church settings

MrJaymz44 · #1 03-20-2011, 03:11 PM

I know this has been discussed a lot, but I couldn't find anything that can apply to my situation.

Gear: Epiphone Embassy Standard V (5er) usually with only the neck pickup up at about 25% and the passive tone knob @ 75-100%; and a Peavey MAX115 (if I remember correctly) compo amp with sè following settings: Gain & Master 11o'clock, B 10o'clock, M 12o'clock, H 7-8o'clock and the mod freq all the way down at about 200hz .

Oh and the bass is strung with Chromes aged 1week of somewhat intense playing.

Now my question is: in church I play in the orchestra and always had no trouble at all cutting trough even with dead rounds ( Warwick reds) with this setting, but recently the pa guy (who has very little experience) messed with the piano eq knobs and now I can barely hear myself if the piano is turned up a little. I tried to eq it myself boosting the settings I cut and viceversa but the guy is seeming to like the mifull kinda eq.
Is there a way to eq my amp (I don't go di) and be able to hear myself in a better way in this setting?

Gearhead17 · #2 03-20-2011, 03:23 PM

It's tough to figure this one out without being in the same room. The only suggestion I have is to mess around with the pickup blend controls and try creating a thicker bass tone around 200hz. The bridge knob at 25% and the neck at 100%? Sorry, I am not familiar with the particular bass.

Is the Piano player going through a monitor of some sort on stage? Or is his tone from the PA system just too loud and spilling over towards you?

MrJaymz44 · #3 03-20-2011, 03:47 PM

Ok, thanks anyway for the suggestions.

Well he's got some sort of an electric piano (I wouldn't call it a Keyboard) which is DI to a channel in the main mixer, and yes it's too loud and it's burying me when he does chords in the first octaves.

Joe Smithberger · #4 03-20-2011, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrJaymz44

OWell he's got some sort of an electric piano (I wouldn't call it a Keyboard) which is DI to a channel in the main mixer, and yes it's too loud and it's burying me when he does chords in the first octaves.

Ding, Ding, Ding...we have an answer.

Hopefully someone (maybe you) can clue him in that when you have a bass player, the keyboard should never be doing chords down there. Unless you plan on perfectly doubling everything his left hand does, you need to have a talk. One of you needs to cover the bass notes - you can't both do it and not sound like mud.

MrJaymz44 · #5 03-20-2011, 11:52 PM

Yeah i know and we usually don't conflict each other, except for when the eq is bad and he's covering all the freqs of mine... Maybe is the pa that's bad, I don't know...

ehque · #6 03-21-2011, 02:26 AM

3 solutions.

1. He stops playing so low.
2. You EQ all the low end out of his signal.
3. You stop playing.

Jimbob Jones · #7 03-21-2011, 03:05 AM

IME unless there's a specific issue somewhere, keys should be left dead flat, no EQ at all, and not put through the sub (if you have one) either.

Definitely have a chat with the guy about sonic space too!

MrJaymz44 · #8 03-21-2011, 02:53 PM

Well next Sunday I'll try to cut some lows and low mids, leaving the rest flat; and let's hope that the PA-man won't eq it like he prefers, either.

The fact is that when he plays really low notes, if the eq and volume are right, I can easily cut through, so I don't think that's the problem.

Thank you all for the replies!

Joe Smithberger · #9 03-21-2011, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrJaymz44

Well next Sunday I'll try to cut some lows and low mids, leaving the rest flat; and let's hope that the PA-man won't eq it like he prefers, either.

Try one, then the other. Most of the time in my boomy church environment, a deep low cut cleans things right up. I can crank the 40 hz low EQ on my Tonehammer down to 9 or 10:00 without sounding thin at all.

However, we do have a bad resonance at about 220 HZ +/- that will jump out really big if anyone is boosting bass (the acoustic guitars are our worst problem). Sometimes individual players will EQ to what sounds "full" when they are playing alone. When the full band kicks in, it becomes a boomy mess. Keys, guitars and bass are all heavy in that freq range.

MrJaymz44 · #10 03-21-2011, 03:48 PM

Well the cheap mixer we have has three-band eq and mid freq, so I cannot do much; however I'll try (:

Joe Smithberger · #11 03-21-2011, 04:30 PM

I just reread your OP. If the bass carries like our place (1000 seats, 40 ft ceilings, tile floors) you could do what I do and use the low cut button on the mixer to cut everything below 100 Hz and carry the low end with your amp. In fact I requested that they low cut everything in the house PA (all low cut buttons on all channels engaged) and that helped also. That way the lowest frequencies are coming from a single point source and not bouncing around canceling each other and bleeding through the mics.

OTOH keep in mind that I am dealing with a boomy room so YMMV.

MrJaymz44 · #12 03-21-2011, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Smithberger

I just reread your OP. If the bass carries like our place (1000 seats, 40 ft ceilings, tile floors) you could do what I do and use the low cut button on the mixer to cut everything below 100 Hz and carry the low end with your amp. In fact I requested that they low cut everything in the house PA (all low cut buttons on all channels engaged) and that helped also. That way the lowest frequencies are coming from a single point source and not bouncing around canceling each other and bleeding through the mics.

OTOH keep in mind that I am dealing with a boomy room so YMMV.

I think it'll be very hard to deal with those "sound guys" out there, 'cause they don't like so much if someone interferes with their "job", but I think I can manage them to give it a try.