Another DI Question

colonelporridge · #1 02-18-2010, 09:46 AM

Hello Justin,

My band is recording its first full length album and we shall be playing a lot of live gigs soon. So far our live set-up has been of an amateur type in which we were not even using the equipment we had to its full potetial.
My question is whether in your opinion this set-up would work well for a live gig: Bass to Radial Di (clean signal), then effects, into a mxr m-80(as a post effects DI) and then into the bass amp with a mic (akg d112).
Also what is your expierience of the MXR M-80 and its uses.

Thank you for your time.

jmjbassplayer · #2 02-18-2010, 06:38 PM

That's a rad set-up, dude. The question is: will the FOH guys at the venues your playing be willing to give you three lines for bass? I have no idea if you have your own sound guy, nor do I know the types of venues you're playing. But if you're in clubs, I'm not sure people will be so willing or able to give you three channels on their small boards.

J

colonelporridge · #3 02-19-2010, 06:13 AM

Thanks Justin,
While we have our own sound guy i think i may have to cut down to two or one signal for some gigs such as support slots.

Regarding the MXR M-80, i'm relatively new to this type of box, my question is whether there should be a correlation between the eq settings on the pedal and the settings on my amp or should i try to run the amp flat and eq with the mxr. Should the signals be similar for the FOH fellow to work with.

Thank you for you time.

ryanrex · #4 02-19-2010, 01:46 PM

My band played a festival over the summer and I brought my Countryman DI out, the sound guy walked up to my rig and asked what that big black brick I had his microphone cable plugged into was. I told him. while he was unplugging it and plugging his behringer DI in he said "never heard of this thing" and some other stuff about about how the behringers have a pad all quality Di's have pads...

I just thought that was a funny story.

When my band plays support or even headlines at clubs where our sound guy can't travel with us. It's always easier to just throw one line to the sound guy.

The show will go better if he doesn't have to do more work then he has too.

casio · #5 02-19-2010, 02:13 PM

If I could chime in,
I'm the type of guy who is also always looking for new options and modes to get "that" live sound and all, but even when I have my soundman with me, for practical purposes (cause you wont make the band or yourself sound oh so better otherwise) I never go over using 2 signals (one being DI, the other beind a DI out of my amp with all the effects that entails). And even that depends on the gig!
If I'm doing a show with some acoustic trio/straight up pop/rock/punk thing, I just use the DI coming from my head. The only time I do use the extra signal is if I'm going effected with all kinds of fuzzes or whatnot that would cut my bass frequencies or something along the lines.
Otherwise I must agree with the opinions above me, there's no point in making the soundman hate your guts for being all starstruck. just make his job as easy as possible so he can try and make what little he has sound as good as he can!
But otherwise, the set up you mentioned is the one I prefer in studio work (clean DI, mic, effected DI), so keep that going where you can!

secombs · #6 02-19-2010, 02:59 PM

I have a very similar setup to colonelporridge and I play a lot of clubs and small/medium sized venues. The vast majority of sound guys I've worked with just want one line for bass.

I put my M80 as the first pedal in my signal chain so I can send a clean DI to the house and then go out of the parallel out line of that pedal through the rest of my pedal into my SVT. IF I'm running a lot of effects and want that going through to the house, I just use the DI on my amp. I can also run a clean signal from the M80 if the sound guy will take 2 signals. IF I'm not running any effects, I'll opt for the M80's DI because I can EQ the sound going to the house if the system is sketch. Plus, I think that DI sounds great!

JimmyM · #7 02-19-2010, 09:09 PM

my take on it is that if you can get 2 or 3 lines, great, but always be prepared to only get one because it's going to happen.

as for your settings, they should be exactly what you want as long as it's a good sound, and let the soundman deal with it as he needs. as long as you don't kick on a fuzzbox so much louder than your regular volume that it blows the pa or something similar, he should be able to hang. one nice thing about having your own soundman is he'll be prepared for whatever you do.

colonelporridge · #8 02-23-2010, 02:34 AM

Thanks to justin and everyone else for their advice.