For those of you who are unaware of what acoustics are, the simple definition is - the properties or qualities of a room or building that determine how sound is transmitted in it. Ok the pedantic of you will realise that isn't simple. We all know that acoustic is about making noise (acoustic guitars and acoustic drums are loud!) but what do we mean when we say rooms have acoustics?
All rooms have acoustics. This is a simple fact because they have walls. When you make a sound it 'bounces' of the wall and this is one of the ways we hear it. You'll all be familiar with the concept of echo, or as most of us musicians know it - reverb. This is the reverberation of the sound off the walls and our ears hear it slightly later with a slightly different sound. So what is the importance of acoustics? Well...
Like I said all rooms have acoustics so the venue you're playing/or recording in has to be taken into account. This being part 1 we're going to just talk about playing. Now I am to be permitted some slight bragging rights at this point, but hear me out. I sang in Westminster Abbey in London a few months ago, and the acoustics were simply incredible. It rang around the place for about 10 seconds after. As a result, we had to sing precisely because every mistake was echoed for what felt like an age.
Now lets move back to a more likely scenario. Say your band is playing in quite a big venue and its got what we'd call 'helpful' acoustics (it gives lots of reverb). There's certain things that you need to take into account. Your drummer is the worst one, especially un-miced. He/she is going to be seriously loud so you need to tell them (and being a drummer this is a horrible thing to hear) play a little quieter. However that isn't the only thing. Remember how I was saying in Westminster Abbey things sounded huge? Well they could've easily sounded muddled. With a band, this is a definite issue. So you're gonna want your guitarist to back off his distortion in particular.
You also want to try and use these acoustics. Playing in a dry room can be horrible (and by dry I mean very little acoustic feedback) so you want to use these nice acoustics you've been given. For example, tone down any reverb on your clean tones because they're going to sound golden in a big room. Your singer should revel in the occasion - good natural reverb can make a good singer sound fantastic. It'll make your band sound huge if you do it right!
Sadly though and certainly for most amateur bands, the majority of gigs will be in a pub/bar/shed. Unless the bar happens to be enormous your acoustics aren't going to be anything special. And to make matters worse the venue is probably going to be tiny! This means yet again you'll have to have a quiet word with the drummer and tell him to back off a bit. Guitarists, try not to let your amps get too top-endy. Because they're being cranked up towards 11 they tend to get a bit on the high-end side. A really tiny, distorted guitarist will sound dreadful and is often the mark of a bad band.
Sound checking is crucial. If you've got an engineer working with you, listen to them. Also remember that what you hear on stage is not what you hear off stage. So work hard to get your sound right and use that room well. If you happen to be outside, the sound is going to get a bit lost the chances are so make sure its nice and loud (oh you can see the grin on the drummers face) but make it clean!
Hope some of this helps.
Peace, Linus
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