The Sound of the Room

[Nefertiti]

Does your sound bother you when your in a bad room. I try to not let it affect me but it does. I could have the best mouthpiece on and the best reed. At home it sounds killer. I go to a acoustic gig and play and it sounds dead and muffled. I know it probably sounds as good as in my house from the other side of the bell but to me it sucks. How do you guys cope with playing your best when your in a situation like this. What's the trick to not letting it bother you?

[Frank D]

Several beers usually does the trick :D

Seriously though, I usually keep a set of earplugs in my case for when the volume level gets too high on amplified gigs. On an acoustic gig in a bad room, if I put one earplug in, I helps me to hear my sound "in my head" the way I like it, while still hearing the rest of the band out of the open ear.

[Nefertiti]

That's a little harder for me I think cause I'm deaf in one ear. Man it stinks not being able to hear stereo music anymore. I miss that.

[rollen]

I've had similar experiences. It's very distracting.

My only thought is to find a setup that sounds crappy at home and practice with it to get over the hump of it being bothersome.

[SaxColuss]

Jeez! There ARE some out there who's goin through the same thing as i am.... thank god. I thought i'm the only one..... hehe...

[Subtone Sam]

I´ve experienced the same thing many times.Just yesterday I played a jazzgig with Runyon Jaguar on tenor.At home I was happy with the sound but on the gig it sounded a bit weak and muffled.Part of the reason was that altough I was miked I coudn´t hear myself on the monitor (soundman must have been on a lunchbreak,again :x ).Dangerous thing in all this is that after a gig like this one begins to think:"hmm,maybe I should get a new piece...again" :wink:

[Nefertiti]

I did a duo last night with a piano player. I thought what piece should I play. I thought about the ESP but thought NO I'll go with the HR link. I played at home and it sounded great. I was excited to do the gig.Got to the gig and it was this huge bar. Very nice place. I thought it would be great But..... it was packed with people. All talking and laughing. I started playing and it felt to spread and dark. Like it wasn't cutting. I should have packed my ESP or metal link. Although when I would turn around and play into the wall it sounded great. It was just playing into the room.It seemed like not much came back. I think I just need another mouthpiece :wink:

[saxomophone]

I always just hope that the audience is hearing the sound that I think should be coming out of my horn when the room is too spacious or dead to hear myself.

Speaking of soundmen being out to lunch, why do so many of them think that just because we play an acoustic instrument, we don't need to hear ourselves in the monitor? It would be like not putting any lead vocals in the monitor!

[JL]

I'd bet it's not the mouthpiece. I've had similar experiences with the loudest, brightest mpc I own.....with no monitor, a poor sound system, a loud band, and standing behind the mains, what little I heard of the sax sounded like it was under water and far away. Very frustrating, but it wasn't the mouthpiece and I was told it sounded full and powerful "out there." Other times with a decent sound system set up properly, I had no problem hearing myself, even playing a softer, darker mpc. I've heard those round plastic sound reflectors work pretty well to solve these problems, but haven't ever tried one.

[Bill Mecca]

The plexiglass reflectors do work. Just hit the local hardware store and pick up a small rectangluar sheet for a couple bucks, a door hole saw on your drill and a little patience, (it will melt (for lack of a better term) it's way through rather than a clean cut) and you have one for far far less than you could order one already made.

you can just hang it on a ball headed mike the the SM58, or I fixed mine up with a couple L brackets and part of a butterfly mic clip, and can clip it on a mic and change the angle.

[Subtone Sam]

Well,soundmen are.. and some are not :guns: .What amazes me is the non-horn players in the band.How many times you´ve heard this: you won´t probably need to be miked at all,this such a small place.. right,the moment the drummer and the el.guitarist starts to play nobody will hear nothing the horns play.

[Balladeer]

I have similar but opposite experiences. When I get to the gig or practice I find that my sound is louder and more full than it had been at home. Then I'm having to hold back. My pianist has a grand piano in her living room with high ceilings and only partial carpeting. My sound can easily get too loud there. In church the sound is wonderful as it floats upward and fills the room. When playing R&B/blues gigs I'll remind you that I'm in Texas and we play that stuff very loud here. In that situation a Super Gonz and a mic are the order of the day.

Several weeks ago I heard a combo playing contemporary (not smooth) jazz in a restaurant that was filled with people. The sax player was using a Ponzol hardrubber that is aimed at modern sounds. They had a nice blend and the sax sounded very good playing against the fender rhodes.

[Frank D]

This makes me think of a passage in Stan Getz: A Life In Jazz where he's talking about his sound and practice regimen. At the time he was living in California, and would go out to an open field to practice (like Sonny on the Bridge?). He said that after that, he could go into any club and play un-miked, and felt that his dark sound still projected to every corner of the room. But then, he was Stan Getz.

[jd]

boy do i know what your talking about. this is what drives us sax guys to the point of insanity! we go out and ge better horns,reeds ,mps etc.. but ive figured out a little system that helps me while doing gigs anywhere. i carrie a personal mixer and a hotspot type audio technica monitor( 200 watts 10 pound monitor )and a alesis effects unit. i then dial it in like im in my living room until it sounds exactly like i want it . you know the right amount of eq effects little verb maybe a dash of delay etc adjust the volume on my monitor and send a line out of my little mix to the main board. heaven . even in a room that sucks! try it. you may not ever go into a gig without it again. my 2 cents....

[Mike Cesati]

Nef,I bet you sounded great.It's just the fact that without the mike and with all the chatter its hard to cut through that. I just did a restaurant thing with a piano and the place was jambed. They drowned me out. A sax player friend stopped by and told me I sounded great.Go figure. The crowd was so noisy I was getting tripped up rthymnically by them drowning out the piano . Just remember your real sound like it was in my house.that's a live room and you were very big sounding on all you mpcs. It wasn't you man.

[Bootman]

I would recommend practising outside in the open air, this really does help you to prokect and fill up the space around you. It is easier in certain parts of the world where there are warmer climes. I still do a lot of playing outside, un-miced and have no trouble outplaying a brass player sound wise.


The trick to getting a big sound is to relax and not try to play too loud, think projection rather than volume. This will make you appear to be louder than by actually playing harder.

[Lenny]

Neff, I often have the same experience and it tends to make me blow to hard. Those plexiglass "ploger sound mirrors" really help alot but they are kind of funky and fall off alot - but they do help you hear yourself and make your sound feel more consistent. I'm no pro though and not half the player you are so I don't know if it can be a crutch or not.

[SaxColuss]

Mmmmm.....playing in one of my band.... with a drummer, DJ, bassist, guitarist, vocalist...jeez, without the mic... i can't be heard..no matter what. all those guys need to do is jez raise the volume knob and i can start singing 'Always say goodbye' instead of 'Never Say Goodbye'... Hah..when the band is playin in a slow mood....oh yeah..no prob..but as the song builts up to climax, and the guitars go into the 'metal' zone...., and dat's the time to be saying that it'll be crazy goin there and playin' without the mic...
Bout the soundmen sleepin'....well.... usually, other than standing there and use the vocalist mike which is loud and clear, and say, " i can't seem to hear my sax sound..could u please raise it up?" (dat's the polite version. U may use use ur own version of either polite or impolite...!! :twisted: ), u can say," Oi! is it me or is it a fact that when using the mic, u are NOT suppose to hear what u r playin?Is dat why they built the mic for?" Are soundmen SUPPOSE to go for lunch when a gig is goin on...? i dun think so....Man, u can handcuff them to the mixer! Hee... Sax On y'all....