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Am I crazy, no amp go direct?

#41
Going DI with no amp works in some situations with a good PA and monitors. I do it all the time in my Acoustic Gospel band.

Some playing situations on the other hand require an amp

If you are going to put yourself out there as a bass player you will need a decent, reliable amp. Unless you are only playing in one band where you don't need an amp.
 
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#42
I mainly go direct when I can. My G&K MB200 has a good DI, so I run out of that. The amp itself isn't much bigger than some good DI boxes. Otherwise I pair it with one or two G&K Neo 112 cabinets.

Regarding IEMs, one thing that helps the isolated feeling is having an ambient mic picking up the sounds from the house. I am a fan.
 
#44
Agree with other posts. It can work great if you are certain of your PA/soundman situation every time. If there's any uncertainty, bring an amp with.

I do IEM/DI for all the gigs we have our own PA or that I know can handle my setup. New situations I follow my own advice and bring an amp.
 
#45
It's definitely not crazy! Plenty of great players do it. I'd say it's basically one step past everyone using tiny class D amps.

You aren't COMPLETELY at the mercy of the sound guy, either. There are plenty of tone-shaping DI options you can use, such as Aguilar Tone Hammer and the Tech 21 Sans Amps & VT Bass DI.

All that being said, I'd have a hard time seeing myself CHOOSE a no-amp IEM for my full-time rig. But I also sold my class-D after only a few months of ownership and now only own all-tube amps. (Not to say I'm opposed to solid state--I'm sure there are fantastic ones our there, none of them have spoken to me yet.)
 
#46
PA's got to have the power and speakers to support direct/IEM. And most don't. If I know what we're getting in advance I can decide if I need to bring an amp or not, but that rarely happens, so I always bring a rig.

Me, I like the whole IEM thing myself, but most gigs it's just not yet appropriate. I expect that will change quite a bit over the next few years.
 
#48
Honch said:
Watch out, and take care. I had those ones too. It was called "crystal ear" in lack of better description. The balance system in inner ear is thrown around by the calcium crystals being thrown askew in line with gravity. They are aligned up wrong. This can be cause by too loud or - actually - too low frequency levels. I can't listen to earphones on domestic equipment (mp3 players, and the like) either, at home, when lying in bed. Standing up is ok, but as fast as I move out the IEM, earphones or whatever, it's no big deal. I can keep balance.

Actually to get them in place again, is only done by a very painful process. But if you're into it, going into a boxing ring with protection on, and a professional sparring partner will throw them in the right direction again. With the cost of a broken nose, or broken jaw perhaps. Not kidding, but just severe traumatic impact may alter them right again.

- - - - -

A small combo at 12" and above 100W with direct out possibilities, will get you covered. On top of that buy any of the D.I units out there just in case. In case you're subject to onstage monitoring, I would love to have wedge monitors with at least 15" in them. The 12" shows their sortcomings too often I think. GK has a brand new D.I in line with built in tuner, that has JUST been released. Other brands Tech21, EBS and Ampeg scambler DI are worth considering. But don't rely solely on D.I. Buy a small rig too.
Click to expand...

Ok I guess I'm lucky I don't have what you have! What I have is Tulio syndrome. Don't think they have a cure for this but it doesn't sound quite as severe as the crystal thing you have going on. A loud kick drum off to my right can send my whole world spinning in a flash however!
 
#50
I've seen ampless quite a bit with local bands. In fact our rhythm guitar just started running direct into the PA. For me, I don't think it would work so well to go totally ampless. I DI to our PA, but I use a Markbass combo to monitor with. My hearing is pretty bad, so I need to feel a little bass feedback in my feet. We don't run bass through the monitors, just the mains.
 
#52
I rarely use an amp now, but I have many. You need at least one rig and at least one decent DI. You'll do yourself a favor by owning an IEW set as well. Always ask when discussing taking the gig whether an amp is needed. If in doubt, bring one and leave it in your van until you know you need it or whether other options are available.
 
#54
I've been running IEM's since the late nineties, the first thing I noticed was that with a good set of earpieces, that seal off outside noise completely, you can run the mix really quiet and save your ears. It was like being in the studio. I loved it and still do.

But, you do need really good ear pieces and you really need the right system to mix them properly. I've had the same triple driver Ultimate Ears for over ten years, but there are quite a few good options out there now, and the prices have come down. I can't see them working in a bar band or cocktail gig, I still own a medium sized combo amp for those situations. Most church gigs I run into are using Aviom systems with ears, which sound okay, but not close to getting a mix through an aux on a board or through the Furman HRM-16, those are my absolute favorite. Behringer has come out with a really cheap digital mixer, the X-32, which has very inexpensive proprietary in-ear mixing stations, a lot of churches are going to them, honestly, they don't sound nearly as good as the Aviom, but they do work.

When I am a sound guy, I love when the band is on ears, it keeps the stage volume to a minimum and really cleans up the mix in the room not having to compete with guitar and bass amps on stage, and monitors for that matter. Guitar amps go off stage or in an isolation box, and there are some really good DI's available that really sound like a mic'ed amp by the time they hit the PA. I use the REDDI, but I mixed a guy with a Noble that sounded amazing. Cheap DI's kill your tone, Countryman and Radial make probably the most popular mid-line DI's and they work great for bass.

End of the day, if you use them properly (both ears in, all the time) you can save your ears some abuse. There are some things you can do to make the experience more natural, like mixing in some room mics, the new Aviom stations have a condenser mic on the unit to get some ambient noise into your mix. If you are on a riser, you can get a servo made by Buttkicker and attach it to the riser, it shakes the riser from the same signal going to the sub. Sounds crazy, but it really feels like the whole stage is filled with sub, pretty cool actually. IEMs take some getting used to, but I wouldn't trade them for having to schlep an amp or arrange backline for every gig.
 
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#55
For 96 percent of my gigs, my pedalboard is my "amp" - just enough stuff there to get a few variations in sound happening, and the sound person (sometimes it isn't a "guy") takes it from there. The other 5 percent is a gig where I do bring an amp - it's the quietest place I play, and a 40 watt combo would be more than enough. I bring more than that, because I only have one amp - a stack where I can bring half (overkill) or all of it (Big overkill). If I ever need to play with a live drummer with that amp, I'm set, but so far, not an issue.
 
#56
It's not for me. I do run direct from my sans amp RBI at every gig and In the studio but I also have a inexpensive power amp (crown xls1500) and an ampeg 410 onstage for some stage volume. The biggest problem I found with it is with no stage volume in a lot of venues is it dramatically effects how the crowd hears everything. a lot of bass players hay play in church go ampless but if you think about it at church the audience is often farther back where they can hear the PA better. At a lot of shows we do the crowd infront of the stage is actually standing between or even behind the PA . So they hear a lot of drums because drums are acoustically the loudest thing on stage but they don't hear enough of everything else. So we prefer some stage volume.
 
#58
I currently run a Sansamp BDDI direct to the soundboard, but I am about to move to both running the Sansamp direct and having an amp on stage just so that I can hear/feel the bass. IEMs are great for hearing the guitars, synth, vocals and all that, but I have found them to be a poor substitute to standing next to the kick drum with an amp behind me.
 
#59
I had a nightmare once (as in real sleep-related nightmare, not a bad gig) where I was using only a preamp into an FOH with IEMs. At one point I found myself in the crowd and one of the monitors got pulled out of my ear. What I heard from the house sound was somewhere between a grinding clutch and a duck being stepped on by Andre the Giant every time I touched the strings of my bass.

Yes, I dream of this poopie, and it scares me ...a lot!
 
#60
You may play a higher tier of gigs than I do, seeing as how you've played a lot longer, but I've had gigs where the sound guy knew ZIP about doing anything but vocals through a PA. Even then, the vocals were getting bad feedback, so I can only imagine how bad that the instruments would have sounded. Glad I brought an amp to that gig, that is probably a similar story for many players here. It also gives the audience incentive to hang out near the stage since your rig will probably sound better up front. All part of the experience :)
 
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