Personally, I have eliminate entire the hall on drums or any other instrument that is part of beat. Brasses or pianos, or other instruments I write on PHR channels and PAD, I give them 10-20 units of custom hall DSP, edited on frequency, to meet only high frequency, because if it gives me hall on low frequency, will alter in the bad way the sound.
We do in almost every time our gigs in large rooms, restaurants or large ballrooms, with 200-300 peoples. In most of the cases the rooms already have a bit of hall in, or a delay on high notes, or a very bad acoustic for low frequencies. If I use DSP hall over room's hall, the people in that room will not hear clearly what I sing and the entire sound quality is a disaster.
Did you hear a live band? How many bands did you hear using DSPs on beat instruments (drums, bass, accompaniment guitars, etc) ? Yes, indeed, is good in small rooms, but will not give you sensation of a live band. If you close the eyes and hear the sound you will bet to a CD playing, not a real player! That's the sensation!
Regards
Vali
Vali, I totally agree with your views regarding the overwhelming amount of DSP in
Yamaha's attempt to make the Genos sound rich.
As a Genos owner, and before that, when I conducted several testing sessions of this
instrument, I made my views about the Genos very clear in many previous posts, so I will
refrain from rehashing those views all over again, and concentrate on the subject of
DSPs.
I used to get annoyed in the late 70s and even till the present time when I heard crooners
(Especially European Schlager singers it seems) use so much echo and reverb in their vocals, thus
completely drowning what would otherwise be a good song, in DSP effects.
I have to give a special medal to my wife for her patience, for putting up with me whenever
I started freaking out over such DSP abuse.
The abundant use of and dependence on DSP effects in arrangers might be just dandy
for home users, but it isn't really helpful in live playing.
As you have mentioned, when playing live, especially, indoors where most large halls
(and even some smaller ones) have a natural reverb, it is wise to turn down or even
completely turn off all DSP reverb and echo effects.
I too dial down the DSP effects from 64 down to 20 on most gigs, even when playing
outside, and sometimes them off completely.
Another thing to consider is muting all unnecessary channels or at least dialling them
down as much as possible.
Imagine your typical live band, it usually consists of 4 to 5 musicians.
Too many channels playing all at once end up irritating your audience, instead of
entertaining them.
Never apply overkill, it conjures up a "Canned Music" image that we all want to avoid.
I always ask myself when shopping, "do I really need this, or can I live without it?
That way I don't end up with a house full of unnecessary stuff.
I apply that same logic to many things, including when playing music. .
Last night I played outdoors, at a hotel whose 4 buildings are placed in a square
configuration.
And behind those buildings were residential apartments built on a hill.
Every word in my Microphone and every note that I played during my sound check
bounced back and repeated itself at least twofold because of that.
So I shut off all the reverb and echo on all instruments and the microphone.
That instantly gave me a better sound.
It is of course a matter of preference and sound perception, but for live playing less
is always more.
I remember reading somewhere, probably in a forum or maybe in my Yamaha EMX5016CF
mixer manual about effects that " If you can hear the effects, then you're probably using
too much already."
Below are pictures of last night's setup, to illustrate the buildings and how that may
affect verberations.
Best Regards.
Abby.
PS: I don't know why the pictures always upload sideways.
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