Nord User Forum

[damasp]

I used my EV ELX12P cabinets last Saturday. We had a sound company/soundman that we've used in the past and he seemed to know what he was doing. I got a lot of positve feedback from those listening, that the keys and the overall sound was reaaly good.
This was a outdoor festival, not real big, but a good sizes crowd. I gave him a L &R line from my mixer and used my monitor send to my EVs.
I am not liking the weight of carrying the EVs up and down the stairs though. I'm thinking of selling all my speakers to buy QSC k8.2. I heard they got great reviews and they seem powerful enough for my needs.

[Gambold]

The QSCs will produce more decibels but going from 12 inches to 8 inches on the cone might be too much loss on the low end, if you need to rely on them for your stage sound. As monitors no problem, but never trust the sound guy - bring enough volume and speaker to carry the day on your own if necessary.

[Quai34]

Gamble said: "Never trust The sound guy"...ok, yes, but by the ways, how do you know if you are not ok for the crowds? I mean, when you play, you are not in front of the PA to figure out it and if you don't trust the sound guy, who could you trust? Who will have your ears and knows what you are looking for?

[Gambold]

You do whatever you do when you *don't* have a sound guy, which is probably at least half the time.

Soundcheck. Get your pal or gal or the bass player to go stand out there. Plenty of options.

[anotherscott]

The QSCs will produce more decibels but going from 12 inches to 8 inches on the cone might be too much loss on the low end, if you need to rely on them for your stage sound.

I think it also depends on the sounds used, and the instrumentation you are playing with. If you're doing the kind of music with big deep synth sounds (some techno stuff, for example), you'll want lots of bottom. In my case, I play mostly "traditional" sounds, and specifically don't want to step on the bassist in the band. So I actually roll the bottom off my piano sound, for example. An 8 seems to work just fine for me.

[damasp]

I mostly use Piano, Rhodes, Wurly, Hammond, some Mellotron Strings some horns and a of bit Vox organ. Classic Rock stuff.
Yesterday we play at another outdoor festival, local nothing too big. This time we had to use our own PA/Monitors and vocals only through the PA. We didn't have anyone running. Our bass player stepped out in front to let us know how our levels were.

I expected it to sound crappy, but I got feedback from my wife and others that it was fairly well balanced. The band had talked with the guitarist (twin reverb) that was usually really loud and I think it helped. In fact my wife said he could have been louder at times.

I heard that the keys were plenty loud and clear out front, but I'm hoping that I wasn't too loud. I used my Ev's on short poles again this time .
I think the band will be buying them from me for our mains to go along with a sub-woofer. they will try them as play play outdoors on Saturday.
I will try to sell the Alto 10s as well to help finance the purchase of a pair of QSC k8.2s.I believe these will be a good fit for me.

[Quai34]

Yes, EV 12' for front PA, Alto 10' for monitors, great set up, and your K8.2 for you....cool!!!

[damasp]

I think I'll be selling the altos at some point. I don't know if the band will want them as monitors though. I will probably sell them myself. I think they were good for the cost and size and weight, but now I want better sound.

[Seaglass]

Still wrestling and getting very frustrated with getting my keyboard loud enough for the audience. We are a 5 piece classic rock band with 2 guitars, bass, drums and lately I'm just using my Electro 3. I've also using two small monitors, but feeding the FOH directly from my left and right channel from my Nord and then back to my monitors. I can hear my monitors well and the band can hear me well on stage also. We did a sound check and the sound guy seemed to have it working out.

In our practice session the keys are plenty loud. I got a video clip of us playing Higher Ground for ex., and I was so disappointed that my clav sound was so low. The bass was so loud, booming and at a very low frequency.

Does anyone have some tips of how to get a better balanced sound?

This is an easy diagnosis and a classic problem - your bass/electric players are turning up between practice and the show. The Sound guy has no control over their stage volume and there's no way to keep that noise on stage and out of the audience. Best way to change it is to get some room recordings and listen back to them as a band - the group feedback will let the saboteur know to knock it off.

-C

[dhbp-nord]

And when you make the room recording, have the sound guy take the offending instrument(s) right out of the FOH mix for a minute to show how much stage bleed is actually happening.

DH