As a drummer of many years (with bad tinnitus), I switched to Roland Vdrums 80% of the time to reduce stage volume as real drums the way I play are in excess of 100 db (usually around 110). This is of course way too loud and requires me to wear in ear monitors when I can and ear plugs when I can't (where I can't hear anything!). But even with the Vdrums, my guitarist's tone requires a pretty loud volume too. My question then is how with a loud guitar amp and/or real drums do you keep the stage volume below 100db using your system?

Thanks,
Mark Spain
www.garkott.com

You and your guitar player should check out some of the threads under the GUITAR section of the forum - http://bose.infopop.cc/eve/forums?a=frm&s=8206048934&f=6366055944
There a plenty of ways to get “tone” that don’t require the guitar player to play dangerously loud in order to get the sound they are after. Lee Flier has done a lot of work on this – she uses a Dr. Z airbake. Tony Sarno uses a 2 Watt amp to get the tone, and then mic’s it into the Personalized Amplification System™ family of products. I haven't personally heard Lee’s rig, but she seems happy. I have heard Tony’s rig – he’s got “tone”!

Vdrums are great for controlling on stage volume and would work great with the new system. If your guitar player is willing to give it a try, you can both set your volume on stage and know that the audience is hearing the same thing.

Give it a try, there’s a 90(!) day risk free trial.

Thomas

Hi Mark,

Like Thomas said, I'm a guitar player with a tube amp that needs to be cranked up some to get the tone I want. So I got the Dr. Z Air Brake which is a volume attenuator that goes between the amp head and speaker on a guitar amp. It allows you to crank up the amp enough to get your tone, but then kill the stage volume. I now use it even at gigs where I'm not using the PAS, it works really well. I'm also on the lookout for a smaller tube amp that still gives me the tone I want. No sense lugging a big amp around if I don't have to. But for the time being, the Air Brake allows me to get my existing tone into the PAS with a minimum of adjustment.

Our drummer plays a real drum kit also. He does play a small kit but his stage volume sometimes can still get loud. He has very good dynamic control and can play softer when appropriate, but hey, if you're a rock band sometimes you just have to cut loose and play hard and it's going to be loud, otherwise you lose the energy of the performance. I'm quite sure that he gets up over 100 dB onstage during those times, but that's just the way it is. Still sounds good, though!

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