Mixing pit bands with no amps

[knightdan65]

Yeah, have had a 12 piece band in a remote room before. It worked, but this time round the budget is unlikely to stretch to include kit for video relays and multi cores etc. I’ve DI’d pedal boards in the past for live gigs and find it a much better option, both from a sound perspective and my own experience as a player. To me it spells out better control over sound, less noise on stage and more space - what’s not to like? Just never tried a silent pit before. Things that have been mentioned in favour of amps such as mute switches being available for fretting notes are valid points, but seem like a luxury to me, given that keys and electric drums rarely have their own amps (as far as I’ve seen). I do take the point though about not forcing this on the players - I’ve done pit work myself and have had plenty of bulshy engineers act like dictators. So I’ll ‘sound out’ (geddit?) the players and go from there.

[Jivemaster]

Diplomacy may assist you, sudden enforcement certainly will hinder you. having and being willing to use all the required kit will make it work.

[MarkBarl]

From my experience, the silent pit option has more to do with the Musical Director than the musicians. As mentioned, the modelling amps are common these days for both guitar and bass. Most frequent pit musicians will have both options in their arsenal. We found that the decision comes down to the MD. They need to be comfortable working with headphones, also need to be able to trust the sound op. The silent pit is great when you have a more rocky show.