We hit on the topic of live mixing and the volume restraint that is necessary at most venues these days. I shared some stories about my own band's struggles in this area, and he told me about how his metal band achieve, mixes, and monitors their sound live. What he told me was kinda shocking. I knew that this stuff was going on with the super big pop artists on their arena tours, and even knew that rock and metal bands also used this kind of assistance (not too long ago on Blabbermouth Sebastion Bach was on rant about it), but I didn't realize that small bands at the bar and club level were doing it.
So here's how this guy's metal band does sound live. Everybody is going direct and using amp modelers, all the drums are micd, and everything goes into the board. There are no amps in the backline and everything comes through the mains. Everyone on stage has in-ear monitors and has the ability to control exactly how much they need to hear of every individual channel. But here's the part that threw me for a loop: They're not just hearing a click or a metronome in their in-ear monitors (what I has assumed), but rather the entire prerecorded tune. Additionally, individual tracks of the prerecorded tune drop in our out of the mains during the performance. He told me that most big rock and metal acts do exactly this. Iron Maiden was one he cited specifically.
Think about the implications of this. A band (or sound guy) can blend in whatever degree of the pre-recorded tune, or individual pre-recorded tracks, at any time. So a guitarist can be playing a solo along with the full recording in his in-ear monitors, with maybe a bit of the recording coming through the mains. If your live guitar is washed in effects, reverb, delay, and so on, who in the audience is going to be able to tell how much pre-recorded guitar is being blended in to "sweeten" it up? Obviously singers can do this too, as Paul Stanley has been much criticized for in recent years.
I was just wondering what everyone else here thinks about this. I have no compunction sharing my feelings on the subject, which is that I find it horrifying! To me it signals the death of musicianship. It's almost like these guys are playing Guitar Hero on stage, or like the musicians equivalent of using a walker. How the hell did we get here? Is my thinking that the words "artist," "musician," and "performer" are synonymous with the word "skilled" totally out of sync with the times? Have I become just a cranky old man?
Anyways, would love to hear everyone's thoughts.
But other than that, I can listen to recordings or open a can of tuna at home.
