Reconsidering EQ settings (Warning: Long post)

[oddjob]

OK you can only worry about what you can control.. that is new age swill army knife advice but I believe that you have no control of front of house and acoustics....you can help but cant fix....On stage it has alot to do with monitor bleed and other players I always think that less is more in these situations. The less the on stage mix is the better....

Again, sage advice I realize you can only control so much (usually doesn't matter by the 2nd set anyway since the audience is usually pretty toasted) - The temptation was to crank the bass and the trebble (and that is actually what I did my first year with the Bongo) but "FLAT is where it is at" (damn sounds like a t-shirt slogan to me) and it has made all the difference.

 

[Alvabass]

OK, I've been experimenting both with my sound card and on live situations and there's an approach that makes me feel comfortable (nothing definitive. Still experimenting). My purpose is to try to keep my "old" tone as much as possible, just avoiding preamp distortion.

AB, your live tone is a monster. Keep your old settings for that purpose

Thank you for your appreciation, man! Of course I don't want to lose that "monster" quality.

So I've just recorded some audio clips with my "old" settings (full magnets and piezos, full lows, full highs, full hi-mids, lo-mids around 75% and volume at 50%) and then the same examples with "new" settings: Full magnets and piezos, full volume, lo-mids at flat position and the other three frequencies equally boosted, like around 10% past flat.

Of course, those "new" settings demand a bit more EQ from my amp if I want to recreate my "old" ones, but in these examples, and just for comparison purposes, I plugged the Bongo direct into the sound card. No amp in between, so you can hear the bass' natural tone (my YouTube videos include my practice amp in the signal chain). Strings are more than six months old, I think. Input gain from the sound card wasn't changed and all the samples were normalized by the same amount (96%) after recorded.

So here they are. I'd really appreciate to know your impressions on the differences.

Fingerstyle with "old" settings.

Fingerstyle with "new" settings.

Slap with "old" settings.

Slap with "new" settings.

Harmonics with "old" settings.

Harmonics with "new" settings.

A note about the "harmonics" samples: Pickup balance is different here. 70% bridge - 30% neck and piezos slightly favored.

Thank you again for your time!

 

[midopa]

Nice clips! To me, the old settings have just a tad bit more bassiness or fullness to the sound for the fingerstyle and slap clips. The harmonics sound the same to me. Of course, computer speakers and what not and YMMV etc.

 

[AnthonyD]

Flat is where it's at...

 

[Dr. Nick]

Interesting post, Alva! The EQ options available on EBMM's are fantastic, aren't they?

Not to hijack the thread, but how do you like the Kustom Groove 1200 amp? I've never seen/heard one in the real world, but they sure look interesting!

 

[Alvabass]

Not to hijack the thread, but how do you like the Kustom Groove 1200 amp? I've never seen/heard one in the real world, but they sure look interesting!

It's a great amp, man. No doubt that there are even better (and pricier) options, but I feel it fits my needs, so I'm really happy with it. Very versatile and powerful. Although it is mixed with the PA sound since it was captured live, you can hear it in action here.

 

[SmurfAmplifier]

Excellent thread. Lots of good info that has me experimenting with the tone settings. Much more you can do starting flat for sure. Time to experiment a bit more with the Blue Dawn Sterling I just picked up (first music man, no doubt the greatest bass I've ever played),

I don't really play out anywhere or need much volume (small row home, can't blast volume too loud. I played a cheap passive bass, an old Yamaha rbx 200 (still my 2nd favorite bass aside from my Sterling now believe it or now). I think for 15 years or so, and only now decided to pick up some really nice stuff. I grabbed a Fender Jazz bass first. Nice range of tone, but not quite what I was looking for. I really wanted a Stingray but saw a Blue Dawn Sterling on these forums really cheap (700) and decided to grab it. Incredible bass, fantastic investment.

I agree with the other, the flat eq is mainly useful or at least most useful on the active basses. I don't know why it never really occured to me to try this approach.

 

[1Echo]

I found that the BEST tone out of the amps at the studio (not my amp...) was with the amp set flat, no eq on the amp, and the mids at 90%, bass at 75% and treble flat.

It's these references to percentages that I think really throw some people off, especially if they're from the world of passive basses. In a passive bass where all you have is cut, you have to "dime" it to get 100%. Active electronics are different ..... the center detent is 100%!!! From there you are boosting or cutting. The sound curve produced if you were to "dime" all the EQs on an active bass is very different from when they are all flat. Something to keep in mind.

 

[Dr. Nick]

It's a great amp, man. No doubt that there are even better (and pricier) options, but I feel it fits my needs, so I'm really happy with it. Very versatile and powerful. Although it is mixed with the PA sound since it was captured live, you can hear it in action here.

Cool, thanks! (I'm at work at the moment--I'll have to wait until I get home to check out the link )

 

[Alvabass]

Here's some new instructional material.

with "new" settings: Full magnets and piezos, full volume, lo-mids at flat position and the other three frequencies equally boosted, like around 10% past flat.

A note about the "harmonics" samples: Pickup balance is different here. 70% bridge - 30% neck and piezos slightly favored.

Exactly the same here, but this time through my amp's line out, as on my previous videos.

It's just an explanation, so there are lots of mistakes and tryouts. The main problem here is that, since the fingers must be so curved to allow the harmonics to ring properly, it's difficult to see which string is being "fretted" (specially with ring and middle fingers on the D and G strings). Hope the strings' vibration helps, and hope this explanation helps anybody interested on learning how to play this magnificent piece of music.

 

[jamesattard]

hi alva - when i record bass clips and put them on youtube, i use different settings from when playing live. when i record, i always always always flat the EQ of the bass. i put slight compression in the chain as well. the chain looks something like this:

bass ->> boss gt 6b (i only use the compression part) ->> soundcard

another important thing is that i drastically reduce the input gain on the soundcard - remember that our basses's pickups are HOT. When i play live, now that i made tapewounds, the knobs look like this (from -10 to +10, 0 being the middle):
bass: +10
mid: 0
treble: +10

Nice clips, especially the fingerstyle and slap.