why does the room change the sound?

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by jtc_hunter

Everyones responses to this thread have been very accurate. Being a soundman/bass player/sax player I have spent alot of years mixing really crappy rooms and I will stand behind what the rest here have said:
A. The entire band must keep the volume under control. Better to underplay than overpower a room.
B. Get a good wireless
C. All your amp is , is a monitor for you to hear onstage.
D. DI is what it is all about.
E. If you play on large wooden , hollow stages, learn what an Auralex Gramma pad is.

I'm totally down with A and B. C and D, OTOH...not for me. I am getting a new DI for my birthday, but only as a concession to soundguys who whine about me getting a mic (doesn't happen often but it does happen). But I certainly don't drag an SVT or B-15 around to use it solely as a monitor.

And E...I've never used one. Seems odd to me that a foam covered piece of wood could decrease floor coupling, though. Bill FM always says how you have to raise cabs like 2 1/2 ft. to lose the floor coupling. But a lot of people swear by them.

[JazznFunk]

Originally Posted by jtc_hunter

E. If you play on large wooden , hollow stages, learn what an Auralex Gramma pad is.

+1,000,000 - I use two of them under most of my rigs, on any stage.

[Vanceman]

The first thing I always do is try re-positioning the cab, a little closer or farther from a wall, turn it a little inward if it's up against a wall, or raise it up on a milk crate. I had a 1-15 cab that was really boomy, and vibrated the wooden stage, so I always had to put it on a crate. Now I have a much nicer 410, so no crate required anymore.

[slyjoe]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

...snip

And E...I've never used one. Seems odd to me that a foam covered piece of wood could decrease floor coupling, though. Bill FM always says how you have to raise cabs like 2 1/2 ft. to lose the floor coupling. But a lot of people swear by them.

I think he is talking about two types of coupling - acoustic (sound waves) and physical (contact with cabinet to stage). If I remember correctly, the 2 1/2 feet is what is needed to remove the acoustic coupling.

Of course, I could be remembering everything wrong also.

[fokof]

A couple of things crosses my mind after reading this interesting thread;

Agree with the basic , low volume , HPF 80hz , speaker type , placement etc....

Acoustics is the trickiest thing to fight against (or work with)

What a lot of bass players forget (all musiciens in fact) is that the quest for perfect tone doesn't necessarily means that this tone is what's best for your overall band's FOH sound.
Personaly , it's my bass , TD100(DI) , inear or an active RCF. On some gigs I change the TD100 for a VBass.
I let the soundman do what he's paying for.

To the OP , you play bass , sax , etc.... I hope your monitor is not a Bass amp ! I'd suggest an active monitor of some sort.

Couple of tools are very usefull to help with acoustic problems , all the ones named before , also a phase alignement tool , there are a couple on the market (IBP,Radial) I have the Radial and it makes miracles (also on kick with 2 mikes )
A digital delay. Sometime adding a 2-5ms can do miracles.
-

[Bjazzman]

my amp is a bass amp. i use my carbine m6 into a dr bass 1260 on small gigs or my schroeder 1515L+ on bigger gigs

i probably should get an active monitor but i can't find any that are small enough and light enough to gig with since the 4runner is well packed with gear for the gig. Any recommendations on this???

We play soft and i only turn up what i need to hear. Im probably fighting with the soundman since he is just getting a line out from the di on my head and i only turn up what i want to hear. which is usually bass and keys with my effects. But since i have a pickup system on my vibes i run that through my effects and i think thats where i have the most trouble. I need to tweak my pickup eq's on the vibes to compensate when the band is in full swing.

we don't really play loud per se but we do play loud enough that i do need an amp.

What should i do when i know i need to turn something up for the house sound but i want my stage volume and tone to tame back a bit?

thanks

[groooooove]

a lot of people dont understand how much acoustics effect your sound.

think about how an echo happens... sound bounces, more than a lot of people realise it does. the shape of the room is the "maze" that your sound waves are going to travel through.

+1 to "it happens to everyone. dont loose sleep over it."

if your amp has a good DI on it, or if you just like the sound you get from it, dont worry about the rest. its the soundmans job.

[fokof]

Originally Posted by Bjazzman

i probably should get an active monitor but i can't find any that are small enough and light enough to gig with since the 4runner is well packed with gear for the gig. Any recommendations on this???

I use this as my bass amp now ; http://www.rcf.it/products/view/tags...ems/art-series

It's small(10") , light(26pounds) , powerfull (350w), sounds amazing , can't praize enough.

If you pass everything through a board , mute the vibe when you don't play it and don't forget the HPF!

[Bjazzman]

cool thanks for the recommendation. but what hpf are you referring to?

[fokof]

high pass filter , you probably have one on each chanel on your board.
usually 80hz , it will filter out the low frequency garbage.(sax & vibe)

[Bjazzman]

Originally Posted by fokof

I use this as my bass amp now ; http://www.rcf.it/products/view/tags...ems/art-series

It's small(10") , light(26pounds) , powerfull (350w), sounds amazing , can't praize enough.

If you pass everything through a board , mute the vibe when you don't play it and don't forget the HPF!

do you think this speaker is a better fit than a jbl eon g2 for what im doing? and how loud can it get?

[fokof]

A G2 10"? In a heartbeat......

The RCF are on the top of my list for active monitors. (thermoplastic)

If you look for compact/size/weight/price , the 310A is the champion.
There is also the 710A if you have the budget , 750 watts , 25 pounds !!!!!!
http://www.rcf.it/products/view/tags...peaker-systems
http://www.directproaudio.com/produc...directid=61186

[kalle74]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

And E...I've never used one. Seems odd to me that a foam covered piece of wood could decrease floor coupling, though. Bill FM always says how you have to raise cabs like 2 1/2 ft. to lose the floor coupling. But a lot of people swear by them.

it doesn´t help with coupling. however, it will reduce transmission by reducing vibrations.