# Turning amp cabinets away from the audience?



## GeoMantic (Aug 20, 2010)

There's a local band around the NC area, and they honestly have THE BEST live sound that I have ever heard from a local band, and in many cases, they have a better live sound than many professional or big-time metal acts.

I've gotten to know the guys after being to quite a few of their shows, and recently they made a switch from having a standard stage setup, to turning their cabinets and everything toward the wall behind them and micing them from there.

Their sound quality, clarity, and overall experience of listening from the audience point of view improved tenfold since they have done this, and every subsequent show that I have watched them setup has been done this way.

They also say that everything on stage becomes easier to hear because they are hearing the monitors and not having to fight over their amps. From the audience, I'm not hearing one guitar player more than the other, and the overall volume isn't unbearable like it is at a lot of metal shows.

What are your thoughts about this particular method? Validity?

TL'DR version

A local band has turned their cabinets toward the wall behind them and their live sound has improved dramatically, onstage and from the audience POV. thoughts?


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## MaxOfMetal (Aug 20, 2010)

They're letting the PA do the work from which it was designed to do. The PA is designed to evenly broadcast the best sound from the stage to fill the venue with high fidelity sound so that there are no "dead spots" or "sour notes". There is no reason that band needs to be playing through giant cabs aimed right at the audience when the venue has a proper, quality PA system. 

Of course a lot of this depends on the venue, their gear, sound check time, and the skills of the sound guy. 

This isn't anything too new really. Bands have been playing with less stage volume with great success for decades. Look at all the bands who play with their "real" cabs under the stage, or off to the side. 

This can be compared to bands that go direct to the PA without having ANY stage gear.


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## SargeantVomit (Aug 20, 2010)

Yup, high stage volume is a sound techs worst nightmare and makes their job 100,000,000 times harder when you're trying to work front of house. When you're playing gigs that everything is going through the house, your amps are essentially just personal monitors for your playing and only need to be loud enough for you alone to hear.


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## scottro202 (Aug 20, 2010)

SargeantVomit said:


> Yup, high stage volume is a sound techs worst nightmare and makes their job 100,000,000 times harder when you're trying to work front of house. When you're playing gigs that everything is going through the house, your amps are essentially just personal monitors for your playing and only need to be loud enough for you alone to hear.



 That's why I started micing amps from going DI in the first place. 

But even then, with the venues I'm playing right now, they still don't put me in the PA much with my 5 watt combo on 5, apparently it's that loud


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## GeoMantic (Aug 20, 2010)

I was just wondering if this was a better idea for smaller bands with little stage experience to attempt instead of having the normal cabinets facing the audience.

It always made more sense to me to not have louder amps towards the audience, but since I have little stage experience, I wasn't sure if I had enough knowledge to validate myself.

Thanks guys.


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## SargeantVomit (Aug 20, 2010)

Some other tips you should be aware of if you are planning on using your stage sound to fill out the room. (such as when PA isn't available or is just for vocals/drums)
Stack your speakers in vertical alignment for the least amount of comb filtering and therefore clearest possible sound. (Also, stacking your speakers has a coupling effect so that'll give you +3db compared to side by side)

If it's a hollow stage, make sure you have casters or something between the bottoms of the cabs and the stage to decouple it otherwise it's gonna be mud city on stage as well as in the house. You'll hear nothing but bass and yell at your bassist to turn the bass down and he wont be able to hear himself and neither will the audience because the volume isn't the problem.


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