What is your band's sound setup?

[9lbShellhamer]

• Band Size:
  
• Style of Music
• Instruments used:
• Mics or Pickups and # of such:
• Typical Setting for your band:
• Are you happy with your setup?:

I'll start;

Band Size: 5
Style: Newgrass
Instruments used: Guitar, Standup Bass, Mandolin, Fiddle, Banjo
Mics or Pickups and # of such: 9 Mics, mostly Beta 57 and 58's with a Sm57 and 58. We have a 16 channel Yamaha mixer. 1000w powered speakers. ..
Typical Setting for your band: Mostly we play in loud bars, with some weddings tossed in too.
Are you happy with your setup?:
Our setup is prone to feedback but it's ok. I'm trying to focus more on all of us miking closer and placing our mics at the appropriate angles from the monitors, (like not pointing the beta 57's at the monitors, they should be at 60 degrees I think.) I've contemplated getting an pickup, but my mando mic seems to usually be ok. We have a dedicated sound guy we hire for most gigs, but I still like to educate myself and help to get better sound from our setup. People make comments that we have a ton of mics, etc, but we have 4 singers and so 4 vocal mics and 5 instrument mics. It works for us, but its hard and requires constant monitoring. I guess all live sound is hard. We make ours work. I suppose the easiest way to play loud bars is to have pickups in most instruments and only have vocal mics.


(In this venue the sound was amazing... It was also a great room acoustically, and the sound guy was awesome and is dedicated to the room nightly... The speakers were located far from the mics, etc. It was a night to remember!)

[pops1]

One of the best things I did years ago was to make every mic the same. Now there is no one mic hotter than another or hotter in a different frequency and it simplified the feedback problem by a lot. These days we plug in and use a couple mics for vocals. Simple (old man) sound system, easy to carry and setup.

[Charlieshafer]

For instruments, I'd go to inexpensive pencil condenser mics, but only for the weddings. You can get a little further away and get a more natural sound. For loud bars, yeah, I think pickups, as much as I don't like the sound, might not be a bad way to go. One downside of the bar scene is the small stage area for that many guys. All the microphones mushed together can get a lot of bleed from one instrument to the next, making for a muddy sound, tough to control. Pickups help alleviate that. If stages are big enough for physical separation, that helps a lot.

The picture of the stage you added shows a nice bit of room between everything, and some space before the monitors. Mics work well there, but I think you might like the sound and flexibility of the pencils (I use the Avantone CK 1, but there are a bunch very similar in price and quality, all very good). The sound is nice and clear, and you don't have to get up so tight like on the m57's, or have the gain up so high.

Again, in a small stage/loud bar, might be a mess! For that, my preferred are the clip-on mics over pick-ups, but that might start getting pricey.

[Jim]

Four piece, guitar,bass (electric), fiddle & mandolin. Gibson bass plugged into a 20 watt Marshall, in a quiet room a MXL 990 or two run into a kustom pa with 2 to 4 , 10 inch speakers on stands. Louder rooms we mic the fiddle and the bass amp with Shure sm57s , plug the guitarests Taylor direct to a Yamaha or Behringer board and run the piezo bridge p/u on the mandolin through a Behringer adi 21 into the board. Two singers through sm58s and some kustom powered speakers for monitors. Works just fine and is easy to pack.

[onassis]

4 piece - guitar, stand-up bass, banjo, mando - w' all 4 singing. Preferred set-up is bass into fender bass amp, guitar plugged in, clip-on condenser for banjo, mando into a stand-mounted pencil condenser (shared by banjo for solos). One LD condenser for vocals. Yamaha powered speakers and a Soundcraft UI12 digital mixer. We do a lot of outdoor market type gigs and private parties, and this whole thing sets up in about 15 minutes. The digital mixer is fabulous, 3 or 4 settings saved for various situations, just make sure you plug the right input into the right channel. For noisy indoor situations, we'll move to a 3 or 4 SM57 set-up for vocals.

[Astro]

4 piece.

3 vocal mics (all different and yeah we squabble over the volume every time).

One guitar, One mandolin, one banjo, and one cajon.
All instruments are plugged in.
Sometimes banjo changes to bass with bass amp. Sometimes mando changes to octave mando or guitar-all run on separate cables that are pre sound checked so no big interruption.
The cajon is mic'd with kick drum mic.
The stage gets crowded. Usually 2 or 3 instrument stands.
We try to keep each voice and instrument on the same designated mixer input channel number no matter where we play or what mixer we use.

The PA depends on venue. We have 2. One is big powered amp and passive speakers/monitors and the other is small digital with powered speakers. Lately we have gone from big and complicated to sparse and simple because everyone in the band is pretty lazy and we're not exactly racking it in anyway and no one we play for seems to care what we sound like. Its good enough. Yeah we're burning out a bit.

So lately we've ditched the monitors and just turn one PA speaker back on ourselves so we hear what the audience hears. We've figured it out or just get lucky as we never have feedback issues. (ok occasionally we get it from the cajon mic but we jump on it).

On venues where we have to run sound, its usually noisy bars. We have one weekly spot that is an outdoor stage for a beach bar/food shack type thing. More and more now we are playing places that have their own sound. Some are so ####ty we consider bringing our own, but then we remember we are really, really lazy so we conveniently forget. We have one spot we play about once every other month that has a fantastic sound system and stage with lights and comes with a professional sound man who tweaks us the whole night through. What a refreshing luxury that is. We always sound so much better there. And they pay pretty good and have good food and beer. And wonderful air conditioning. We love that spot and the staff loves us but they are national/corporate run and dont like to book too many rerun acts.

[Willie Poole]

4 pieces, guitar, banjo, bass and mandolin...One condenser mick for vocals and one each for banjo and mandolin and guitar, fed into a mixer/preamp and then into a Bose L-I sound system, not many feed back problems at all....When setting up the system I slowly turn up the gain until it starts to feed back and I look at the EQ indicating lights to see what frequency needs to be squelched and I adjust the EQ so that it is eliminated..... Takes time but in the long run it is well worth it....

Willie

[Tavy]

4 piece, guitar/vocal, mandolin/cittern, cahon and saxophone. Guitar goes to Roland acoustic amp and then to PA, mandolin (or cittern) K&K pickup to pre-amp and then the PA. Cahon and sax are not generally amplified as they're pretty much as loud as the PA anyway. Generally play smallish pub venues where "stage" space is very much at a premium. So setup and numbers of leads needs to be as simple as possible. Playing a theatre plus one festival later in the summer, might try and take more gear for those... or might not... we'll be using the venue's PA at both so there's a need for simplicity there too as we don't have our own sound man.

[almeriastrings]

Varies a bit....

But, generally....either duo (2 guitars, guitar + mandolin, mountain dulcimer, banjo) plus guests.

Mixer: Mostly QSC Touchmix (8 or 16)
Speakers: Mains - QSC K10's, Monitors QSC K8's.
Mics: Depends on venue, but combinations of AT 5400, AT5100, DPA 4099, ATM 350, and in difficult venues EV PL80a vocal mics and EV 486 instrument mics. Sometimes AKG C535's or Blue Encore 300's... depends on the stage (and what I feel like using!). Very little 'outboard' these days... I do have a DBX AFS2 for 'Rooms from Hell'...
DI's: Mostly Orchid and Radial (I do not plug anything in myself).

[Mandoplumb]

One ribbon mic into tube pre-amp then to different amps depending on room size or outdoors. Four and sometimes 5 instruments. (guitar, mandolin, banjo, stand-up bass, and sometimes Dobro) 2,3, or 4 singers. I play in a gospel band so very seldom in a noisy envirment. Willie I too " ring out" the room and have very little feed back problems even with a figure 8 mic.

[Chuck Leyda]

Band Size:Trio

Style of Music: I'd say Americana but we like Celtic too depending on the venue. We love to play Gospel.

Instruments used:Me: Mando, Octave, mandola- Sherri: Guitar Jimmy: Bass plucked and bowed.

Mics or Pickups and # of such: AT 4033. Just bought an Ear Trumpet Labs Myrtle. D.I. for bass. Sherri and I sit facing each other at an angle. We share a mic. Jimmy has a DI for bass but also bleeds into the AT a bit. We all sing into the AT. We have two Rode Pencil mics but we usually don't use em anymore.

Typical Setting for your band: Festivals, Churches, Vineyards, Renaissance festival. We're pretty much done with bars.

Are you happy with your setup?: Yep. The key was getting us close together and sitting down.

[Drew Egerton]

• Band Size:
  
• Style of Music
• Instruments used:
• Mics or Pickups and # of such:
• Typical Setting for your band:
• Are you happy with your setup?:

[*]Band Size: Most often 4, sometimes 3 or 5
[*]Style of Music: Bluegrass with some other covers like Bob Dylan, The Band, etc.
[*]Instruments used: Guitar, mandolin (duh), banjo, bass
[*]Mics or Pickups and # of such: ONE MXL 990. Occasionally another directional mic for the bass but not usually. Bose L1 Compact, phantom power box.
[*]Typical Setting for your band: Outdoor parties and events, small restaurants, vineyards
[*]Are you happy with your setup?: Mostly, YES! We can be set up in just a few minutes and for our size gigs, it is usually plenty of volume. The only drawback we run into is because the mic and the Bose both have such wide patterns, we get feedback if we get above halfway on the volume knob. The Bose also has to be in front of the mic so in some venues that is challenging.
I'd like to find some kind of simple mixer that would help use dial out the feedback when we need to be louder.

[almeriastrings]

The only drawback we run into is because the mic and the Bose both have such wide patterns, we get feedback if we get above halfway on the volume knob. The Bose also has to be in front of the mic so in some venues that is challenging.
I'd like to find some kind of simple mixer that would help use dial out the feedback when we need to be louder.

I would highly recommend the DBX Gorack in this situation. The anti-feedback system on this is very effective and transparent. It is ideal where you have to run the sound and perform as it will 'grab' feedback frequencies automatically using a very, very tight 'notch' without impacting the overall sound. These were being sold out at $30 until recently on Ebay.... seem to have all been snapped up (not surprised, as it is a genuinely high quality and effective little box). They are now discontinued, but well worth hunting down. More detail:

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/s...k-field-report

[Drew Egerton]

I would highly recommend the DBX Gorack in this situation. The anti-feedback system on this is very effective and transparent. It is ideal where you have to run the sound and perform as it will 'grab' feedback frequencies automatically using a very, very tight 'notch' without impacting the overall sound. These were being sold out at $30 until recently on Ebay.... seem to have all been snapped up (not surprised, as it is a genuinely high quality and effective little box). They are now discontinued, but well worth hunting down. More detail:

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/s...k-field-report

Thanks! I will try to hunt one down. I see $59 on Reverb at first glance.

[Bad Monkey]

Band Size:
5 musicians

Style of Music
scots/irish/new england maritime, all eras and permutations thereof.

Instruments used:
fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki,bagpipes, penny whistles, harmonica, button accordion, tenor banjo, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, small cocktail kit, bodhran, cajon

Mics or Pickups and # of such:
everything that can have a pickup has a pickup, electric and bass guitar have what you'd expect and are running direct, fiddle, mandolin, zouk, banjo, and acoustic guitar all have piezo style pickups, cocktail kit is miked, bodhran and buttonbox both have a small dynamic mike in a clamp on mount, cajon is miked with a couple mikes (not recalling what those are for some reason), penny whistles and harmonicas go through the vocal mikes, four vocal mikes (bass player doesn't sing but since we are running IEM he thinks he needs to be able to talk to the band. we humor him. Plus he's funny as hell and it's good to let the whole band participate in the onstage hijinks)

Typical Setting for your band:
pubs, bars, festivals, theaters and other concert venues, and the occasional kitchen party. Loud venues for sure, the old one mike game ain't happenin' here boys.

Are you happy with your setup?:
yes. we are using a mackie DL32 that's controlled by ipads so everyone can tweak their own IEM mix. We can set up in half an hour and be torn down in less if we need to. ain't pretty but it can happen. Everything works great, no feedback issues ever and it's bloody simple to get a good house mix. Helpful hint: if you're going to run a similar setup you're still going to need a monitor behind the drum kit even if he has IEM. the sound of the kit will always seem disproportionately loud compared to what's coming out of the mains. Taken as a whole, it's really not overloud, but people's ears will play tricks on them since the drums are pretty much the only thing moving a lot of air on stage. Uberlow stage volume has a lot of plusses and a couple of minuses.

[Astro]

Bad Monkey-that sounds like a great band. New England Maritime sounds interesting.

Yeah we also tried the one mic thing a few times. I got a Ear Trumpet Louise. Sounds great but we kept bumping into each other and sometimes had to strain the be loud enough to be heard so we went back to individual mics.

But we are also splitting into solos and duos now because its easier to get booked. Lots of venues dont want more than 2 and even the ones that allow all 4 rarely pay more if you bring more. So for these solo/duo, I bring the Ear Trumpet and love it. I really dont like playing solo so I try to drag at least one other into it.

[fredfrank]

Five piece band. Ear Trumpet Edwina mic run thru an Aphex 207d preamp and a 31 band equalizer. Various speakers, but mostly JBL Eon G2 powered speakers.

Bluegrass music. Banjo, fiddle, guitar, mandolin and bass.

More than happy with this setup. Sometimes, if I need more volume, like outside, I add more speakers.

[vince f]

4 piece. We [play everything from private parties, block parties, loud bars.

Bluegrass/classic country, we used to have a drummer.

Bass: Clip on condenser (Audio Tehnica ATM350) and K&K piezo with Radial engineering PZ Direct box, both to mixer
Guitar: Taylor pickup Fishman pre-amp to mixer
Banjo: SM 57
Mando: Small Condenser (older shure on a mic stand)
3 x vocals Beta 58

Older 12 ch Allen and Heath Mixer, Powered Mains (EV on stands), Passive Monitors (Yamaha w/ QSC amps). Graphic EQ to tune for the room resonance (feedback issues) Realtime Analyser ap for ipad to find offending frequencies. Reverb multioprocessor for vocals only.

I definitely prefer mics for most instruments if you do not have a sound man. You move in and out for solos. The bass setup allows a good mix of mic and pickup. Did a lot of homework on best vocal mics for male voice. Tested 3 (Audix, Sennheiser, Beta 58) picket the Beta.

Desired upgrades: Powered monitors to lighten the load, new digital mixer controlled via PC or pad. again to lighten the load.

[Steve Ostrander]

Band Size: 2

Style of Music: Folk, pop, country

Instruments used: mandolin and guitar

Mics or Pickups and # of such: K&K twins for instruments, SM58 for vocals into 2 Fishman SA200 Soloamp towers.

Typical Setting for your band: patio or small club

Are you happy with your setup?: Yes