How do you get your livesound loud and good?

[Evil_Dali]

I've been wondering this, since I produce tracks with Korg EMX & FL Studio (I record my emx things to FL etc) and when I export the track, it's volume is really low. I know this is not an issue if I was going to release the track on an album, because then I'd of course send the track for mastering etc. But when playing a live set, I'm not going to play mastered tracks there, I play the "raw" EMX&FL sound. I know there is that "Gain" knob on my soundcard but doesn't that "artificial" gain sort of destroy sound quality? Or are clubs soundsystems themselves so "loud" I won't have to do anything?

[fragments]

How is the gain knob on your soundcard artificial? If you are going to be playing all original material I'd just all your tracks to the same relative volume and then turn things up on the club's mixer if it seems quiet in comparison to the guy that played before you.

I find in situations like this it's a matter of attenuating the gain on each device (the EMX, inside FL Studio, your sound card, club mixer etc). It does no good to have a bunch of knobs at 25% and then the last one at 100% : )

Having owned a Korg ESX, I know that they have a pretty high noise floor, so be aware of that if you've not played out live before with the EMX.

[Evil_Dali]

Ok, I did'nt realize the soundcards gain doesn't do damage to audio (if not used in super amounts I assume). Thanks for the quick answer!

[fragments]

^Yea, I mean it shouldn't damage the sound unless you are jacking up the gain. I kinda feel like everything distorts around 90%...but remember that gain staging to get a clean, loud signal is important. You need to consider all the places where the gain can be attenuated.