Bucketheadtwo
ΔSCΞΠD BΞYΘΠD
I know my situation isn't exactly unique and I'm definitely not the first person to post about this, but I'm looking for very specific, detailed recommendations about my situation, please and thank you!
I'm a guitar player who makes metal music. I want to play live, but don't have a band and miss playing shows, so I'm thinking about biting the bullet and performing alone.
I have guitars, pedals, a NI Komplete Audio 6 Mk2 USB audio interface, a laptop, Reaper, some plugins, and a Peavey 6505+ combo
I plan on my signal chain being: guitar -> pedals -> interface -> laptop -> Reaper -> plugins -> interface out to: a) amp fx loop (for stage sound out of the cab) / b) FOH for everything but click / c) in-ear monitors (click, tracks, self-monitoring). I would likely program my sets in a Reaper project and control all of my tone changes through programming my plugins so that my amp simply acts as a powered cab and I can limit my gear or any tapdancing. If I plan to sing also, that'd make guitar+vox at the same time easier.
My concerns are:
1) I need to purchase some sort of in-ear monitor rig, so the IEM buds themselves and something to make them wireless. Do I need anything else for that? Any recommendations?
2) What's the best and cheapest way to set up my laptop on a stage? In case I ever need to do something on it besides pressing play and performing my set (ideally lol), I don't want to worry about sitting, crouching, hunching over to use it or knocking it over while moving around on stage. I figure a lot of those tall rack cases on wheels are pretty pricy and overkill if I'm not storing much, if anything, inside of them.
3) Should all of my backing tracks be mono? I know that a lot of people simply smash everything down into one whole mono channel to send to FOH, but I'm worried about how messed up the mix might be. Most people seem to do that for auxiliary tracks that can't be performed by the rest of the band, usually not entire stereo (at least in the "studio" version) songs like in my case. If I make tracks where I cut out whatever guitar part I'm playing at any given time (so that I can perform it myself) how does that affect things over a mono backing track vs stereo? Do I have enough outs from my interface for everything? What are my best options? I'm not sure how the guitar panning thing throughout the song works. Sometimes in my songs, the rhythm guitars are harmonizing, playing different riffs, or the focus is on the centered lead. I also have some parts in songs where only one L/R guitar part is playing or things kind of bounce between L and R for fun effects (ex. a glitchy Veil of Maya song). What's the best solution that's easy for me, the FOH guys, and sounds acceptable for the audience?
I'm most worried about the last one, if my setup makes sense, or how expensive accomplishing something reasonable might be (even though performing alone is a bit awkward to begin with) if I have to buy a lot of extra gear compared to what I have to work this out. Thanks!
I'm a guitar player who makes metal music. I want to play live, but don't have a band and miss playing shows, so I'm thinking about biting the bullet and performing alone.
I have guitars, pedals, a NI Komplete Audio 6 Mk2 USB audio interface, a laptop, Reaper, some plugins, and a Peavey 6505+ combo
I plan on my signal chain being: guitar -> pedals -> interface -> laptop -> Reaper -> plugins -> interface out to: a) amp fx loop (for stage sound out of the cab) / b) FOH for everything but click / c) in-ear monitors (click, tracks, self-monitoring). I would likely program my sets in a Reaper project and control all of my tone changes through programming my plugins so that my amp simply acts as a powered cab and I can limit my gear or any tapdancing. If I plan to sing also, that'd make guitar+vox at the same time easier.
My concerns are:
1) I need to purchase some sort of in-ear monitor rig, so the IEM buds themselves and something to make them wireless. Do I need anything else for that? Any recommendations?
2) What's the best and cheapest way to set up my laptop on a stage? In case I ever need to do something on it besides pressing play and performing my set (ideally lol), I don't want to worry about sitting, crouching, hunching over to use it or knocking it over while moving around on stage. I figure a lot of those tall rack cases on wheels are pretty pricy and overkill if I'm not storing much, if anything, inside of them.
3) Should all of my backing tracks be mono? I know that a lot of people simply smash everything down into one whole mono channel to send to FOH, but I'm worried about how messed up the mix might be. Most people seem to do that for auxiliary tracks that can't be performed by the rest of the band, usually not entire stereo (at least in the "studio" version) songs like in my case. If I make tracks where I cut out whatever guitar part I'm playing at any given time (so that I can perform it myself) how does that affect things over a mono backing track vs stereo? Do I have enough outs from my interface for everything? What are my best options? I'm not sure how the guitar panning thing throughout the song works. Sometimes in my songs, the rhythm guitars are harmonizing, playing different riffs, or the focus is on the centered lead. I also have some parts in songs where only one L/R guitar part is playing or things kind of bounce between L and R for fun effects (ex. a glitchy Veil of Maya song). What's the best solution that's easy for me, the FOH guys, and sounds acceptable for the audience?
I'm most worried about the last one, if my setup makes sense, or how expensive accomplishing something reasonable might be (even though performing alone is a bit awkward to begin with) if I have to buy a lot of extra gear compared to what I have to work this out. Thanks!