Everything about the Nord Electro 2, Electro 3, Electro 4, Electro 5, and Nord Electro 6.

Amp or DI?

Postby tallulah » 19 Apr 2018, 07:18

Hi, What do you play your Nord through on stage? An amp? a Direct imput? And why? Thanks!
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Amp or DI?


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Re: Amp or DI?

Postby cgrafx » 19 Apr 2018, 07:47

What do I play through: I plug directly into our sound board.
Why: Because I use in-ears as monitors and I own the band PA system.

The band sound system is a 32-channel IN/OUT digital console with 25 separate full mixing consoles, into 16,000 watts of FOH power driving speakers ranging from a small set of 10" subs and EAW LA212 tops to our large system of 8 EAW LA118 (single 18") subs, 6 EAW LA460 3-way tops and 2 EAW LA212 or 2 EAW JF60 front of stage infills.

Our mixing console and power amps all roll in as a single Rack.

This picture is a little older, in the current configuration the power amps at the bottom of the rack are

2x QSC PL380's (2ch at 4000W/ch x 2 ohms)
1x Carvin DCM2004 (4 ch at 300w X 8 ohms, 500w X 4 ohms each channel)

IMG_0679.jpg
IMG_0679.jpg (198.26 KiB) Viewed 1410 times
Last edited by cgrafx on 19 Apr 2018, 19:04, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Amp or DI?

Postby CountFosco » 19 Apr 2018, 11:25

I play in 2 bands, both with their own PA, which I go directly into from my submixer. And I use IEM from my submixer. The reason I go direct to the PAs is they're there. Glad I don't have to carry my own speakers.

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Re: Amp or DI?

Postby Ignatius » 19 Apr 2018, 16:48

If you are new at this at all, take a caution. It is fine to send your board into the PA with a trusted sound engineer. That is because you can be sure you will have adequate monitoring. However, if you are going into strange venues at all, I highly recommend that you make sure you have a monitor that you personally control, otherwise you risk playing what I like to call "mime keyboards," buried in the thunder of guitars and drums.

I run my keyboard into a Quilter Mach Pro, with a mighty mite 8" speaker that delivers a wonderful sound at 100 Watts per channel. It has an XLR out that can be sent to the board, and the sound engineer can do whatever with it. I set up the Quilter so I mainly can hear it, though in small venues it can easily stand up as sound support for the relatively low key band I play with these days.

In sum, be sure you can hear yourself, that is paramount. I loved my Korg SV-1 because it had two parallel outs - one XLR and the other 1/4 inch. I could run one into my independent monitor and send the other to the board. I now use a small mixer to do something like it, though the out to my Quilter has to be hard panned to make a mono signal. If a stereo signal is important to your monitoring, using a small PA for your intermediary (I have a Yamaha StagePas 500) can be your solution.

Above all, hear yourself.

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Re: Amp or DI?

Postby tallulah » 19 Apr 2018, 18:38

Thanks for all your feedback!!

My band generally rents a rehearsal space weekly and when we gig we use the PA system there, so I don't have a lot of control over or understanding, honestly, of those systems. At home i practice through headphones so I'm getting directly what the Nord is putting out (is there any need to further EQ or augment that sound?? it seems that it is all in there). I have been playing through a large Traynor guitar amp at practice. It sounds okay. The tube amp gives a pretty nice warm sound to the EP and Wurl. But I'm getting tired of lugging that thing around and wonder if it is the best thing for my sound anyway. Plugging in directly to the sound board solves that problem but it does add this whole dimension of not being as in control of my sound, which is one thing in a practice room and a whole other thing live with a sound person who is new to me. How do I trust them to ride my volume and sound how I want it?

I've been experimenting with going through the sound board and I generally dial my bass channel up and my treble down. Thoughts on that or other PA system settings?

I know this is pretty 101 so i thank you for your responses. :)
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Re: Amp or DI?

Postby PScooter63 » 19 Apr 2018, 20:36

I'm probably an outlier here, as the band I most frequently play with is acoustic, no dedicated sound technician. I was trained at an early age to temper my own volume to hear other band members (balance acoustically, rather than electronically). Of course the only guitar in the group is bass [insert guitar player joke here].

My signal goes to FOH/monitor that's balanced before the gig. But I also keep a small amp nearby as a hotspot that augments my personal monitoring as needed... its signal is fed directly from the headphone output of my E4. This becomes useful later in the gig, when the band tends to get louder.

I tried IEMs for a couple of gigs, but ended up feeling so isolated from the others (not everyone is miked). If I were in a pop cover band, for example, I'm sure I'd feel differently.
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Re: Amp or DI?

Postby Berretje » 20 Apr 2018, 19:22

PScooter63 wrote:
I tried IEMs for a couple of gigs, but ended up feeling so isolated from the others (not everyone is miked). If I were in a pop cover band, for example, I'm sure I'd feel differently.


I play in-ears with both bands and I wouldn't go back to (floor)monitors for a million!
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