Nord User Forum

The topic I would like to discuss today is [We can't hear ourselves]
I will finish my little rant later

Feel free to comment

IT has turned into an essay So far my thesis goes:In order to see the reason musicians can't hear themselves on stage ,this essay will first look at the basic physics of sound,secondly study how the ear interprets sound and lastly discover the purpose of amplification.

Can you please sepeak louder? I can't hear you

Seriously, give more elements so that it doesn't go anywhere.

You don't need an essay. You only need one word.

Guitarists.

Yep totally!

Actually being both guitarist and keyboardman I usually think the culprit is the drummer, think about it: the minimum volume is determined by the drums and often the cymbals cover everything else forcing the others to bump up the volume which quickly escalates into a race to who gets to 10 first..... The best rehearsals/gigs were the ones with an electronic drum kit.

The number one thing I complain about is when the drummer uses an amp on stage.I believe that on the stage the combined volume of the other instruments should not exceed the acoustic level of the drums.
On the other hand the drummer must adjust accordingly.

Any Drummers on this forumn?!

I believe it results from a much more general problem, which psychoacoustics specialists name "masking noise" (unwanted noise, contrary to intentional sound masking). Remember The Hunt for Red October?

On stage, the common solution is allocating one or more (stereo) return speakers (or headphones) to each musician, via a dedicated return mixing console.

Yes,a high frequency often will mask a bass frequency because of its apparent amplitude.

It frustrates me when I play with drummers who wear earplugs and complain it's too loud when they're the loudest instrument on stage. The logic escapes me and I tell them so.
Other than that, I've found it extremely important to have my own sound space on stage where I can hear myself clearly and everyone else enough but not so much that they interfere with hearing myself.
As far as guitarists I don't agree with the generalization that they're the problem. In my experience it depends on the player as I've played with some -- but not most -- guitarists who have a sense of overall mix and play at an appropriate volume.