Is running your own vocal effects so terrible?

[astorian]

Hello

I am having an ongoing debate with a singer regarding the merits of running your own vocal effects live. My argument is that in most settings -- where you don't have your own guy at the board -- that it would be advantageous to run your own pre, compression, and reverb/chorus/delay. Most guys working bars and small clubs aren't being paid enough to really care too much ...

He argues that you'll simply make it more difficult to get a great sound, and that because every room is different, it always helps to leave these things to the FOH guy.

So what is so wrong about giving the house a direct vocal out?

John

[Remoteness]

He has a point, but I'm with you on this one especially when everything is dialed in perfectly with each song having its own pre-programed settings and such.

Even if it's not programable, the fact that you can feed the exact sound you want each and everytime is a positive situation.

Even if you have a compitent FOH engineer it can work very well for you.

YMMV, but at over $3.00 USD per gal. for regular do you really want to leave it up to an unknown fader jockey?

[astorian]

Thanks again Steve.

If you were putting something like that together, what would you consider the essentials? I would think a pre, compressor, and some type of recallable reverb/delay/chorus unit ... along with a DI. Durability is a major issue of course ... and making sure you are ready for crumby electrical.

Cheers and thanks!

John

[RadioBox]

I worked for a band as a "vocal tech" for a while. We had a little rack for the vocals, and I would simply set it up by the sound guy, and control the vocal effects from there. It still went into the sound board, but I would always leave myself lots of headroom to play with if the sound guy was burying the vocals. It was fun for awhile.

[Jim vanBergen]

I thought this was a bad idea until I mixed the Butthole Surfers and their lead singer travels with a rack of gear designed for this exact situation. Mic preamp with split out for FOH and monitors, his EFX rack to include multi-efx unit and dedicated tap delay, and it works amazingly well, because he has worked and tuned the crap out of it and knows exactly what to do.

Whatever works, works!

Jim

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by astorian

Thanks again Steve.

If you were putting something like that together, what would you consider the essentials? I would think a pre, compressor, and some type of recallable reverb/delay/chorus unit ... along with a DI. Durability is a major issue of course ... and making sure you are ready for crumby electrical.

Cheers and thanks!

John

I think it really has to do with your budget and what kind of sound(s) you're looking for.

Make sure your rack and roadcase RAWKS!

Keep in mind evryone has to plug into the same electric, so what you do for this rig you really should do for every rig.