Double Bass All "mwaaaaahhh" and no body

[Ekulati]

Hey guys, I'm not a DB guy at all, but went to see a friend's great newgrass band the other day. Indoors, everyone DI. I was dead center four rows back.

Anyway, he has a great bass player, but I literally could not hear any bottom. In fact had to watch his hands at times to make sure he was playing. He was.

What came through a lot was only the "mwaaaaahhh" and nothing else. Just a nasally mid-range. Mind you at times my buddy switches from mando to guitar so it was ALL mid-range instruments. Two guitars, banjo, and the midrangey bass. No warm bottom bed for the higher stuff to float on. While I'm not a fan of overpowering bass, I do like a big bottom.

So is this a thing, an aesthetic choice? Conscious, or maybe he just didn't know?

 

[Carl Hillman]

As far as what comes out of the FOH speakers, we are at the mercy of who is running sound.

You can send him a line out with the most beautiful bass sound you've ever heard, but if Sound Guy feels like it, he can compress and EQ it until it sounds like you're playing a cigar box bass through a Fisher Price™ amp.

So, I would hazard a guess the answer is, "he just didn't know".

 

[Ekulati]

So, I would hazard a guess the answer is, "he just didn't know".

Yup, figured as much. I was hearing more bass just from walking through
the beer garden where impromptu groups were playing completely unplugged.

 

[Steve Swan]

Quite often sound contractors will do just the opposite, dial in so much bottom end that the singers and soloists can't be heard at all!

 

[bearfoot]

Sadly, I find that good FOH mixing is rare. Too loud & too bassy with buried vocals are the usual problems, but I have also observed cases like this, where the mixer is so paranoid about blowing a woofer they refuse to put any low end through the system.

Even in supposedly professional venues, I find the sound is most often garbage. There simply is not enough good engineers out there.

 

[unbrokenchain]

Sadly, I find that good FOH mixing is rare. Too loud & too bassy with buried vocals are the usual problems, but I have also observed cases like this, where the mixer is so paranoid about blowing a woofer they refuse to put any low end through the system.

Even in supposedly professional venues, I find the sound is most often garbage. There simply is not enough good engineers out there.

It's especially tough being a musician who also works as a sound engineer. There have been occasions where I've been on stage and the sound has been terrible, and I know pretty well how to fix it, but I don't want to tell the person working how to do their job.. To be fair, there are some really excellent engineers around too, and they deserve a lot of credit that they rarely get.

 

[Keger Jupit]

Hey guys, I'm not a DB guy at all, but went to see a friend's great newgrass band the other day. Indoors, everyone DI. I was dead center four rows back.

Anyway, he has a great bass player, but I literally could not hear any bottom. In fact had to watch his hands at times to make sure he was playing. He was.

What came through a lot was only the "mwaaaaahhh" and nothing else. Just a nasally mid-range. Mind you at times my buddy switches from mando to guitar so it was ALL mid-range instruments. Two guitars, banjo, and the midrangey bass. No warm bottom bed for the higher stuff to float on. While I'm not a fan of overpowering bass, I do like a big bottom.

So is this a thing, an aesthetic choice? Conscious, or maybe he just didn't know?

Was he playing one of these?