I think that all musicians aspire to play loud music.
The louder the better, right?
I think that loud music not only affects the body, but also sometimes moves people's hearts, creating emotion and passion.
But when it comes to actually playing loud music, there are a lot of unexpected obstacles, aren't there?
When playing music in a live house
- Sound Guy will ask you to turn it down when it's too loud.
- If you increase the volume of the basic sound too much, it will not increase in volume when you want to increase the volume further using a booster or other device.
I think these two points are what mainly trouble musicians.
- About 1
- Basically, live houses have speakers on either side, and the sound picked up by the speakers and all the sound that is being played on stage is delivered to the audience.
The guitar and bass are amplified through an amp, and then picked up and played through the PA speakers. The sound guy is in charge of the vocal microphone, so if the instrument sounds too loud, the sound guy will have a very limited range of control. As a result, the vocals may not be heard, or the volume may be turned up too high, causing feedback.
So the band may be asked by the sound guy to turn down the volume.
- About 2
- Amplifiers have something called “headroom”.
This refers to the margin up to the point where “the sound will break if you play any louder!"
Of course, the maximum volume of every amplifier is fixed.
There is no amplifier that can make the sound infinitely louder.
Naturally, the louder the basic sound, the less it will be boosted.
Even for human ears, I think that it is more likely that you will remember a band as being loud if you hear only one part of the music that is much louder than the rest, rather than if you hear the music as a whole at a high volume.
With this in mind, I would be happy to share with you one of the ways to easily and cheaply create the appealing loud sound that you are looking for.
How to make a Loud Sound with Blues Driver
All you need is this.
Boss / BD-2 Blues Driver OverDrive
Blues Driver (BD-2), which every musician has probably used at least once.

↑You should write your name on your belongings.
The method for using this is very simple.
It is
“Use Blues Driver as an attenuator”.
An attenuator is, simply put, a damping machine. It is the opposite of a booster.
It refers to a machine that lowers the sound to an appropriate input value.
What you do with this is
to turn up the volume on the amplifier.
Turn down the volume on the Blues Driver.
That's all there is to it. It's so easy.
Basically, if you keep the BD-2 pedal depressed, you will get the main sound, and if you release the BD-2 pedal, you will get the amp's original loud sound. However, as I will explain later, it is better to use a crunch sound rather than a distorted sound on the amp.
Actually, this method is something that Hisako Tabuchi of the band Number Girl actually does. Ms. Tabuchi uses a BD-2W.
It looks like she's using this to turn up the volume on a vintage Marshall amp, commonly known as a “Plexi”, and creating sounds with the BD-2W.
The good thing about this method is that it creates more headroom (because it uses an attenuator), so when you turn off the Blues Driver, of course, but even if you don't, the sound when you simply step on the booster, etc., becomes much easier to get out.
And another thing: this is just my own experience of sound creation and the ideal sound, but you have to turn the amp up to a certain volume to get the original sound out of it.
The sound from the cabinet vibrates the cabinet itself, and the guitar mic picks up the sound of that vibration, so the low notes increase and the sound becomes fuller. It's not a phenomenon that can be said to be good or bad in general, but I think that the original sound of the amp includes the sound of the cabinet.
The Blues Driver is a really good effect pedal. It's cheap and durable, and yet it has a tone that only the Blues Driver can produce.
I've been in a band for seven years, and I've been told by people around me that I have a band with a crazy loud sound, probably because I use this method.
Apparently, you can be a fool with just one Blues Driver.

I think this setup is definitely silly.
Summary
If you just want to make a loud noise, there are plenty of other ways to do it.
However, in this case, I would like to introduce Blues Driver as the method I use most often to make a loud noise that anyone can do.
Finally, as a point to note,
headroom is the margin until the sound breaks, so even if you distort the sound using the amp itself and then turn down the volume using Blues Driver, it won't have much effect.
So I think it's more effective to use the amp itself to create a loud sound from clean to crunch, and you'll get a better Blues Driver tone.
I think this method of making a loud sound can be used when you want to make a loud sound for a short time.
If you want to make a distorted loud sound, you can increase the headroom by adding a fuzz or booster pedal.
From today, you are all loud rock musicians.
So please go and play a loud gig and get properly chewed out by the sound guy.
That's all about the encouragement of loud sounds with Blues Driver.
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