Drumr Pete (a regular here) recently sent me an article that I thought you might find interesting. Pass the Salt ... and a Megaphone

If you use the L1® Approach (L1®s behind the performers) here's the question:

1. you have the L1®s behind you
   
2. and no monitors between you and the audience (to effectively mask the noise in the room)
   

Has this this changed the way you perform since getting your L1®?


Note: Please let's not debate the merits of the L1® approach here. I know that there are people here who use their L1®s in other ways. But at least for this discussion, can we keep it within the context of people who put the L1®s behind them.

Thanks.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ST,

Good Morning ST. I always use my L1's behind me and my T1 on my mic stand.

With a loud audience, I will sometimes adjust my volume up, sometimes down, depending on the make up of the audience.

If I think that I can influence or "capture" the audience, I will try many times. If I am just adding to the confusion, I will usually turn down the volume to a point that I can just hear myself.

Respect,
Col. Andy

That was a good article. We have a few restaurants here that the noise level is so high that you just sit in the corner and play for yourself. The good news is they keep hiring musicians. There is a rock club down the street from where I play. They put in 1K to remodel. Made it a square box with tile floor glass and hard walls. The sound bounces everywhere.

quote:

If I am just adding to the confusion, I will usually turn down the volume to a point that I can just hear myself.

Andy, you did that at the Little Switzerland L1 conference, and what an impact!!
I have always utilized trying to "draw them in" rather than soak them in sound, but I've never seen it used to the degree you did.

At first, I thought, is he kidding? No one's going to hear him at all...your voice was so soft and subtle.
You simply smiled and sang your song, as if you were singing to a child from bedside.
The room silenced in a matter of just a few seconds, jaws dropped.
Seeing you pull that off has certainly made me more aware of less is more.

With the reduced volume of using L1s, and the increased clarity, I've had to change my way of pulling a band together.
In the old days, if things were floundering, I'd lay into the drums...now I pull back, forcing the flounder-er to either wake up and pull back or risk being detected as the weak link. Often that link was me.

The L1 is like a cart, a wagon, and music is much easier to pull than to push.
The music becomes your backup, your support.
I no longer struggle from behind boxes of speakers.
There is the direct connection to the audience, that was not there before.

I'm glad to see that article. I thought it was just in my town that the construction folks had given up on putting any sound-deadening materials in the rooms. It's gotten where my wife and I don't go to any newer restaurants because they are so noisy, and I definitely don't play any of these unless the pay is really good.

The funny thing is that the older places (100 years old or more) can be just as bad as the new places with reverberant tin ceilings, plaster walls and wood floors. I don't like playing these either, but I learned long ago that the only way to play them was to turn down the bass and play at a moderate level so you don't push the patrons into a volume war that the room just multiplies.

Oh, but of course I didn't answer your question and instead commented on the things beyond the L1. To answer your question, the L1 doesn't excite the reverberation as badly as a standard system, so the reflective volume isn't as bad. I still turn down the bass and watch my volume though. I sometimes even turn down the highs so I don't interfere with conversation as much. And of course I turn off any delay and reverb since the room is already full of too much reverb and delay.