Band problems Rant

[Hagel123]

the members of my band have been complaining about how loud I've gotten since I started getting pedals and switching from a bb750 head to an svt. Our guitar player says he can't keep up with me anymore and should haven't to turn up so loud. Meanwhile, he has the ability to rock a 6x12 (412 + 212) but doesn't.

WHY CANT EVERYONE JUST LOVE TO TURN UP AND DOOM OUT A BIT?!?

This band isn't a doom band. Not even in the slightest. I need to start one here. Stoner doom/drones.

[archlilim]

My band has the opposite problem. One person gets a cab and turns up and then the other is like "fuck I need to be louder" *buys more cabs* It's a perilous cycle.

[Iommic Pope]

Hagel, tell him to bring his 612 and man up.
Is he playing a tube head or SS?
I found when I was running SS I couldn't compete either.

In the meantime, start dragging the band down towards the sludgiest depths...

[gusman2x]

Yeah, we have a problem with the turn upsies. Mainly the other guitarist, which pisses me off only ever so slightly.

[kbit]

EXPERIMENT TIME: have two practice sessions, one where you turn down yr amp, one where the other guitarist turns up and/or uses his 612 abilities. record both if you can, just a field recorder or something (as long as it doesnt clip).

After doing both (maybe more than once) see how everyone in the band (not just yall guitarists) feels about the volume difference, see what sounds different in the recordings.

[antennafarm]

how about collaborate instead of dominate?

is it a band or is it your musical jack shack?

[Timm Grimm]

We started out really loud at practice but then realized... it's just practice. We started leaving the real volume for shows and keep practice fairly quiet.(But quiet is still pretty relative. We are a doom band afterall.) Different approaches. But I feel you, there is nothing like a cranked SVT.

[D.o.S.]

how about collaborate instead of dominate?

is it a band or is it your musical jack shack?

[HeavyXIII]

Ya, I hear ya on the volume deal. Of all the people in our practice space, I'm easily the loudest or second loudest (depending on how many cabs our bassist runs). I do value my hearing though, and it would likely be easier to play together if we could all hear each other...

I think I'll try running one stack instead of 2, and just turning up its master volume. Additionally, I need to get the preamp of my 100W AOR looked at. None of the pull boosts do anything, at least compared to my 50W.

[ShaolinLambKiller]

I believe in jamming/ practicing at the volume you will at a show because that way any chance of someone being too loud is negated early on. Writing you can turn down. Though I don't. Hell by myself I write using 2 or 3 rigs going at once now.

I've literally never played in a single band where we played at low volumes, I've always delt with people of all types of music, including blues that wanted to turn up loud as fucking possible. Most of the bands i've been in have been single guitar bands so I don't have much experience with duel guitarists aside from the one band I was in with a friend where i ended up going to drums when the drummer quit/fired and the couple of instances where we had a 2nd guitarist in a couple of my bands but wasn't around long enough to ever start debating sound and volume differences.

also overall didn't have a problem when I was a bassist, yea at first when I had shit gear and then got an 810 and then eventually later got a ampeg B4R so the guitarist when to running 2 Marshall JCM 900 half stacks. Oh yea there was that time my sludge band had a second guitarist and finally got to play a show all together and I used that Ampeg but with a Peavey 210 218 and they both ran duel Ampeg SS150 half stacks. because we could. We were louder than Zoroaster and Mouth of the Architect at that show.... what were we talking about I forgot.

[backwardsvoyager]

EXPERIMENT TIME: have two practice sessions, one where you turn down yr amp, one where the other guitarist turns up and/or uses his 612 abilities. record both if you can, just a field recorder or something (as long as it doesnt clip).

After doing both (maybe more than once) see how everyone in the band (not just yall guitarists) feels about the volume difference, see what sounds different in the recordings.

this.

and being in a band is about listening - to what you're doing and what other people are doing.
assuming your band has a drummer - use the drum kit as a reference volume and scale your amps so the perceived volumes are similar and nothing is drowning anything out.
unless the whole drum kit is mic'd in your practice space you can't just 'turn it up'. guitars can be balanced at any volume so your volume needs to be scaled to the drums before working out if the other guitarist should turn up.
there is nothing worse than a band that thinks they sound good just because they're loud and ends up being out of time because nobody is listening to instruments besides their own.
but we don't know your situation so you might be at an appropriate volume and just be dealing with a couple of pussies that don't like having their eardrums assaulted. my point still stands though.

[maggot]

EXPERIMENT TIME: have two practice sessions, one where you turn down yr amp, one where the other guitarist turns up and/or uses his 612 abilities. record both if you can, just a field recorder or something (as long as it doesnt clip).

After doing both (maybe more than once) see how everyone in the band (not just yall guitarists) feels about the volume difference, see what sounds different in the recordings.

this.

and being in a band is about listening - to what you're doing and what other people are doing.
assuming your band has a drummer - use the drum kit as a reference volume and scale your amps so the perceived volumes are similar and nothing is drowning anything out.
unless the whole drum kit is mic'd in your practice space you can't just 'turn it up'. guitars can be balanced at any volume so your volume needs to be scaled to the drums before working out if the other guitarist should turn up.
there is nothing worse than a band that thinks they sound good just because they're loud and ends up being out of time because nobody is listening to instruments besides their own.
but we don't know your situation so you might be at an appropriate volume and just be dealing with a couple of pussies that don't like having their eardrums assaulted. my point still stands though.

Correctomundo! Ask the drummer. Doom has to be loud but you have an acoustic instrument in the band. If the drummer feels comfortable it will make the music sound louder than that little bit of volume between ultra-loud and ultra-ultra-ultra loud. Some bands kinda suck because the drummer is back there about to stroke out, or you can't hear the drummer. Size over amplitude if necessary. You're already loud. I do think the guitar player should use that extra cabinet, though. Why leave speakers on the sidelines? If you use as many speakers as you can and scale the volume level to the drums, you'll sound humungous every time. Additionally unless the drummer is playing wimpy, playing with tiny sticks, etc. don't ask him to step it up that much. He's an actual person and an amp is just an amp.

Most of the shows that I've played that had the best guitar sounds have not necessarily been the best shows. Those are when you can hear each other, even when you're after high-volume domination.

[cedarskies]

i like to practice quietly enough to talk over. easier to make out what everyone's doing and easier to communicate. can't use volume as a crutch when writing. and then you crank it at a show and it's awesome and you're all pumped up about everything.

scaling the volume to the drums is the universal way to go, though.

[maggot]

I could never practice that quiet, unless it's a writing session with another person. But maybe that's why all my song structures are dumb. For the longest time, when I was playing by myself, I wouldn't even plug in. And then I'd wonder why everyone else's tones were better.

[Timm Grimm]

EXPERIMENT TIME: have two practice sessions, one where you turn down yr amp, one where the other guitarist turns up and/or uses his 612 abilities. record both if you can, just a field recorder or something (as long as it doesnt clip).

After doing both (maybe more than once) see how everyone in the band (not just yall guitarists) feels about the volume difference, see what sounds different in the recordings.

this.

and being in a band is about listening - to what you're doing and what other people are doing.
assuming your band has a drummer - use the drum kit as a reference volume and scale your amps so the perceived volumes are similar and nothing is drowning anything out.
unless the whole drum kit is mic'd in your practice space you can't just 'turn it up'. guitars can be balanced at any volume so your volume needs to be scaled to the drums before working out if the other guitarist should turn up.
there is nothing worse than a band that thinks they sound good just because they're loud and ends up being out of time because nobody is listening to instruments besides their own.
but we don't know your situation so you might be at an appropriate volume and just be dealing with a couple of pussies that don't like having their eardrums assaulted. my point still stands though.

This is the level I meant by "fairly quiet". We go by the drummers volume level.