Re: [Harp-L] Amp overkill

[Wolf Kristiansen <wolfkristiansen@xxxxxxxx>]

Can you stand one more comment on this topic?  It's not directly about amp overkill, but it's definitely related.  

I'm the first to acknowledge that there are gig venues where everyone must be miked or plugged into a public address system (P.A.) to get the sound out to the audience.  I.e., arenas, outdoor gigs, etc.

But I'm from a certain generation that remembers this:  P.A.s were for vocals; the instruments were amplified through stand alone amps, one for each instrument.  I first got acquainted with the novel idea that everything comes through towers of speakers, one on each side of the stage, when I started going to rock concerts.

Here's the advantage of individual instrument amps being the main sound source for those instruments:  Each musician's sound is coming from a different location on the stage.  I like that.  It's sort of like being at an all acoustic, unamplified concert-- the guitar comes from one side of the stage, the stand up bass from the other, maybe a harmonica from left center, the singer in the middle, etc. 

What do I like about it?  It's hard to say exactly, but when it's done right, there's both a blending and differentiation of the instrument sounds.  The resultant overall sound is richer and more sonically complex than the mush that comes out of P.A. speakers, where every single performance sound originates from the same speaker(s).

So up to a point, volume wise, I much prefer amplified performances to come out of on stage instrument amplifiers, not a P.A.  

Cheers,

wolf kristiansen




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