I just posted this on the churchbass and christianguitar forums, and realized that it has a direct relationship to my Bose experience.

The original thread was a dialogue about the complications and frustrations of using in-ear monitor rigs in a church setting (!!!).

This was my post:

I've stayed largely silent on this subject, because I have limited experience with in-ears. Still, after reading a number of comments in recent posts, I just can't stay silent.

Looking at all the comments about a.) how hard it is to get used to in-ears, b.) how much more fun it is to simply play to monitors, c.) how desperate sound guys are to reduce stage volume, and d.) that for all the aggravation, in-ears are still a better option than monitor-induced hearing loss, I just want to say one thing:

T.I.D.S.!!! (Turn It Down Stupid!!!)

Too many musicians these days are getting sucked into a technological black hole. Believe it or not, it's actually possible to play electric music that sounds really great at acoustic volume levels, and to whip an audience into a frenzy without the support of insanely elaborate, mega-watt sound systems.

Perhaps my experience is a little off-beat because I started gigging in my teens, with players much older than myself. Although I'm "only" 52, I worked the tail end of the '60's wedding circuit with guys in their fifties and early sixties.

In contrast to the rock circuit of the day, those bands were mainly instrumental trios and quartets, and until I landed a seat in a big band in the mid-seventies, I never worked with one that actually owned a "real" PA. Amplification consisted mainly of un-mic'd acoustic instruments, sometimes augmented with small tube guitar and bass amps (Vibroluxes, Gibson Skylarks, etc.).

My dad carried a "monster" 50-watt Fender Pro Reverb, although he rarely got it up to 4, and was still often asked to turn down. My first gigging rig was a FIFTEEN WATT Harmony bass amp. It was stretched a bit in larger rooms, but it generally kept up with the required stage volumes fairly well.

Yet those bands played loud enough to get a legion hall jumping- 100 to 150 people dancing their brains out. They could also play quietly enough to provide dinner music at background levels, without losing their rhythmic integrity.

If a bunch of tired old hacks could play as quietly as a table radio AND loud enough to generate complaints, using at most a total of 100 watts or so for bass, keys, drums, a horn or two and guitar, what has happened to the way we play, and the way we set up our stages?

I see small churches that barely have a missions budget, yet the guitarists pack Twin Reverbs and half-stacks, the bassist plays through a full SVT rig, the drummer straight-arms oil-filled heads with heavy sticks, and the pianist POUNDS on a full-sized grand piano in order to compete with the other instruments.

These churches invest thousands of dollars in monitor rigs that carry more power than a '70's concert-grade FOH system, just so that "the musicians can hear themselves". And now that sound guys are threatening to go strike unless the backline is removed, they are investing even more money on in-ear systems. You can't play without 'em, don'cha know...

I recently bought a Bose L1 system in self-defense. I was tired of lugging separate guitar, bass and PA rigs out to unpaid charity gigs. I was also tired of not hearing myself well on small stages, because my powerful-but-compact bass rig was sending most of the sound out between my knees.

The L1 has been a huge revelation for me, not just because it sounds good, but because it has brought my music back to a more human scale.

Manageable sound levels from the backline, and the ability to hear clearly without monitors or a sound guy, because of the natural physical separation of instruments: the guitar is Over Here, and the keys are Over There.

Three years ago, I had the priviledge of opening for the Lost Dogs at a small venue in Ottawa. The rental PA was off-brand, and way undersized (the organizer rented the whole rig for the weekend for $100!!!). I was initially nervous about the Lost Dogs' reaction, but they plugged in without comment, and did a killer set without cranking the system past half-way.

I've heard a ton of concerts since, all of which used an order of magnitude more system power for the monitors alone, and none of which enthralled the house like that one.

I'm personally getting tired of overamplified "acoustic guitar concerts" where I can hear the snot wheezing in and out of the player's nostrils through the contact mic in his guitar, "Praise concerts" where I can't hear the vocals, talented bands that can't carry the beat home in a bucket because they can't hear each other, concerts of every kind where the sound is either turned up way louder than the PA system can handle, or...

....ahhh, I've said enough.

Outstanding, Bassnut. Thank you so much for sharing this... every sentence packs a wallop of truth and revelation. Now if the rest of the world can just catch on...

I agree totally with Bassnut, and also add that part of the problem is sound guy's who have only heard KoRN, Wheezer, and Metalica all their life, and have never heard the blending of an A Capella Concert Choir of 65 voices singing Ave Maria at volumes that you could hear a pin drop over the harmonies. When 65 voices buzz a chord at 25 decibels, in a church in Salzburg with 400 people in it, it raises the hair on the back of your neck. When Segovia, is playing a gut strung acoustic on a stage in front of 2000 people with no amplification, and you can hear every note and chord. Then you've heard music.

That's why I love the L1. It helps me make music.

Well said.

Very impressive post, one of the best I have ever read.

Yep, you said a mouthful there.

I think we've all been through the rant phase with the L1.

Bassnut

You put that post on the right forum. Well put.

How about those "synths"? (another "technological black hole"). Howcome there are 50,000 patches available for the DX7 and only 10 are usable. Other synths are similar, and some only have 5 patches that really work at best. Why are there 99 snares on my drum machine and only 3 work (actually, for my taste, only one)? Same for that tons-of-instruments bass module; only 3 basses that record well? Some synths or MIDI boxes are, thankfully, a one-instrument convergence. The Nord Electro is an exception, having mostly dedicated itself to a Hammond/Leslie simulation that has made me stop looking. It's got some other really useful things on it, like one of the few Wurlitzers that work and the best clav I've heard. My GEM digital piano has one grand and one Rhodes and lots of others but only the first two work. It goes on and on. You can really tie youself up in a spiderweb of confusion, especially if you're starting out and aren't sure of what you really want to do.

I've fried my poor little brain with an endless succession of these things, thankfully when I was younger with brain cells worth frying, but you're really right about complication. Music, really good music, is simple, elegant and uncomplicated. And played in tune. The rest, the fluff and the black hole of technology, is well worth identifying and ignoring. But, like you (and me), you can't get to that clarity without a visit to the black hole.

Cliff, if your brain is fried, I want to find out how to fry my own brain in exactly the same way.

You very often post things that I want to say in such a clear and concise way that I marvel at how few words are necessary to get what I mean across, but for me to post it would be a lot more lengthy and convoluted.

Thank you.

Thanks Chuck.

But, you know, I could a bin cleara, but my brain was so fried from all them electrons...

That said, I remember so well "discovering" how heavy my new Prophet 600 (and DX7) was. Why, it's infinite! I remember going to the gig with a rack of MIDI modules and impossible hookup requirements once I got there. So many variables; I could rule the world with these if I could only choose the right ones.

After a while, I began to realize that most of these things had one basic sound only. They really only did one thing, and no matter what instrument you chose to synthesize with the instrument's architecture, the basic sound of the instrument shone through every time. That was the point where I said to myself that the music was way more important than being a programmer. It was all the same clay anyway. All that complication took me away from the music, from the melody, and did it unnecessarily. So I began to look for instruments that did only one thing really great and was plug-and-play compatible. Set up, plug in, turn on, play. Not just authentic piano and organ, but simply "instruments that work". And that's proven to be a great decision for me. As a result, I spent more time composing and recording and playing and almost no time twiddle-twaddling. Forget that. I think it's a trap that gets in the way of the creative process, not something that empowers it. Simplicity is the key to the highway for me.

Yeah, I know it's creative to come up with new musical tone and all that. New "sound scapes". But melody and musical invention transcends both the medium and the instrument. I think it's the most challenging and most infinite part of being involved in music. I mean, you can invent music and melody WITHOUT any instrument, save your voice.

(Got a great melody? Don't let it slip away. You'll never get it again. Save it by singing it into your voice mail.)

Ah, but I digress...