There are many benefits of a straight-to-pa/no-amp live guitar/band setup, but does it actually work in the real world?
What is the no-amp setup?
What I’m talking about here is a band rehearsal/live setup, with the guitar (and all other instruments, for that matter), going directly into the p.a. system, with all monitoring handled by IEMs (in-ear monitors).
Benefits of the no-amp setup.
Stage volume has long been the bane of the performing musician. Up until recently, vocalists relied on wedge monitors to cut through the din of a live kit, guitar, and bass. Want your guitar to be heard on stage? Turn up your amp or get your own monitor. Then what happens? It becomes a competition with instruments fighting to be heard. Stage volume increases until it becomes messy, muddy, far too loud, and unmanageable.
In theory, at least, a no-amp setup with IEMs solves all these issues by delivering a clean, controlled, and if you like, quiet mix to all performers. However, having now experienced this sort of setup in anger, I don’t think wedges will be disappearing quite yet. Why?
1. It doesn’t feel like a rehearsal / live gig
My most immediate reaction was simply things didn’t feel right. IEMs block out the ambient noise, which unfortunately rids you of any real interaction with the band. It’s all a bit strange, all a bit sterile. Yes. It’s more efficient, yes it solves problems, but is that what music is about? For me, music needs to be organic, natural, and fun. My view is a no-amp set detracts from this.
I dunno, it’s all a bit too serious and nerdy.
And then I plugged the guitar in…
2. Inferior Guitar tone
Although guitar modeling has come along leaps and bounds, even something as exotic as Line 6 Helix or Kemper is going to fall way short of a proper guitar amp moving air in the room. Once you’ve spent an age setting up your tone with pretend pedals, amps, cabs, and mics, which you hope will be consistent and easier to use in a rehearsal/live context, what are you actually left with?
No subtlety, that’s for sure. The guitar volume won’t play nice, so you won’t be able to ride the gain from lead down to clean anymore. This necessitates separate patches for clean, crunch, and lead, and increases the faffing and the tap-dancing. So yeah. It sounds worse and is much more difficult to manage. In short, it’s a pain. It’s noisier too, so you’ll need a noise gate, which will make matters worse at the guitar volume below 1-2.
And what of the tones? Just as you’d expect a box of tricks plugged directly into the pa to sound, really. There’s no revelation that’s going to replace your guitar amp. No surprises at all. It sounds brittle, digital, flat, and fake. Yes, it’ll get you through the songs. Yes, you’ll get in the ballpark(ish), but I don’t want ballpark, predictable or controlled. I want surprises and inspiration, with no pedals and just a volume control. Great sounds are possible, but it’s never taken this much effort to coax them out of something.
Lastly, there’s the elephant in the room. Harmonic feedback. One of the reasons I love overdriven guitar. With IEMs? Simple. Forget it. No stage volume equals no feedback, good or bad, More than that, you’re losing the most important interaction of all, the interaction between the guitar, amp, speaker, and the very air around you. With a no amp setup, there’s nothing, just ones and zeroes.
3. Equipment
Fair enough, you won’t need an amp or a wedge anymore. But you will need everyone to have IEMs, an accompanying box to clip to your belt like an 80s walkman, and probably a much more expensive mixer to feed them. Overall, will it actually turn out to be less equipment? I’m not sure.
4. Inferior Drum tone
I never thought I’d say this, but listening to a digital kit had me longing for the woody thud and searing crash of a real kit’s bass drum and cymbals.
5. The Audience
Do we even want this?
Let’s say all of the above points have been addressed. You’ve upgraded your mixer to something resembling the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon, got everyone kitted out with expensive earbuds, a new Electric drum kit to sound as close to the real thing as possible, and spent months nailing your guitar tone on a £1500 Helix to sound as close to your old £150 BOSS Katana as possible… What then?
Well, the electric kit has put a few off. The mix, however, is spot on, with no issues at all.
But I liked the guitar amps, the crashing symbols of a huge drum kit, and the sheer power and low-end thump of a bass stack. I liked seeing the interactions and to have the guitar on the verge of feedback. It made it more human, more real, and infinitely better entertainment.
Of course. This is 2023 now, and my final act of 2022 was to watch Sam Ryder’s New Year’s performance. He and the band were fantastic, as were Mel C, Justin Hawkins, and all his guests. They were obviously using the latest digital tech, no amps, in-ear monitors, etc. (The lead guitarist sounded great), but I couldn’t help but wonder how much better it would’ve been down and dirty, analog, old school.
Probably a lot better.
Well. That’s my take, but what about your take on the no-amp/IEM guitar/band setup? Drop me a comment below.
Leave a Reply