The damn practice room

[bassjus]

I find myself not fully satisfied with my rig, and then I spend countless more hours on this damn website finding more things to spend tons of money on. Now I go out and play a gig, and I love everything about my equipment. I just can't get over how bad my practice room makes me sound. Does anyone else feel the same way? If I had the money I'd make the sweetest most tuned practice room ever, but I guess right now that is really low on the list.

[Trevorus]

Get a bigger practice room, seriously. Your bass rig needs some room to speak properly. Bass produces big sound waves. You need to be a few feet away from your amp to hear the best tone.

[bassjus]

If I could I would, but being a poor college student/poor college band my parents house is going to stay the practice room for a while.

[Trevorus]

I hear you there. Don't be too discouraged, and don't make decisions on gear based solely on what it sounds like at home. It can sound funky at home, but sound great with a band.

[Jeff Moote]

Originally Posted by Trevorus

Get a bigger practice room, seriously. Your bass rig needs some room to speak properly. Bass produces big sound waves. You need to be a few feet away from your amp to hear the best tone.

All very true

On the other hand you have to be used to sticking close to your amp given that often on gigs stage space is very limited. This is where you learn the importance of understanding that your sound is bigger out front, and you have to find ways to hear yourself on stage without overpowering. It's tricky, really.

[Aaron Saunders]

Twist the knobs man, this isn't an issue of "bass makes big waves," it's an issue of "I need to change my settings because I'm in a different room."

[meev991]

Japan has a lot of those "rent a practice room"s....they should have more of those, stateside....i mean like, u can walk two blocks and down the corner and its there, that'd be so sweet.

[morf]

Originally Posted by Jeff Moote

All very true

On the other hand you have to be used to sticking close to your amp given that often on gigs stage space is very limited. This is where you learn the importance of understanding that your sound is bigger out front, and you have to find ways to hear yourself on stage without overpowering. It's tricky, really.

So how do you do that exactly? I have this problem at practice, I'm too close to the amp and I have to turn up to hear myself, but then I'm too loud.

[invader3k]

I find the same thing. My rig sounds _awesome_ when playing out, but in my practice room, there's just too much reverberation, even at very low volumes. I have my rig set in my computer room/office, which is about an 8x10 room with wood paneling all around and a drop ceiling. Just not good for acoustics at all, but unfortunately that's the only place I have room for it. I prefer to use my Ampeg BA-110 for practicing at home, because I can get enough volume for jamming with CDs while not shaking the room.

[meev991]

No matter which way I try to spin it, the house always shakes, even with my practice gear...the only time I EVER wear headphones is when I'm recording, monitoring....or watching a movie....I'm old fashioned, and I like being in a room that's filled with sound.

But what I really want, is a practice basement

[Sundogue]

Originally Posted by bassjus

I find myself not fully satisfied with my rig, and then I spend countless more hours on this damn website finding more things to spend tons of money on. Now I go out and play a gig, and I love everything about my equipment. I just can't get over how bad my practice room makes me sound. Does anyone else feel the same way? If I had the money I'd make the sweetest most tuned practice room ever, but I guess right now that is really low on the list.

Try using some foam on some of the walls. Small practice rooms can really make the bass sound like crap.

Only put foam, like the egg crate kind, on two of the four walls in places and see if it absorbs some of the overtones. Even small rooms can be boomy.

Just play around with the coverings on the walls to alter the effect of the room. Heck, even hanging old blankets can help a great deal. Experiment until you find something that changes the acoustics of the room. You don't need to spend much time or money to make it decent for you.

[bassjus]

Originally Posted by Sundogue

Try using some foam on some of the walls. Small practice rooms can really make the bass sound like crap.

Only put foam, like the egg crate kind, on two of the four walls in places and see if it absorbs some of the overtones. Even small rooms can be boomy.

Just play around with the coverings on the walls to alter the effect of the room. Heck, even hanging old blankets can help a great deal. Experiment until you find something that changes the acoustics of the room. You don't need to spend much time or money to make it decent for you.

I wish that were an option, but being that it's my parents finished basement that has a pool table, computer, and hangout space in it I don't think they'd really dig the foam as much as I would. The balnkets are a good idea; I've done that before and it helped, but it can get really old really fast to keep putting them up and down.

[Deacon_Blues]

I live in a flat on the 3rd floor, no elevator. It's far from the optimal place for a bassist with a 500w amp and 2x10 and 4x10 cabs to carry up and down the stairs... When I practice, I turn off most bass under 100 Hz, boost the low mids and mids instead, and use only so much volume so I can hear the sound from the speaker better than the acoustic sound of the (electric) bass itself. And I also mostly use the bridge pickup... I have no real problems doing this, but god I would like to use a bit more volume sometimes!

Guess you're in a better position than I am....

[meev991]

Originally Posted by Deacon_Blues

I live in a flat on the 3rd floor, no elevator. It's far from the optimal place for a bassist with a 500w amp and 2x10 and 4x10 cabs to carry up and down the stairs... When I practice, I turn off most bass under 100 Hz, boost the low mids and mids instead, and use only so much volume so I can hear the sound from the speaker better than the acoustic sound of the (electric) bass itself. And I also mostly use the bridge pickup... I have no real problems doing this, but god I would like to use a bit more volume sometimes!

Guess you're in a better position than I am....

lol, roll off everything under 100 hz???

wow, I hope I never have to live in an apartment someday

[Bard2dbone]

I have a small room that is my space. The rest of the family calls it my cave.

It's way too acoustically live. So I was considering putting rugs up on a couple of the walls. The good news is that if all the rugs look good together, I can convince my wife I was decorating, which she is more comfortable with emotionally, than she is with trying to make the room sound better.

Apparently that's a more nebulous concept to non-musicians than we think.

It's a little bitty alleged formal living room space, at least the way they thought of living room spaces forty-odd years ago when the house was built. I'd guess eight ot ten feet by twelve or fifteen feet. Pretty small.

[enderwaves]

our current practice space houses a bunch of contractor's tools, so everything rattles. it became too much to bear when i brought my sunn 2x15 in and everything in the room buzzed. hopefully i'll close on a house soon and can set up a space in the garage or basement.

[CrazyArcher]

I'm a poor student too, so I'm in the same plate. My $0.02: as long as you sound good out, don't worry much how you sound when you practice, just care to do your best.

[meev991]

Originally Posted by CrazyArcher

I'm a poor student too, so I'm in the same plate. My $0.02: as long as you sound good out, don't worry much how you sound when you practice, just care to do your best.

True, but my 4x10 makes everything in the house rattle....it took me a while to figure out it was the house, and not my rig that was sounding bad

Back when I was dorming at the university, The rooms, when we moved in, were so bare, that every wall, ceiling, and crevice of the suite, echoed....it was terrible

Could not even carry a normal conversation without having to step outside, now THAT is a bad practice area

[spectorbass83]

Originally Posted by bassjus

I find myself not fully satisfied with my rig, and then I spend countless more hours on this damn website finding more things to spend tons of money on. Now I go out and play a gig, and I love everything about my equipment. I just can't get over how bad my practice room makes me sound. Does anyone else feel the same way? If I had the money I'd make the sweetest most tuned practice room ever, but I guess right now that is really low on the list.

I had this same problem when we practiced in my drummer's basement...the acoustics were awful, everything sounded "empty". or "hollow"...since moving into a new practice facility its like night and day.

[Jeff Moote]

Originally Posted by morf

So how do you do that exactly? I have this problem at practice, I'm too close to the amp and I have to turn up to hear myself, but then I'm too loud.

To be honest, while there are a number of strategies (different EQ might allow you to hear yourself better at a given volume) most nights I end up just trusting my hands.

I get the sound right at soundcheck, and then I trust that my hands are doing the right things. Sometimes with an unlined fretless that gets a bit difficult, but most of the time it works just fine.

Obviously I'm talking about the worst case too. If you can get further from your amp or whatever, then great, but if you can't those are the times when practice really seems worthwhile.