Open Mic Further Reading

  • At Nocturne, all guitar amplifiers must be mic’d through the PA system and operated at the lowest effective stage volume. This ensures that the audience hears a consistent, balanced mix regardless of where they are standing in the room.

    Guitar speakers are highly directional. When an amplifier is pointed directly into the audience, the tone can vary dramatically depending on a listener’s position. Someone standing directly on-axis with the speaker may hear a sharp, harsh high end, while someone off-axis may hear a darker, muddier tone. This creates an uneven listening experience across the room.

    By mic’ing the amplifier and routing it through the PA, we control the guitar’s tone and level in the house mix. This allows the sound engineer to blend it properly with vocals, drums, and other instruments so that the entire audience hears the same balanced sound. Furthermore, it allows your playing to be routed through our floor monitors, to aid your bandmates (and yourself) and co-performers in hearing what you’re playing clearly and accurately for a tight performance overall.

    Amplifiers should be positioned to fire across the stage or toward the back wall rather than directly into the audience. This reduces excessive on-axis projection, lowers stage volume, and prevents the guitar from overpowering the mix before it ever reaches the sound system.

    Lower stage volume results in better clarity, improved vocal intelligibility, and a more professional overall sound.

  • To maintain a clear, powerful, and consistent mix throughout the room, bass guitars must run through a direct input (DI), and keyboards must run through stereo (or mono) DI.

    As explained in the Guitar Amplifier Policy, controlling stage volume and routing instruments through the PA allows the sound engineer to deliver a balanced mix to the entire audience. Low-frequency instruments such as bass and keys (when playing in the lower register) rely heavily on the subwoofer system. When run through DI, we can make full use of our subwoofers, allowing the audience not only to hear your playing clearly, but to feel it.

    Using on-stage amplifiers for bass, or projecting keyboard speakers into the room, can create uneven low-frequency buildup, comb filtering, and phase issues. Low frequencies are less directional than guitar speakers, but when multiple sound sources (amp + subs) reproduce the same signal at slightly different times, they can interfere with one another. This interference causes certain notes to sound exaggerated in some parts of the room and nearly disappear in others.

    Running bass and keys through DI eliminates these competing sources. It ensures:

    • Cleaner low-end response

    • Reduced phase and comb filtering problems

    • Greater clarity and punch

    • More consistent sound throughout the venue

    Most importantly, it gives the audio engineer full control over the mix. As with mic’d guitar amplifiers (see the Guitar Amplifier and Stage Volume Policy), centralized control through the PA ensures that every audience member experiences the intended balance of vocals, rhythm section, and melody. Furthermore, it allows your playing to be routed through our floor monitors, to aid your bandmates (and yourself) and co-performers in hearing what you’re playing clearly and accurately for a tight performance overall.

    The result is a tighter, more professional sound that translates evenly across the entire room.