BRYAN ADAMS

[shadphil]

I went to see Bryan Adams at the O2 on Wed 14th dec it was a great night. He is still singing as good as ever and Keith Scott what a guitarist. I noticed there was not an amp on stage not quite sure how they do that are the amps to the side and mic up or a straight DI into the sound mixing desk.
When i saw Jeff Lynne also at also the O2 i asked the sound engineer about the cabling from the mixing desk thinking there was a duct in the floor up to the stage to carry the cables he said no they had tied them to the back of the chairs and up to the stage.

[Jay Bass]

A lot of the top bands and performers are now just di ing straight to the mixer and using in ear monitors with thier own personal mix
doing away with amps and monitors on stage all together.no clutter no feedback issues,
this works great if you have all the right equipment and a good sound engineer.

[dave robinson]

Hi Phil, Many guitarists are now using processors for guitar such as the Kemper or similar, which mean you don't need an amp and can still sound as though you have one on stage. To do this you DI into the desk directly from the Kemper, or use an FFFR speaker unit, something I have mentioned here before. Basically an FRFR speaker is a very good monitor for your personal instrument, I have the Headrush 8" and also the Headrush 112, each of them rated at 2000w. they are very good.
I bought a Kemper Stage back in April and replaced my amp with it successfully, but I miss the presence of my guitar amp so I sold it and got my money back.
Instead I now use either my Fender DeLuxe Reverb Tone Master or my Vox MV50-ac with a 1 x 12 cabinet and the sound is wonderful. I DI them into the PA, as do all our other instruments in the band including our Roland Electric drums that look like real drums and it is mixed by our sound engineer and we play at a sensible level.
We have a really quiet backline on stage, which makes for a pleasant experience and we can hear our vocals perfectly.

[shadphil]

Hi Dave thanks for that insight and having no monitors, and amp mics etc on stage reduces feedback and picking up unwanted sounds. gone are the days of trying to get rid of that hum and interference etc. Phil

[Stuart]

My only reservation about the no backline amps follows pretty much what Dave was referring to in his reply.As a lifelong audio design engineer and guitarist I can vouch for the fact that the out front main P.A. sound is never the same as that which the amp or programmable module produces.This is due to so many variables being introduced by the P.A. speakers themselves not to mention the eq. settings on the desk.The subtleties of the right sound for a particular guitar tone are so finely detailed that any small difference introduced by additional equipment can change these characteristics widely.Just try plugging in a different doeaker cab into your amp after you gave set up your best Hank sound and you will see what I mean.

[Iain Purdon]

My only reservation about the no backline amps follows … that any small difference introduced by additional equipment can change these characteristics widely.Just try plugging in a different doeaker cab into your amp after you gave set up your best Hank sound and you will see what I mean.

Agreed, Stuart, but a text-book Hank sound is not essential for a live Shads gig. I'd say get your sound into the ball park and then play the numbers the way he does. The audience will be delighted.

[Stuart]

Very true Ian.I am in no way against using a sound module directly injected into the P.A. but seeing the numerous posts on how to get close to some of the well known Hank sounds I personally would not like to rely on a sound engineer to accurately reproduce that sound out front and secondly the sound being fed back to me via in ear monitors or monitor speakers would be different again.Its not a matter of the quality of the equipment but purely that every speaker and in ear monitor has very different characteristics and it would be very easy for the sound characterisics to be incorrect at the monitor or the main speaker.I have seen bands using the ampless backline d.i.system successfully but they were less "sound specific" bands than the Shads where the characteristics of Hanks guitar were so definitive and instantly recognisable. I own up to trying to imitate the specific sounds of the different Shads numbers and would not be happy to introduce 2 more variables in the sound chain.Maybe that's just me being fussy though.As Ian said, the audience still love it when you play it well.
Happy Christmas to all members