Practice Sound v. Gig Sound

Jazzdogg · #1 09-13-2011, 05:10 PM

Most of us have probably experienced this: the tone that sounds good when practicing at home often doesn't "cut through" in a band context, and EQ that sounds great in a band context sounds bright and strident when soloed.

With my active basses, I achieve "my sound" at home, by cutting the midrange on my bass significantly, and adjust the amp's EQ to suit the room.

On the gig, I set the volume on my bass at around 85%, and turn up the volume on my amp until it's almost loud enough. To bring the volume the rest of the way up, I turn up the midrange on my bass, which increases signal level (adding volume) while boosting the frequencies that allow me to cut through. For solos, I cut the mids a bit to reduce stridency and volume.

My buddies consider my approach unorthodox, but it's worked well for me.

Anybody else use, or conceptualize, their controls in a way that others consider unorthodox?

makkE · #2 09-14-2011, 06:57 AM

This is not at all unorthodox. Mids is where it's at if it comes to cutting through/sitting well in the mix.

steve_rolfeca · #3 09-14-2011, 08:10 AM

Judging from comments on TB, I'm more audience-centric than most. IMO/IME, setting EQ at home may be misleading, but listening to yourself on stage gives you a distorted perspective as well. Compared to your audience, you're getting more direct radiation and less room sound. It's painfully easy to sound great on stage, while putting a wall of mud out into the room.

I don't know if it's all that unorthodox, but I like to get out into the room during sound check, and listen to my bass in context. There's nothing I find more embarrassing than blissfully digging my on-stage tone, then finding out that I sounded like a** in the mix at FOH.

A long cord works just as well as a wireless in the small to medium venues where I play, since I only use it for that initial confidence check. Although the required EQ changes have a big impact, they're usually relatively minor. I've never found the need to "cut through" the mix with a ton of midrange grind, but a nice fat sound out front often takes less low end/low mids than you'd think.

Also, in bad rooms, I occasionally need to cut a problem frequency that's specific to the room. One time it might be 400hz, another time it'll be something else. That's when it's handy to have a spare parametric EQ band to play with, whether it's on my bass, a pedal, or my amp.

chaosMK · #4 09-14-2011, 03:34 PM

I usually just leave my amp/signal chain at the midrange harsh live/band setting that has been my standby (high gain modern prog/post metal... drop B guitarist, double bass, etc).

However, I had a different issue- killer sound in our live mixes but when I recorded I found my tone was a little bit too sharp at times with my regular live settings. The guitar ended up getting mixed a little bit differently than what it actually sounded like and it changed what I needed to cut through.

klokker · #5 09-14-2011, 04:14 PM

My practice and gig tone are the same for the most part. The sound guy controls it anyway. My amp can usually blow out the mix in the small bars we play, so I do what the sound guy tells me to......I'm usually rewarded with a good sound in the mix. On our own, its kind of a feel thing, I turn my amp up until I can hear reasonably well and no more. Then we mess around with the PA until its workable.

I'm happy with my tone at gigs and don't mess with it much anymore. Sometimes I practice with a real bright tone to work on being a little more cleaner on my attack and articulation, but in general (with the exception of the few songs we do where I use distortion) I use the same tone all the time now.

I have a shuttle 6.0 and keep everything at basically at noon without any effects buttons, usually Master volume not turned up too much. I use a P bass and set it volume on full and tone nob half way. Done.

hutchison_james · #6 09-15-2011, 04:42 AM

I usually play with a good amount of treble so its just the difference of changing the volume up or down to just sound balanced with every one else but ether way you'll find your self adjusting your EQ to the way you play in the band wile practicing and you'll find that certain things sound better with different people you play with.