Wall of Sound

[ReCycled]

Here's a picture of this group's Marshall setup - and then a shot behind the stacks. Apparently more common these days than I realized...

[quadz]

Here's a picture of this group's Marshall setup - and then a shot behind the stacks. Apparently more common these days than I realized...

Hehe, yeah, i'm pretty sure it was one of my guitar teachers--who had spent some time as a roadie--who deflated my teenage dreams of playing a concert with a wall of amps.  "Man," he said, "those things aren't even hooked up."

[|iR|Focalor]

Haha! Dude's not even using a Marshall head! He's using two Engl heads, probably footswitching between them for rhythm and lead parts, looks like both are only run to the bottom speaker cab to the left of the drum kit. That actually surprises me, I figure if you're gonna do some stupid shit like that, might as well run a direct out to the mixer/PA system. Kinda retarded, I imagine the cymbals would probably leak into the guitar cab mics like that pretty bad. But then again, that looks like some kinda retarded european black metal band, they all seem have to a fetish for sounding as shitty as possible.

[ReCycled]

Actually it's been happening back to the 80's at least. When small amps became capable of any level of distortion and modelling, there was less reason to go with a huge array to get the same sound. Loud amplification plays havoc with microphones (ie PA system and drum miking). It's easier to mike a small, good sounding amp and run it through the PA system and conveys a more balanced sound (through the mixer) out to the audience. Neil Young and ZZ Top both started doing that in the 80's or maybe before. The wall was just part of the stage show-biz look. I imagine it was to save their hearing too.

A couple of recent tours that used the real deal, still, was AC/DC and Motorhead. You would need 2 sets of earplugs for those guys.

Good guess on the Engl heads, Foc. That shot is from an Austrian metal fest.

[|iR|Focalor]

Actually it's been happening back to the 80's at least.

Nah, 70's. Kiss started doing that shit when they went big time. These days I think most bands do it less as a way to feign rock-n-roll style and more as a way to simply fill up space on the stage. It's cheaper than those cheesy expensive custom made stage props of the 80's like Iron Maiden used to go nuts with.

[WHO?]

wasn't it deep purple (early 70s) started the "contest" to be the loudest band in the world - shitloads of speakers in the euro & jap tours & so on

[|iR|Focalor]

I don't see much of a need for using amp heads for live situations anymore unless you're playing in a small club with no PA system. In that case, it would be easier than lugging around a 8 to 12 space rack with a typical huge 3-space valve poweramp to go along with your two 4x12 speaker cabinets. Maybe you'd still be using a few rackmount effects units, but those are usually lighter 1-space units. Most average musicians really don't require that many units, perhaps a multiFX, a rackmount wah, a rackmount compressor, maybe a rack EQ. I think these days even the pro musicians mainly rely on floor stompboxes for your typical effects like delay, choruses, flangers, distortions, etc. Personally, I'd rather run my shit through a rack and direct out to a mixer. You can even eliminate the need for a poweramp that way. Even if you do want to run the last phase of the signal through a valve poweramp to add some 6L6 throat to the tone, you usually have the option of a direct out on the poweramp that that you can loop back a valve preamp's cabinet emulator direct outs. I dunno if most preamps have that feature, I know my Marshall JMP1 does.

[ReCycled]

wasn't it deep purple (early 70s) started the "contest" to be the loudest band in the world - shitloads of speakers in the euro & jap tours & so on

It was basically started by Blue Cheer around 1968. No one was louder than them, including Hendrix.

[WHO?]

wiki musta lost that number, bit interesting looking it up for 12secs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudest_band_in_the_world only go back to 69

[Th0m@s29]

Niiice looks pretty intense lol.