The good ol 'Amps wide open or not' debate.

joey21

Hi guys and gals!

First time on a forum, so i thought ild open up my first thread with an issue that seems to cause a lot of discussion on the net and in the audio visual world on a whole.

Amps fully open..? Amps ran at 3'o clock..! or attenuate the amp to where you think you need it or where it sounds better to your ears and let the processor limiters do their job.
Now i suppose in the digital mixing world, unwanted noise isn't as much as a problem as it use to be, to when mixing on analog systems.
In saying that, amp settings in my opinion should be the last thing you turn up, after correctly setting a good gain structure through the preamps all the way to the outboard then, deciding how much volume you wish to dial into the amplifier.

I know every environment, venue and/or equipment , sometimes requires the technician to adjust their workflow and do the best they can with the environment they're in but i suppose my question to any experienced FOH techs or just anyone who knows about sound is- Am i doing the right thing in setting amp levels last and are there any techniques for gain setting maybe with amps wide open and the attenuating outboard with optimum fader position, bit of a mine field. Or maybe I'm thinking too much about it.

Any response is much appreciated!

IsaacJDean

Are you speaking from a live context or in the studio?

In a live situation your amp needs to be loud enough to sound good on its own for the mic to get a decent signal and no louder. Otherwise the sound engineer can't do anything with it if the amp can be heard over the PA. Nothing worse than a sandbagged backline.

If talking from a controlled environment like a studio you always, ALWAYS start with the source that goes with everything in life really, cooking, wood work, essays, etc). Get the amp to sound it's best then mic it up. If we're talking rock/metal/etc guitar the amp needs to be loud enough to get the speakers in the cab visibly moving on palm mutes/low notes to really get the air moving. Then mic it (while wearing ear protection). In general this means the amp is in its comfort zone and the so is the cab.

Obvious caveats being whether your amp can actually get that loud for the sound you want and if it actually sounds good that loud...and if you have the environment to play that loud. If not, obviously don't push it. Just get it to sound its best then go on to mic it up.

A small side note: when I say 'sounds best' I mean to you and what you think will work in the context of the mix.

Obviously an opinion but I stand quite strongly with it

KelvinS1965

I could be wrong, but after typing out a long reply myself a week or two ago, I realised that the OP is talking about PA amplifiers. Otherwise I fully agree with your comments about setting the guitar amp volume to get the best tone, then mic up accordingly.

If I'm correct then I think that setting the gain structure through out the chain, with the overall level controlled by the PA amp gain controls is the correct procedure to follow. (Similar to what I do at home using a PA amp to drive my 15" passive subwoofers).

IsaacJDean

Oh that makes more sense and yes I agree! Gain staging is never emphasised enough. Baffles me what some people do because they don't know about it.