Use bose L1 compact as monitor, instead of venue's floor monitors?

[pdowling]

I have my sound dialed into my Bose L1 compact. I use a loop pedal, I beat box, and I loop my acoustic Taylor.

Every time I have a sound guy on a big stage at a big venue, I can never get my sound right. They want me to plug into their system using the floor wedges.

What if I use my L1 compact on stage next to me as my monitor, and pull the sound out of the back and plug that into the house? Would that decrease the house sound quality?

I don't like using the floor wedge monitors because I don't like giving up control of my sound. I can't make adjustments on the fly.

Thank you!
Pat

[Lost Sheep]

That sounds like a hard sell to the sound person. You will be feeding him/her post-production mix over which volume control is about all there for the front of house.

OK, that is actually what you want, right? FOH reproduces exactly what you hear in your monitor?

Is it that simple?

The venue's echo characteristics may alter what the audience hears. The FOH speakers may not reproduce what your monitor does.

What the audience hears may not be what is in your vision or in your ears.

Having given voice to all the things I can think of that can go wrong, I suggest you bring a friend who can wander around the venue during the performance and give yo feedback on how successful your arrangement is.

Givent that you have a clear vision of the sound you want, I expect you will succeed. As far a how well your S1 would compare to some other monitoring device, I cannot say.

Now, for the caveat. I have never done anyting like what you describe and pretty much put myself at the mercy of the soundpersons at the open mics I frequent. So, you should be aware that I am a rank amateur.

[martingitdave]

It’s like bringing a TV dinner to your favorite restaurant and asking the chef to heat it up. As a performer, we are at the mercy of the sound technician unless the room is small enough for our own gear.

[CollingsPicker]

I’ve had plenty of go-arounds with venues but if they are providing a sound-person and handling the board, I would let them do their work. They know their venue better than anyone. What I generally do in this situation is set up, run my break loop of my songs and listen from various points in the room. Unless I hear something terribly wrong, I let the venue and their sound-person work their magic. You can set your monitors so that you hear whatever you like. When I do what you are suggesting I use a monitor/amp with individual DI outs of both channels so the venue gets instrument and vocals and I can adjust my monitor for me. Their vested interest is for you to sound as good as possible.

[YamahaGuy]

FWIW at an outdoor event, [I was running sound] FOH was provided by (2) Yamaha DXS12 subs with DBR10 sitting on top of both. Our large band's 'monitor' was a Yamaha Stagepas 1K pointed at us. It worked great! Except for the drummer who was way in the backline and had a bass amp and a guitar amp on either side of him. For the rest of us it was great though.

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

It’s like bringing a TV dinner to your favorite restaurant and asking the chef to heat it up....

Lol that is perfect.

If you're at a large venue with a large stage, you can't hear up there what the audience is hearing out there anyway. Different environments. Or as Dave said, As a performer, we are at the mercy of the sound technician unless the room is small enough for our own gear.

If your main beef is that the wedge monitors suck--I've not had much luck with them myself, though in small-potatoes venues--and it's driving you nuts to perform while sounding like garbage to yourself, then as suggested, go for another monitor solution.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure as Lost Sheep said the output in the back of the L1 Compact (which I have and love) isn't dry, it delivers whatever EQ tweaks you've made, including the Tonematch setting if you use that. No house sound guy is going to work with that. Bose wiki link about it below. There's also something about how using the Tonematch feature cuts out frequencies below 60Hz, on the 1/4 inch output. I think the main function of the line out is to connect to another Compact.

There are amps (and there have to be mixers) that have a dry line out just for that purpose--send dry signal to happy house guy, hear your own tweaked signal from your amp. I think the Bugera AC60 is like that, since they tout the DI out on the back for that purpose, but I haven't confirmed it.

https://toonz.ca/bose/wiki/index.php...77ac8#Line_Out

[leew3]

As others have suggested, a small amp with a dry line out might be a solution. The LB Artist has this for each channel and might provide enough volume and eq tweaking for you to get a sound you like. the FOH person is just that, trying to make your FOH sound the best they can. Many boards don't have much in the way of EQ or shaping capacity for the monitor send. write yourself a note you can see during the performance that reminds you "I sound much better out front than what I'm hearing!"

[EZYPIKINS]

Most people who are disappointed with a house mix, are afraid to ask for , or don't know how to ask for what they want.

If there is an engineer who actually knows what they are doing.. it should go fairly quickly.

Begin with your volume at max. Eq if any set at mid position. With a pick bang all 6 strings hard to send a signal.

Once he has the gain set. Turn your volume down to about 3/4.

When he/she feeds you the monitor signal keep signaling for more volume till it's just barely too much.

Next tune your EQ and volume to suit you. What happens out front you have no control over. The engineer is going to set it how he is going to set it.

Play your set. Make you happy on stage. If you are not comfortable, you won't play well.

Otherwise get yourself a good DI box. My pick is Radial JDI.

Plug into the DI. Send the house the XLR signal. Send the thru back to your rig. Use the wedge for vocal.

[pdowling]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

It’s like bringing a TV dinner to your favorite restaurant and asking the chef to heat it up. As a performer, we are at the mercy of the sound technician unless the room is small enough for our own gear.

Just spit out my coffee reading this! Ha spot on, good call.

[pdowling]

Thank you all for responding. This was very helpful and informative.

This reminds me of a recent quote from Amy Schumer's stand up comedy book. When she was bombing on stage in front of a big crowd, she said, "you always think there is something wrong with the sound. 'I think my sound was off. The mic was off tonight.' No, the sound was fine, the mic was fine, your crappy jokes were the problem."

I'm sure there's some of that in here too. I will updated you guys as I move along Thank you for the help!

[gfsark]

A comment on when I dragged my Bose onto the stage…the sound guy was not happy because the Bose has nearly 180 degree dispersion, which means that it will bleed into every other mic in use. I hate stage monitors because they always sound so distorted to me, or I can’t hear myself, or I can’t hear the other band members…etc etc.

My conclusion is that stage monitors never get the attention they need in order to provide a well-balanced good acoustic sound. Not the fault of the speakers per se. But how much time is spent tuning up the stage monitors to get that great mix for the performers? As little as is possible.

[Stratcat77]

My duo (one acoustic guitar, two vocals) played a big room last weekend. House sound. Ugh.

Like the OP, I have my sound dialed in and am never happy with house monitors. Never again. Fortunately, it’s very rare for us to play a gig where I can’t use my own system. I have two LD Systems Maui 11 G2 arrays.

I bought this splitter box so I can plug in my mic and guitar, then send them to my own monitor (my JBL EON Compact) and also to the house. It won't give me any control over the house sound out front - just my stage monitor. I have no choice but to be at their mercy for what's out front but I'm done living with a crappy monitor!! Saturday night was a nightmare. I didn't have the time or patience to try to work with the guy to get a good monitor mix [emoji35]

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Here’s the room. Cool big stage with massive system and lights, but honestly, it felt weird as a duo!

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