Band in a Box ... What Band in a Box?
Array | Soundeffects | What's it all mean?
What's it all mean?
All this means is I can finally adjust my levels myself to vary the balance between clean and dirty guitar signals and also clean and harmony vocals. I came to this after so many shows relying on sound people who'd rather party than do sound.
If you play live without your own buddy at the controls, you know what I mean!
I also have wind chimes and a tambourine laid out at floor level, so I can kick and stomp them to add some percussion. It's really a band in a box!
Nine Set Ups
This is now the tenth incarnation of the Band in a Box posted since I began the website in 2005.
I've experimented with many, many pedals to arrive at this. The ones in current use seem to do the best job of it. The CP2 vs. the CP3 from BOSS for one example, sound better with my acoustics than the electric. But the extra tone control on the CP 3 is helpful so I settled on that for a time.
Bottom line, it pays to try them all out and see how it goes. I had to search to find the older BOSS "2" units for chorus and compression and echo. All of these generally are better than later units in my eyes (and ears).
The CP3 does sound fine, however, with the small rack. Go figure? Also you should note the use of noise gates. The MXR far outperforms the BOSS versions of noise gates. WIth so much going on it is hard to get a quiet signal but the gates do work to keep things under control quite well. I am using both BOSS and MXR units for my echo vocal needs where I really need some quiet.
Another shot from a show using the Band in a Box.
Differences
The big difference in the five latest versions of the Band in a Box is finally abandoning of the old cassette and lav mic for my tape effects. As well, replacing the TC Helicon vocalizer with the DigiTech's VL2 and VL4 and Pro and back to the VL 4.
Of course, the wireless mic situation (abandon) is another change. I will be very reluctant to go wireless again!
A footnote here around the TC Helicon. The unit was new as of mid-December 2006. It broke down twice with power up issues. Repairs were made under warranty but I'm a funny guy when it comes to things like this. I got rid of it and will never return to that product. Buyer be ware. Same caution for the VL Pro unit - it is not road worthy in my view though there are people on the Harmony Central forum who disagree with me on this very point.
When the Whiners play out as a band, I use the Band in a Box for my
effects of course but also bring out my own mixer to control all our mix.
Array | Soundeffects | What's it all mean?