having problems with live sound

[pattiejay]

here's the deal:
in a recent convention i played at (with a huge PA system...i mean HUGE!), the sound engineer (he is a professional) kept telling me that my bass was sounding too boomy. i was going to the mixing board both direct (post EQ after my Sansamp BDDI and amp, which were all set flat) and miked.

the EQ on my MM SUB was flat (ie. at their minimum levels), but the sound guy kept having trouble getting a good sound - after every song during sound check he had to re-adjust my sound...

at one time, when no-one was around, i went out to listen FOH and my bass sounded shocking!! nothing like the sound l want...

whats the problem? bad sound engineer? does bass usually sound bad soloed but fine in the mix? is this usually how it is with huge PA systems?

 

[shlumkin]

here's the deal:
in a recent convention i played at (with a huge PA system...i mean HUGE!), the sound engineer (he is a professional) kept telling me that my bass was sounding too boomy. i was going to the mixing board both direct (post EQ after my Sansamp BDDI and amp, which were all set flat) and miked.

the EQ on my MM SUB was flat (ie. at their minimum levels), but the sound guy kept having trouble getting a good sound - after every song during sound check he had to re-adjust my sound...

at one time, when no-one was around, i went out to listen FOH and my bass sounded shocking!! nothing like the sound l want...

whats the problem? bad sound engineer? does bass usually sound bad soloed but fine in the mix? is this usually how it is with huge PA systems?

Hi Pattiejay!
at least I think it's the sound engineer.
He should have known how to solve this problem. I would have checked first the sound of the bass directly into a D.I. Box and then hear what it sound like. There are almost no basses on the market that sound really bad over a PA.
I always feed my Bass signal dircetly to the PA, maybe with some effects I need like Chorus or so, and use my amp as my stage monitor.
What perhaps creates the most problems is to mike and D.I. at the same time - if one of the signals is out of phase (often the amp is!) you'll get those bad sounds.

How i wrote before: A really professional sound engineer has to know that.

 

[Psychicpet]

ditto, I'll get the odd complaint there is a little too much lo end from my Bongo but the n i just favour the bridge p/u by a hair with the blend knob and it's usually fine. I would absolutely think it's the engineer's problem if he couldn't dial in your SUB.

 

[phatduckk]

+1 here ... ive had crappy sound engineers at gigs and they couldnt get a decent sound out of my Sterling over the PA even tho things sounded good thru my amp

 

[0557]

A convention hall is bitch to mix in anyway. reflection is a big problem, he should roll the low end off the PA first and go from there. A good engineer would know that,
compression can help, but if hes blaming the bass he's a wanker, insecure and
has a huge ego problem......

 

[Freddy-G.]

A convention hall is bitch to mix in anyway.

I agree with you. Some rooms just sound really bad and there's not a whole lot anyone can do. The Phillips Arena in Atlanta was designed with acoustics in mind and it sounds great for a 20,000 seater.

 

[Jack Dunham]

Hi all -- Newbie forum user, here, so forgive me if I should have posted in a new thread, or if there's already something addressing this:

About a week ago, I picked up a 4-str, HH bongo, as a sub for my '82 G&L l-2000. After gigging w/ it a few times, I've noticed that the E-string side of the neck PU keeps "creeping" up toward the strings. Even when I adjust the PU height before each set, by the end of a 55-minute set, the neck PU is so high, the E-string ends up sounding totally distorted.

I'm thinking about trying something like Loctite, to keep it in place, but maybe some wise person here has a better suggestion...?

 

[phatduckk]

Hi all -- Newbie forum user, here, so forgive me if I should have posted in a new thread, or if there's already something addressing this:

About a week ago, I picked up a 4-str, HH bongo, as a sub for my '82 G&L l-2000. After gigging w/ it a few times, I've noticed that the E-string side of the neck PU keeps "creeping" up toward the strings. Even when I adjust the PU height before each set, by the end of a 55-minute set, the neck PU is so high, the E-string ends up sounding totally distorted.

I'm thinking about trying something like Loctite, to keep it in place, but maybe some wise person here has a better suggestion...?

something like this has been discussed ... i wish i rembered the solution, but i dont. try searching for "bongo loctite".

good luck

 

[pattiejay]

thanx for the input guys...

i think it might have been the miked amp signal that could have caused problems...the sound engineer kept telling me to cut bass on the amp, even tho it was the amp was sounding pretty thin and horrible already - it was quite a nightmare trying to monitor urself with a thin bass sound...

 

[oddjob]

+1 on all of the above... I had a similar problem with my HH5. Ended up being a combination of the soundman and my neck pickup being up just a tad too high... new soundmand and a small adjustment later and everything is cool once again.

 

[tkarter]

Loctite is the answer for the pickup creeping up too. I remember Jon saying so.


tk

 

[Jack Dunham]

Thx for the good advice, all. I picked up some blue Threadlocker gel from Kragen, and applied it last night. Seems to be working like a charm -- the PU height-adjustment screws still turn, but now there's a *lot* more resistance, which is perfect.