“Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required” Luke 12:48 ESV
I want to go over a topic that has increasingly become a problem as technology has dropped in price allowing less experienced musicians access to amazing gear that 25 years ago was only available to professionals.However, let me back up to give some context.
As a performer, I am a minimalist when it comes to tone.I come from the Carlos Santana school of “have one great tone and focus on playing” as opposed to having hundreds of drastically different tones available.Part of this is out of necessity – I am so picky when it comes to getting the sound I want that I wouldn’t have time to practice if I changed tones every song.
This is not to say I don’t appreciate those who utilize many tone and/or effect settings when performing.Focusing on electric guitar and keyboard synthesizer, there are many musicians I admire. Guitarists that I consider masters of getting a wide range of guitar tones are Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Trevor Rabin (Yes),the Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Jimi Hendrix (Solo), David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Steve Vai (Solo), Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Steve Howe (Yes), Joe Satriani (Solo), Lincoln Brewster (Solo), and many others.
On the keyboard side of the spectrum, some of my favorites who do the tone shuffle well are Tony Banks (Genesis), Keith Emerson (ELP), Mark Kelly (Marillion), Derek Sherian (Dream Theater), Greg Hawkes (The Cars), Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Vince Clarke (Erasure), Billy Currie (Ultravox) are a small sample.
Some bassists who use effects well are Doug Wimbish (Living Colour), Chris Wolstenholme (Muse), Tim Commerford (Rage Against the Machine) as well as Juan Alderete (The Mars Volta). **
So what is the topic I want to highlight in this post?Looking at the list of musicians listed above, there is one thing they do well that many novices often overlook.This is the concept of matching patch volumes.What I mean by this is keeping the relative volume of a tone setting/patch as similar as possible to each other.There is no hard and fast rule, and perhaps the best way to handle this is to simply be aware of the volume when going between tone settings.
I have heard from several soundmen that changing tone settings is one of the most difficult issues they deal with in a live performance mix.Think of it from the soundman’s perspective mixing a live band with an electric guitarist and a keyboardist for a moment.While mixing the song in real time, the keyboard is using a Hammond B3 patch and then transitions to a piano patch for a few seconds of the song.Let’s say the piano patch is lower in volume than the B3 patch.What will the soundman do?Assuming he can identify what happened in time, he will boost the piano part of the song.What happens when the keyboard player goes back to the lower volume B3 patch?You guessed it, suddenly the patch is too loud.On top of that, let’s say the guitarist is going from a chorus drenched setting to a heavily distorted setting in the same song.If the volume settings are very different (and it doesn’t take much to make them seem different in a mix), the soundman is scrambling to change things.
There are exceptions like when a lead guitar is about to go into a solo and may need a slight volume boost.However, I still feel if as a performer you keep the relative volume of the solo part similar to the tone of the non solo part, the soundman can handle that easily.If as a performer you are conscious of the volume settings between your tone patches and try to equalize them, you can make the soundman’s job much easier and the overall band mix better.While the Bible verse quoted above is taken out of context, it applies to the concept of patch volume equalization: if you have the power of amazing equipment allowing you many different sounds, you have a responsibility to keep the relative volumes the same when using these many different sounds or risk harming the overall live mix.
