How do musicians hook all of the amps together when playing a concert?

Question

For Instance, at woodstock, there is a "wall of amps". How go you get it to go from the guitar to 10 diffrent Marshall stacks?

I was thinking perhaps along the lines of a "pre-amp" and I think this is how you can connect one or more marshall stacks to work simotaniously. Or maby I'm wrong. Help me people?

Answer 1

First of all, all these speakers need to go through AMPS. An amp can only supply enough power to two speakers. So if you have 10 speakers, you then need five amps. From the speakers the cord need to go through a CROSSOVER. The crossover then goes straight to the mixing board. I've been in bands for 19 years and I know.
A pre-amp used in a P.A. system is built for and strictly used for adding EFFECTS to vocals or any other instrument. A pre-amp is not used for amplification of power to the speakers in any way. When you hear weird noises on tracks in songs, you are listening to a certain choice of effect the producer or musician made and took it from a pre-amp.
As I stated before, the only way you can hook up a series of speakers, your example was Marshall stacks, is to get a separate amplifier for each TWO speakers and then from the speaker plug ins in back run into a large CROSSOVER. From the crossover, there will be only two cords that henceforth go to the MIXING CONSOLE. Then from the mixing console you can make any adjustment you want that the console has to offer, volume, effects, bass, treble, gain etc... and the SAME sound will go to all ten stacks.
What you are suggesting is merely for looks. It is not practical to use Marshall stacks in a P.A. system. What your suggesting is using them for guitar amps. Providing your stacks have amplifiers ( which most do) built in, you need to use a separate CROSSOVER for the guitar application to get the whole works onto ONE channel of your mixing console.

Answer 2

There are a number of ways.

If you're talking the PA system, then all they have to do is mic the guitarists amp and run the sound through a mixing board. From the board, it goes out to your PA speakers, however many there are, via crossover.

If it was a more direct approach then the guitarists head unit (the main, "non-speaker" part of the amp) plugs into a speaker array through a crossover of some kind, which is the "wall". I assume the speakers are daisy chained together somehow.

It is more likely that they would use the PA approach, as the PA system can contain preamps and stuff to amplify the sound further.

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

There are amp switchers available where either a musician or sound engineer can select between multiple amps or combination of amps. to achieve the desired sound. Different amps can go to different speakers or sound effect processors for the same purpose. As long as you can maintain the correct impedance between the various devices, the possibilities are limitless.

Below are some samples:
http://www.robertkeeley.com/product.php?id=33
http://www.tunnelvisionmusic.com/Amp-Switching-Pedals-p-1-c-253.html

Answer 4

The "wall of amps" are fake--most of them are empty speaker cabinets with the speakers removed, and are for visual effect only.

Otherwise the Guitar goes to one of the Marshalls (the Master) and the signal is split into two--one path is amplified and goes to the speakers, the other is passed on to one or more other amps (called "slaves") which then amplify the signal independently and send it to their own speakers.

Such set-ups are seldom used today, as guitar rigs are usually more sophisticated and require specialized "signal routers" to send the signals to various amps, effects, and directly to the mixer.

Answer 5

plug them into the wall. if it doesn't look like the plug will fit in the wall, lick it and try again.

Answer 6

the musicians dont set it up