Tapping and sound volume

[cgandon]

Hi all

I'm playing in a band where i'm trying to use different techniques such as tapping and slap.

It feels frustrating while rehearsing that those techniques, and especially tapping, seem to induce a drop in sound volume. I set my amp volume to get normal notes sound right, but then tappings and slap are totaly covered by other instruments.

Adjusting EQ to make the sound brigher has helped, so have new strings, but all together it still does not sound perfectly consistent compared to what I heard in professional recording. Although I know for sure that most of the sound comes from your own fingers, I still think there might be something else that helps keeping volume consistency while varying picking techniques (compression maybe?).

any thoughts welcome (except "get a bass and practice..." because, that for sure, I know already )

[251]

Originally Posted by cgandon

Hi all

I'm playing in a band where i'm trying to use different techniques such as tapping and slap.

It feels frustrating while rehearsing that those techniques, and especially tapping, seem to induce a drop in sound volume. I set my amp volume to get normal notes sound right, but then tappings and slap are totaly covered by other instruments.

Adjusting EQ to make the sound brigher has helped, so have new strings, but all together it still does not sound perfectly consistent compared to what I heard in professional recording. Although I know for sure that most of the sound comes from your own fingers, I still think there might be something else that helps keeping volume consistency while varying picking techniques (compression maybe?).

any thoughts welcome (except "get a bass and practice..." because, that for sure, I know already )

I don't think there is any magic to apply. You can;
- Create some volume headroom by reducing the volume on your bass when you set the amp volume to be right. Tweek up to tap, remember to tweek down when you're done.
- same as above using a volume pedal to tweek volume up/down.
- lighten up your right hand so you can play not tapping at tapping volume.

Other than adjusting the controls on the bass, I can't think of a way to reset EQ on the fly.

[dmusic148]

It does come down largely to technique. If you turn your amp gain up higher and play lighter to compensate, when you come to the tapping stuff it will be louder. And a little compression here would probably be useful.

[rebelscum]

+1 to compression. I have a heavy right hand and the compression "tames" the tone as the result of how hard I play.
I think that this might help if you have a similar playing style, or if your style is lighter. I started out with the Behringer AUTOCOM PRO-XL MDX1600. It's price of $80 was worth it to me and is rack mountable. I still use it, but I'm thinking of graduating to the DBX 166XL.

[Absentia]

Compression and boosting mids.