Using a PA active Sub to give some more Grunt

[dodgydj]

Hi Guys,

I have an Ibanez Promethean combo and have started playing with a band who refuse to turn down (animal Drummer you know how it goes)

However, I also have a RCF 705 - AS 800W active SUB in my garage that I use for Disco Work, i thought I might use it for a bit of extra muscle, If I took the ine out from my promethean into the SUB would that cause any issues or indeed would it actually work?

Any Comments?

Paul

[staindbass]

i think it would work great. i play thru home stereo subwoofers (velodyne, paradigm) sometimes at home and it adds an unearthly low end to the sound.

[madurolover]

I tried that and ended up not using it. All the tone is generated from the bass cab. It made a thump but I was not impressed with the overall mix. You can consider micing the cab into the sub but if you wanted to blow them away, update your rig.

[HeadyVan Halen]

Fills it out nice.
What has worked for me is to put it on the opposite side of your bass rig. Put a little bass through your PA to fill it out but pump the stage and Sub volume.
I never understood why guys buy expensive rigs and turn it on 2 and let the PA kill the tone.

[Gearhead17]

Originally Posted by dodgydj

Hi Guys,

I have an Ibanez Promethean combo and have started playing with a band who refuse to turn down (animal Drummer you know how it goes)

However, I also have a RCF 705 - AS 800W active SUB in my garage that I use for Disco Work, i thought I might use it for a bit of extra muscle, If I took the ine out from my promethean into the SUB would that cause any issues or indeed would it actually work?

Any Comments?

Paul

I tried this idea once and will never do it again. The extra low end you create is not going to be very helpful to hear yourself. You will definitely hear more low end, but you need low mids and midrange to hear yourself properly. I am talking about the 150hz to 900hz range. One 10" speaker will create those tones, but not at the volume you need. The Ibanez Promethean is a single 10" speaker right? You need to look into a 410 and at least 300 watts to compete in a loud(ish) rock band setting. In a practice room with great acoustics, you can get away with a 210 if you keep the low end below 80hz rounded off.

[dodgydj]

Thanks for the input, I really want one of those Orange Terror bass 2X12" combo's, and will get one as soon as they come out, but have been tolld by orange that it will be about 3 months until they become available, I will keep nagging them though.

I just thought about using some of my existing gear to beef things up a bit.

[Mr. Foxen]

With a bit of cunningness, you can make this work by high passing your little amp, so it only takes say 150hz+ and using the sub for everything below, use a crossover basically, then you can crank the little speaker without the lows blowing it up.

[Peg_legs]

Sure, why not. I've added an 18" pa sub to a gk mb210 combo during practice just for fun. If it were me though, I would get enough amp so I didn't have to do this.

[VisualShock]

Try it at practice. It will either improve your sound/volume or sound bad. Either way, it's a practice, you've not lost anything!

[steve_rolfeca]

If nothing else, it would still be fun to fool around with sub, while you're saving for a bigger rig. In order to make this work properly with the Promethean, you'll need a mic preamp or a mixer, because you need a way to boost the output of your bass upstream from your amp.

The normal way to integrate a powered sub, is via the sub's internal crossover. Your amp gets used like the powered satellite speakers in a PA system, with the sub handling everything below about 100Hz, and your amp handling everything else. You do it by sending the preamp out from your amp to the "full range" input of the sub, and then returning the "high pass" output of the sub to your amp, via the power amp input. System volume is controlled via your amp's gain control, and you balance the amp against the sub via the master volume controls on each.

Unfortunately, the Promethean doesn't have breakout jacks. Without them, there's no way to get the high-pass output of the sub's crossover back into your amp. You could run both the amp and sub full range via the Promethean's DI out, but the sub would drown out your amp, and make the tone downright flabby.

Thankfully, if you do have a preamp or a mixer, you can still get the job done:

1. Turn all volume controls down.
2. Plug your bass into the preamp.
3. Use an appropriate cable or adapter to connect the preamp's (or mixer's) output to the full range input of the sub.
4. Use an XLR/1/4" adapter to plug the sub's HP output into the instrument input on the Promethean.

With everything connected, gradually increase the input gain on your preamp, until you can see a good signal. Dial up a moderate amount of output on the preamp, then increase the volume control on the sub until you hear some lows. Last but not least, gradually increase the instrument input on the Promethean, until you get a good balance between the sub and your amp. From here on out, the output control on the mic preamp/mixer controls your system volume.

[ulrich]

Originally Posted by steve_rolfeca

4. Use an XLR/1/4" adapter to plug the sub's HP output into the instrument input on the Promethean.

Also consider an XLR to 1/8 cable to plug in to the Promethean's aux input. Weird custom cable, I know. I'd have to check Rane Note 110 to see how to make it.

[klokker]

IME, I've found that a sub can only round out or fill in your sound a bit. Its nice of done right, too tubby and deep if not. But I play mostly straight ahead rock and blues in my band, so a big bottom end isn't required or even all that helpful.