What's your best example of Keep It Simple Stupid paying off?

[Fenriswolf]

This came up the other day when I was talking to my buddies who also used to be in bands.

I know there was one time the band I was in was used to a certain setup, sound guy, all that shit, and then we had a different one and nothing worked right. They were freaking out, I was like Ima take a smoke break, get your shit right, and then I'll sound check with you. I come from a long line of honky tonk musicians, you have a 15 watt Vox, I have a 120 watt Peavey 212.

It's not my fault I grew up around live music where only the vocals and maybe the drums got a mic.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

I color-coordinated the outputs from my ABY because I kept getting them mixed up. The GREEN light goes to the GREEN cable goes to the GREEN amplifier. No more problems... at least until my roommate asks for his green cable back.

 

[broj15]

Used to run 2 ~50w combos in stereo with certain pedals in the loop and out front of each. Now I just use a half stack and run all my pedals in the front (vintage amp with no effects loop) and set up is way simpler and troubleshooting problems is much faster on the rare occasion that they arise.

 

[col]

Kemper to foh and stage monitors. No cab of my own. Makes setup and loading a breeze.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

I ditched the stereo reverb in my signal chain and just use two different amps with different spring reverb character. It's not exactly the same, but it still does the "bewildering 3D soundscape" thing and I have less pesky noise. Now I only bust out the stereo FX when I have an opportunity to do a 3-amp wet/dry/wet setup, the quintessential opposite of KISS.

Keeping it simple, while keeping it complicated.

And of course the OG, I traded my first 7 for a baritele and never looked back.

 

[Grindspine]

I have got my Ibanez EHB1505ms bass straight into a DarkGlass Microtubes 900 v2 head into a pair of Mesa/Boogie Subway Ultra-lite cabs (2x10 and 1x12). I am still beyond pleased with that Microtubes amp having compressor, 2x distortion circuits, great cleans, and a six-band GEQ on board. That bass rig has been exactly what I wanted without additional pedals.

Unless you're playing an acoustic, it is hard to go simpler than guitar > amp > cab. My guitar rigs still rely on pedals to fine tune the sound going into the front end of the amps though.

Additionally, for recording, that DarkGlass amp has the cabinet emulated direct output. Between that and my Mesa Mark 525 having a CabClone out, those make home recording so much simpler without having to worry about mic placement or volume.

 

[Fenriswolf]

Kemper to foh and stage monitors. No cab of my own. Makes setup and loading a breeze.

This story is a little preKemper, but kinda the reason I'm still so anti-modeler. While I was taking my smoke break, they were trying to hook up the other guitar players (I don't remember what it was called, but the Boss version of a POD), the DI box and the snake and all that was giving us nightmares.

Also, the reason I switched to the Peavey, I had the higher watt version of the main guitar players Vox, I had to run it straight into the DI box, so no stage sound, because we didn't have monitors or in ears or anything. It's one edge I feel like I have over everyone, i might not be able to play to a click, but I can play to a drummer without being able to hear what I'm doing.

 

[GunpointMetal]

Doing FOH myself off our IEM rack in smaller venues. No more confusing the bar back/sound guy. Run two XLRs to whatever the mixer is, pull up my "Small Room Bad PA" preset, tweak two things, done.

 

[KentBrockman]

Ditched the head and cab for a floor modeler and a monitor when I play out. My back thanks me for it. Plus, it's easier to fit into my car (small Subaru BRZ).

I am an engineer and it is in my nature to keep things nice and practical.

 

[John]

Axe-FX to FOH and stage monitors.

 

[Fenriswolf]

Ditched the head and cab for a floor modeler and a monitor when I play out. My back thanks me for it. Plus, it's easier to fit into my car (small Subaru BRZ).

I am an engineer and it is in my nature to keep things nice and practical.

As far as practical goes with modelers, I know the exact sound I want. 2 channels, Marshall Plexi and JCM800. I don't need any effects on it, I've been using the same pedals since before AxeFx was a thing. I need something like if EA made modelers.

 

[Drew]

I color-coordinated the outputs from my ABY because I kept getting them mixed up. The GREEN light goes to the GREEN cable goes to the GREEN amplifier. No more problems... at least until my roommate asks for his green cable back.

I had to un-rack my Apogee to send it back to the factory for repair, and I've accumulated a LOT of recording hardware over the years - 500-series chassis, several 19" rack preamps, front-panel mic inputs leading to the inputs for all the racked gear, etc. for once, I had the good sense to go through and label all my cables, using painter's tape and a Sharpie, while taking it apart, so I could quickly go through and know which cable went to which channel on the Apogee when I assembled everything back up.

That XLR input strip was great too, I can switch mic pres just by moving the cable to a different input in the patch bay, as was the fact Apogee allows you to rename channels on your interface and have those come up in your DAW, so I can select from the input dropdown in Reaper things like "BAE/EQ 1" or "CAPI 1" rather than trying to remember which channel is which.

 

[High Plains Drifter]

We were playing a gig in Kemah/ Seabrook and I was a pretty shitty guitarist and I dunno why but I was particularly nervous that day about performing. So I was kinda taking my time unloading gear and whatnot and my buddy was like why you taking so long? My simple/ stupid reaction was "The longer we take to get up there, the drunker they'll be and the better we'll sound!". No idea if that really worked but the Sunday afternoon crowd was definitely drunk and they definitely liked our set so ... maybe my logic paid off.

 

[tedtan]

We were playing a gig in Kemah/ Seabrook and I was a pretty shitty guitarist and I dunno why but I was particularly nervous that day about performing. So I was kinda taking my time unloading gear and whatnot and my buddy was like why you taking so long? My simple/ stupid reaction was "The longer we take to get up there, the drunker they'll be and the better we'll sound!". No idea if that really worked but the Sunday afternoon crowd was definitely drunk and they definitely liked our set so ... maybe my logic paid off.

I used to live 5 minutes from Kemah; people were probably drunk before you went on anyway.

Where were you playing?

 

[High Plains Drifter]

They very likely were! This would've been back in maybe 1994 or so. And you may not believe it but if memory serves me correctly, I wanna say that it was a place called.... "The Bar" lolol. I might be mistaken but I think that was it. I do remember that it was a really early gig as well... like maybe 4pm? Band was called Orion and I was only with them for maybe a year.