[alricb]

Nitpick: often we refer to "omnidirectional" bass because, given that subwoofers are usually much smaller than bass wavelengths (around 16 ft at 60 Hz), they have an omnidirectional radiating pattern.

Live sound is usually highly artifical, with the heavy use of compression, EQ, effects, and a very exagerrated bass. For instance, all reverb is usually digital, because instruments and singers have to be close-miked to avoid feedback. Also, past a certain venue size, it's better to mike guitar amplifiers rather than make them louder or add more of them, since their radiation pattern gets very narrow at high frequencies, resulting in a "pick to the forehead" effect for the people standing directly on-axis and a muffled sound for the rest of the audience.

[simoncion]

My brain's probably just not working correctly today, but:

> Also, past a certain venue size, it's better to mike guitar amplifiers rather than make them louder or add more of them...

By "guitar amplifiers" do you mean "loudspeakers being fed the signal from a guitar and amp"? Also, I assume that miking the amps would let you feed that signal into your master sound system where you could mix it and distribute it across the venue's loudspeakers as required? (Whereas adding more amps would just mean more speakers on stage?)

[earlz]

uhh.. yes. You don't normally hook the guitar amp directly up to the loudspeakers of the venue because the speaker cabinet hooked to an amp imparts almost as much tone and color as the amp itself. (if you've ever used headphones hooked directly up to a guitar amp, it's quite painful and harsh because of this)

[ArkyBeagle]

You still want stage level to be consistent between instruments. Open-back guitar cabinets are less beamy than closed-back cabinets, and have less acoustic suspension fake bass to boot.

Live sound does not have to be particularly artificial at all so long as the venue has decent acoustics. You probably don't need the reverb or compression, and EQ is really only any good as a mixing tool.

[sp332]

Daniel Bernard Roumain, a violinist, played at my college a couple of times. He has a small amp on stage and a mic on a tiny tripod jammed right up against it. That mic went to the PA system in the auditorium. I thought it was a cool idea, and it worked great.