The Praise and Worship Band Bassists Club part 22

[steve_rolfeca]

Originally Posted by SoVeryTired

...The bass was really noisy last night, more than just the usual hum I might get from a relative cheap bass with single coils. ...I asked if it was a passive DI as I'd heard that they don't necessarily work as well as active with passive basses. We ran a long lead to the usual rack unit and... problem gone.

The rule of thumb about active DI's with passive basses is about impedance matching, not noise. Most passive DI's (even a $200 Radial JDI), will load a passive bass down a bit, stealing some crispness. This doesn't, or at least shouldn't, affect noise levels.

Pretty well any cheap DI should be capable of taking care of ground loops.

Don't be insulted if you did try this, but if the noise was a hum or buzz (as opposed to hiss), then you may have had a ground loop. Flipping the ground lift switch might have been enough to fix the problem....

Another tip: in those situations, always take a close look at the DI: some cheap DI's don't have a ground lift switch, but they do have a "ground lift input", which means you have to switch jacks in order to pick up the ground lift. I have also fixed noisy DI's and pedals in the past by gently tightening a loose jack or jacks...

OTOH, just about any piece of rack gear is generally going to be better than any DI that cost under $100.

[SoVeryTired]

Originally Posted by steve_rolfeca

The rule of thumb about active DI's with passive basses is about impedance matching, not noise. Most passive DI's (even a $200 Radial JDI), will load a passive bass down a bit, stealing some crispness. This doesn't, or at least shouldn't, affect noise levels.

Pretty well any cheap DI should be capable of taking care of ground loops.

Don't be insulted if you did try this, but if the noise was a hum or buzz (as opposed to hiss), then you may have had a ground loop. Flipping the ground lift switch might have been enough to fix the problem....

Another tip: in those situations, always take a close look at the DI: some cheap DI's don't have a ground lift switch, but they do have a "ground lift input", which means you have to switch jacks in order to pick up the ground lift. I have also fixed noisy DI's and pedals in the past by gently tightening a loose jack or jacks...

OTOH, just about any piece of rack gear is generally going to be better than any DI that cost under $100.

Not insulted at all! The ground lift switch was flipped without making a difference. Maybe it's just down to the quality of the box. It seems that bass highlights shortcomings in equipment that was fine for other purposes, e.g. the DI boxes, and ear buds, which are fine with guitar and vocals. Bass is demanding!

[steve_rolfeca]

Originally Posted by SoVeryTired

...It seems that bass highlights shortcomings in equipment that was fine for other purposes, e.g. the DI boxes, and ear buds, which are fine with guitar and vocals. Bass is demanding!

Too true.

Still, I hope you sound crew was on the job immediately after the service, checking for bad cables, loose connectors, etc. Sudden increases in noise should never be taken for granted.

[SoVeryTired]

Originally Posted by steve_rolfeca

Too true.

Still, I hope you sound crew was on the job immediately after the service, checking for bad cables, loose connectors, etc. Sudden increases in noise should never be taken for granted.

It was just rehearsal so they were busy checking everything. Cables, DI boxes and channels were all swapped out and it was only switching to the rack unit that cured it. The sudden increase was because I never usually use the DI box and it seemed to prove that what I plug the bass into makes all the difference.

It was fascinating to me to observe that a DI isn't just a DI. I was a bit skeptical of the idea of spending big money on a DI box when I thought they'd be a fairly simple piece of equipment - now I start to see that not all DI's are equal!

[jmclearnon]

The Radial JDV has an impedance matching variable resistor , loving life . Also if the cable is very long to the desk the signal (which is always lossy due to short transmission line laws) will start to fade, active DI's generally have enough power to push a signal for a few hundred meters with minimal loss......

small signal into desk generally means sound guys will crank the gain ..... ie not good. (unless they has a very expensive desk with good gain circuits, but still always introduces noise.)

[khutch]

Originally Posted by SoVeryTired

Lots of checking leads and pressing buttons. The main difference to usual was that, as I was at the front of stage and singing, I was plugged into a DI box rather than the usual rack at the back of the stage.

Sorry if I missed it but did you try swapping the DI box for another one? It is possible that the particular DI box you were using is broken and should be repaired or replaced.

Ken

[SoVeryTired]

Originally Posted by khutch

Sorry if I missed it but did you try swapping the DI box for another one? It is possible that the particular DI box you were using is broken and should be repaired or replaced.

Ken

Yes, that was one of the tests - swapped for an identical box, with no change.

[Jhengsman]

Time for the travelling Yanks to reappear

Normally this time a year we have a scratch team for services as work and family commitments have people travelling. However one of our Nigerian son's is having his local wedding reception so more then normal are in town. And the Nigerians unlike the Chinese who are a minority in their community are old Christians and tend to make it to church even after parting the night before.

The worship leader left a hole in the setlist, I have been encouraging him to introduce the song he wrote. maybe this is the week. I never had the writing gene but I think i am a fair arranger and have been reworking the standards we have. One of my leaders likes it. The other is more the play the iconic recording type as is my new drummer. I will endeavor to turn him around to the loose side.

So far in the set:
Ancient of Days
I Could Sing of Your Love Forever
At The Cross (Hillsongs')
Give Thanks

My personnel Christmas learn list:
Angels We Have Heard On High
Away In The Manger
A Baby Changes Everything
Christmas Time is Here
Give Love on Christmas Day
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
It's Christmas (Bishop Neal Roberson)
Jesus, Oh What a Wonderful Child
Joy To The World
Mary's Little Boy Child
Mary Did You Know
Our Father's Love Begotten (Hark The Herald Angels)
Oh Come All Ye Faithful
Silent Night
This Christmas
We Three Kings
What Child is This

Homebase for me is Philly soul and jazzy R&B, I do need to find the time and start an outside band . my wife's cousin is in that groove but they are 50 miles away.

[SteveC]

Not sure what features the Aviom system offers, but here's what we did at our church.

Rolls Monitor Mixer = $60
Single Driver Buds = $80
Aux Send cable = $20

We use a Presonus Live board and we each do our own monitor mix with our iPhones and Qmix. Works great. Planning Center/Music Stand on iPads and were good to go.

Much less than $9,000 and very effective.

[5StringFool]

Which Presonus board are you using?

[SteveC]

Can't remeber for sure. It's a Studio Live 16.4 or something like that.

[caeman]

Friday Afternoon: my acoustic band did a private concert for a friend in a nursing home

Friday Night: on drum set for Erev Shabbat

Sunday Morning: subbing on bass at Finneytown Church of God

[Jhengsman]

I got caught unprepared today. I didn't bring both church books and an old worship leader was visiting and they called up a song she used to do. The other new members had not heard the song and all we had was the basic chord progression, I had prewriiten licks, fills and turnarounds but could not pull them from fading memories.

To add to my woes on of the elders jumped up on percussion and an alto sax jumped in so all I could hear was drums surrounding me and the melody.
By the congregation's responce, they were still in the afterglow of yesterday's wedding reception, somehow we made it work.

[mkandolf]

Off this week, no playing, read Scripture instead.

Found out our WL has bronchitis really bad and is now on antibiotics. Our one electric guitar player led this week. If the WL can't go next week, I may get the call again. At least this time there will be a bit more notice.

[mkandolf]

And BTW, can't wait to play next week! New string day and the 78 Fender P just got a set of LaBella Deep Talkin' Flats .049-.109. Rocked the neighborhood breaking them in and drooling over the new thunder tone!

[adambomb]

Originally Posted by mkandolf

And BTW, can't wait to play next week! New string day and the 78 Fender P just got a set of LaBella Deep Talkin' Flats .049-.109. Rocked the neighborhood breaking them in and drooling over the new thunder tone!

Ooooooo I have needed some new strings. I might have to check those out. How much we're they? ($)

[christle]

Interesting weekend playing at church. Our set list:

All Because of Jesus
Lift the Name
Everlasting God
From the Inside Out
The Greatness of Our God

We ended up removing From the Inside Out for the Sunday services and only played it for the Saturday evening service. Overall the playing went well. Had one issue with a young guitar who was overplaying. Got that straightened out by Sunday. That young man is a brilliant player and as he matures musically I think he will become quite the player if he wants. He has a bit too much fascination with delay pedals but given his age it is rather understandable. That and he seems to really like The Edge

[christle]

Originally Posted by mkandolf

And BTW, can't wait to play next week! New string day and the 78 Fender P just got a set of LaBella Deep Talkin' Flats .049-.109. Rocked the neighborhood breaking them in and drooling over the new thunder tone!

Very cool!

[nick98338]

Got to play "Your Great Name" today. First time that I had heard this song. Very powerful song. Congregation really liked it.

[5StringFool]

Originally Posted by christle

That and he seems to really like The Edge

I think many P&W guitarists need a W.W.T.E.D. (What Would The Edge Do) bracelet... not that that's necessarily a bad thing.