Mids helped me

[audreyplays]

Hi!

Recently I played a rock covers’ gig at a venue. They had a small backline amp, so the trio that I am a part of decided not to take our amp there.

As we started playing, I had trouble cutting through the mix. I had plugged my guitar into their amp.

They had mic’d the amp. We paused after our first song, and tried to work out why my guitar was being inaudible. Our bassist knows some technical aspects, and they turned up the mids on the control panel of the amp. My guitar was no longer buried in the mix.

Earlier I had used the only pedal I have (apart from a tuner) a 1-knob boost, but my sound had still disappeared.

After returning home, I looked at the EQ controls on my amp. It has been months since I set it up, but the bass on it was turned down. I googled a little and found that amps like mine with 2-band EQ set in a similar way will somehow increase the mids.

I am now aware that in order to be heard, mids are our friend. I found a helpful video and tips prepared by Justin on dialing in an amp soon after. Wish I would have viewed them earlier.

I don’t usually have to plug in to backline amps. But I am guessing an overdrive pedal with a mids control will be helpful for someone who regularly has to access backline amps. There are many overdrive pedals available, so it will be confusing to find an affordable (at the most maybe 70$), reliable one with such a feature.

I just wish I would have seen the excellent info posted by Justin earlier. I thank him for educating me on dialing in amps. Have a nice day, everyone

[roger_holland]

@audreyplays

But I am guessing an overdrive pedal with a mids control will be helpful for someone who regularly has to access backline amps. There are many overdrive pedals available, so it will be confusing to find an affordable, reliable one (at the most 70$ maybe) with such a feature.

Hi Audrey,
There’s a good chance that I don’t understand it all, but because of this sentence I’ll post a link in the hope that it will be of some use to you… I’m very unfamiliar with this area, so I don’t think I can be any good help. …at random this with the best intentions

NPD - Equalizer -

Hello interested people I present to you The Boss Equalizer GE-7 [20240205_122013] [20240205_122122] Last weekend, 5 of my 8 pedals were moved to a higher position to get to know them better and I had not yet been able to try the Equalizer at all … (and I had not worn the Delay after a day a long time ago)… It’s normal for me to set up a pedal and then just turn the on/off and the buttons remain untouched…in most cases because I can’t get to them easily,(and also because I am eas…

There may be a lot more in it for you (or confirmation that mids are important), but I’ll just bring up Lieven’s…

@LievenDV

I often wondered why so many distortion pedals have so many buttons and only 3 EQ bands.
That’s what I like about Stone Deaf pedals etc, where you have a fun way to control the mid range

Have fun and in that thread you can at least find out from whom you can ask help from and whom beter not (like me)

Greetings

[LievenDV]

Yeah it’s a classic practice to turn down mids (“mid scoop”) by players playing by themself without any instruments playing along; it give you a typical “american” distortion sound. When you do that in a band setting, you’ll be hard to hear and you’ll be bothering the bassist while turning up your own amp loud and louder to hear yourself. As a guitar, it’s those mids where it is at, that is the epicenter of your sound in a band.

[Jenndye429]

Thanks for sharing Audrey! I am constantly struggling with this particular issue with my own band- at least when we are practicing in my living room We always seem to have an issue getting the balance right. It’s a work in progress for sure!