Live gigs and volume.

[markolguitar1]

With the new Stadium has anything changed with regards to how you setup your stage volume? I'm still having a hard time cutting through live drums on stage even with two Power Cab Plus speakers. Is anyone changing parameters in the global settings that they could share here?

 

[silverhead]

The volume of the Stadium, or any other guitar multi-processor device, doesn’t really affect the ability for a guitar to ‘cut through’ in a band mix on stage. Volume is less critical than EQ, making sure the guitar frequencies are highlighted. A guitar tone that sounds great while practicing alone won’t necessarily cut through on stage. I suggest you experiment in rehearsal with the band to find better EQ settings for your preset(s). Or make a recording of certain songs or just song sections with everyone in the band playing except you. Then take that home and experiment with adding your guitar to the mix. Focus on the mid range where the guitar shines and cut the low end to get rid of muddiness that results from fighting with your bass player for those frequencies. You could use Global EQ for this but that’s really intended to be adjusted to suit different venues you may play in rather than to compensate for all presets. Learn the EQ settings that work with your band and apply those to all presets.

 

 Might be helpful to get your drummer to play less aggressively but good luck with that.

[markolguitar1]

On 5/22/2026 at 8:05 AM, silverhead said:

The volume of the Stadium, or any other guitar multi-processor device, doesn’t really affect the ability for a guitar to ‘cut through’ in a band mix on stage. Volume is less critical than EQ, making sure the guitar frequencies are highlighted. A guitar tone that sounds great while practicing alone won’t necessarily cut through on stage. I suggest you experiment in rehearsal with the band to find better EQ settings for your preset(s). Or make a recording of certain songs or just song sections with everyone in the band playing except you. Then take that home and experiment with adding your guitar to the mix. Focus on the mid range where the guitar shines and cut the low end to get rid of muddiness that results from fighting with your bass player for those frequencies. You could use Global EQ for this but that’s really intended to be adjusted to suit different venues you may play in rather than to compensate for all presets. Learn the EQ settings that work with your band and apply those to all presets.

 

 Might be helpful to get your drummer to play less aggressively but good luck with that.

Thank you. You have given me a place to start.

[silverhead]

The following is a bit theoretical but may be useful for you…..

 

You know from using any guitar tuner that standard tuning is A440. That’s the frequency of the A note on the 5th fret of the 1st (high E) string. An octave in music is a doubling of the frequency. Hence the A note on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string has a frequency of 220, and the open A 5th string is 110. The 17th fret of the 1st string is 880. When you want to have those frequencies ‘cut through’ make sure you make them prominent in your EQ settings. The most common way to do this is to cut adjacent frequencies rather than boost those frequencies, but you can do either or a combination of both. I like to use a parametric EQ to let me select specific frequencies to target . Experiment with the Q value to broaden or narrow the effective frequency range. Relatively small adjustments of 2-5 db can make a big difference to the tone.

 

For each song solo think about where you are playing on the fretboard and what frequency range is involved. Focus on making those frequencies prominent. It may be different for different songs; it may even be different for each song section. That’s where Snapshots come in really handy; a Verse snapshot and a Lead snapshot with different EQ settings. A small lead boost is helpful too but frequencies are important.

 

As already mentioned interactions with your bass player can muddy the low end. Understand the frequencies they are using in each song and leave that range to them; cut those in your guitar tone - not so much that they are gone but enough that they don’t interfere.

 

Hope this is helpful and doesn’t come across as stating the obvious.

[jpdennis]

@markolguitar1

 

As mentioned by @silverhead it's always in the frequencies.  While this won't directly be apples to apples  I found this video intriguing the other day.  And, since I am only limited by my own mind, I am going to see how I can use the Stadium XL multipaths out for hearing how close I can come to this physical concept in the virtual world.

 

 

jpd

[theElevators]

I have a lot of experience with the live sound mix and my OG Helix.  If you want to "cut" through the mix, there are several ingredients and lack thereof to achieve that.  

 

So number one: reverb sounds good at home, sounds good when you record your guitar directly, but live it buries you and make your playing unintelligible.  If you have any type of hall reverb, it should be lowered to a minimum, or removed.  Concert spaces have natural reverb, so you really do not need any, except for special effects, or for that drippy reverb sound that surf music requires.  Instead of reverb, I use subtle ping-pong delay that bounces a few times left/right, but does not cover up the initial attach of the note/chord.  There are also "ducking" reverbs that let the note ring out, before applying.  Also for regular reverb, the "pre-delay" parameter is very useful to be able to hear the initial attack of the note, without which it becomes a mess. 

 

For live concerts, there's a separate independent mix done on purpose--to represent what it sounds like in the venue, by adding all the reverb, etc back to the sound.  And I stress, it's an independent mix from the actual FOH sound mix.  If a concert is broadcast on TV, there are 2 sound mixers working independently of each other.    

 

So while reverb sounds good and can make your playing sound smoother and better, for live use it's not to be overused.  I've listened to board mixes of my live concerts where I played and the guitar doesn't necessarily sound great direct.   But that's the whole point--your guitar's sound needs to work for the venue's acoustics, not to sound great as a concert recording.  I've also reviewed concert footage that people have posted from their phones, and confirm that that it sounded great with plenty of ambiance.  

 

 

 

Number two: for solos my approach that has worked for me is always boosting the 2K frequency with an equalizer in my chain.  Turning up the volume does not work due to limiters, and whatever else the sound system has.  When I needed to really cut through the horns and all that stuff, I boosted it by 10 db for the solo snapshot.  Nowadays I go from 2 to about 6 db.  Some songs need a deafeningly-loud solo, some don't.  So I play by ear.  Also depends on the pickups that I use.  Single coils already sound pretty glassy, so further EQ-ing is going to sound extremely piercing if overdone.  

 

You should not have too much of that 2K frequency, as it is known to be headache-inducing.  And when boosting this frequency you will definitely be heard.  In my old band I didn't constantly noodle all over the place, I had a few concise solos and that's when it was used.  Also I've used it for clean lead lines as well, think "Day Tripper" by the Beatles.  That's all 2K, but it's not constantly hitting you over the head, I'd never strum chords with that sound.... 

[bigfishcatcher]

the stadium does seem lower volume than my

old helix for sure