lot of the time, but create a wall of sound around it, and doing that effectively must have been difficult. They started using them later on though(around the Adore period I think), presumably when they got a bit better with their gear, though most of the albums are still using amps/preamps with a fuzzy voicing. They use a Fender Blender quite a bit though, it's actually more of a constant than the Big Muff so it's amusing that the Big Muff is the Smashing Pumpkins Fuzz. The FB is pretty associated with them at this stage though I'd say.

Eoin Madsen

Sandvich wrote: »

Modeler to the PA the best solution? A lot of guitarists don't like that though. Reasonable volume SS/mid wattage tube amp mic'd up probably the best solution. I know that's how one guy I know does it.

Well, not necessarily. When you only have a 3- or 4- band EQ on the desk, being able to exclude or attenuate certain frequencies by putting a particular mic on a given cab is a crucial part of making the mix. Direct sound for a guitar is often harder to work with. And you always want the guitarist to have their own sound source anyway, otherwise they'll need a lot more in the wedge. Then the vocalist can't hear themselves so they want more, and before long you have stage monitors feeding back. :pac:

A low-medium wattage valve amp is probably the way to go alright. With a PPIMV and a good attenuator, and a cab that still has a good response at low volume. Is that so much to ask for??