You see me in the studio, it's a tube amp, no question about it. That being said, especially from local gigging bands, the ones rocking modelers, and often their own sound system, much more often sound better as a band. Modern technology has made live sound a much more repeatable and consistent thing. IMO,
I’m sorry, I have to disagree with the premise.
People who can actually play well, not just by themselves, but with others, don’t need any special gear to sound like a great band. They sound excellent with modelers, and they sound excellent with tube gear, because they’re actually...good.
I’ll use my son’s band as an example, but only because I know what they did to prepare for their shows:
If you heard his band, Partybaby, on tour, you’d hear an example of a good live band composed of well-rehearsed professionals who understand dynamics, and have the ability to sound great regardless of where they’re playing. PB sounded great live on Carson Daly’s TV show with TV engineers, they sounded great opening for Tom Petty at Bottlerock with pro live sound guys, and they sounded just as great in small venues where I also heard them, in Columbus, Ohio, Pontiac, Michigan, and Detroit.
In other words, they’re a consistently great sounding band, because (a) they know what they’re doing; (b) everyone plays well with each other; (c) they prepared like crazy.
The last time they were in town, they played a decent little venue with an opening act that was on their label. Obviously, the same sound guys mixed both bands (there were two at this venue). The opening act sounded terrible and incoherent. Partybaby sounded fantastic. Same sound guys.
Maybe it’s because they spent three months rehearsing full-time, 8 hours a day, seven days a week, before playing in front of audiences, and two years full-time developing the songs?
In other words, maybe it’s because music is their profession, that they take seriously, just as you take your profession seriously enough to have studied it and got good at it by doing it 24/7.
The problem isn’t solved by the equipment; it’s solved by people who understand how to play their instruments and also how to be a band. I say this to anyone: if you don’t sound good live, don’t blame the sound guy. Listen to whatever the hell it is you’re doing, and get better at it.
That is the truth. The sound guy can’t make a bad band sound good, and frankly, can’t make a really good band sound awful. If your band sounds like crap, it ain’t the sound guy. It’s the band; the band needs to get better.
This isn’t a criticism of folks with day jobs and lives. It’s an acknowledgment that preparation and hard work pay off for anyone. If you need to, rent a rehearsal space, practice at gig volume, spend some vacation time playing together for as long as you can, and, miraculously, it won’t be about the sound guy. It’ll be about your well-rehearsed, excellent band.
Why do folks not turn out for live music these days? Well, mostly it’s because the music isn’t very much fun to listen to. Because most bands sound exactly like guys with day jobs and a music hobby.
Incidentally, this is why I have had such trepidation turning out my recordings. I realize that people are used to hearing the best people in the world’s records, and I worry about mine not being as good as theirs. So I’m not going to claim I’m a shining example of anything.
However, I will also say that the last band I played in, everyone was a touring/session pro (our drummer was the Detroit Symphony’s first-call trap set player, and the bass player toured with Prince, so we had a pretty solid rhythm section), and damn, we just showed up and sounded good, because we knew how to. The sound guy didn’t matter at all, and believe me, we didn’t have great sound guys (except for SXSW), we had the local bar dudes. But I can say that we never once complained about the sound guy, we only complained about the money!
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