Live Band Rant

[ElvisFan]

On Saturday nights my local has on what I would say are some pretty decent bands. Speaking as a non-musician they might not be good but their musicianship seems good to my ears anyway. You see all these guitarists with their banks of effects pedals and stuff but one thing really boils my goat and that is:

WHY DON'T THE SINGERS EVER HAVE ANY EFFECTS ON THEIR MICS???

The musicians go to all the bother with the pedals etc, yet they can't put a bit of reverb on their damned mics. Totally ruins the entire performance to me because it sounds so harsh and dead with no ambience.

The singer in the band that was on last night was a girl with a cracking voice, yet she sounded terrible because of the dry mic.

Am I missing something here?

I would like to hear dmpoole's input on this subject.

 

[ElvisFan]

I think it can very easily ruin voices if not done correctly. A lot of people seem to be of the opinion that it'd be somehow *cheating* as well.

I love distortion and reverb on vocals, it can sound amazing done correctly.

It's not cheating. A live PA robs the voice of a quality that simply has to be put back in. I'm not talking about strange effects, I'm talking about just enough reverb to bring the ambience back. Without it everybody sounds as bad as Nizlopi.

 

[ElvisFan]

Mike,

I think you have missed the whole point of the thread.

I'm on about people who don't use ANY reverb, not people who use too much.