Unless the volcanoes erupt or the sun burns out before hand lol. besides I think alot of these ideas take the live performance/music out of going to a show so you wise we'll stay home and watch music on YouTube your your mp3 an BAM you've got a performance with earbuds
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Are bass amps obsolete?
- Thread starter sanwin17
- Start date
Unless the volcanoes erupt or the sun burns out before hand lol. besides I think alot of these ideas take the live performance/music out of going to a show so you wise we'll stay home and watch music on YouTube your your mp3 an BAM you've got a performance with earbuds
My setup for years: Avid Eleven Rack (or Ampeg SCR-DI) -> EV ZLX12P powered PA cab -> EV Zxa1 powered PA sub.
Amazing. You do realize most subs are LPF at 70Hz - 80Hz? Yeah, good luck with that one.
For a concert performance, I would literally prefer my own high quality headphone feed to some of the sub dominated punk car mixes I’ve heard recently. Attended a Trombone Shorty concert a couple months back, and actually left the venue because the sound was so non-representative and sub heavy. Now, I’m literally deer in the headlights about going to amplified concerts any more. Just 100% disagree with how some of the more recent sound engineers think the music should be presented. Absolutely terrible. And, it’s NOT a volume thing. I’ve been to loud concerts since dirt. Black Sabbath, Mountain, etc etc. Seems like non-musicians deciding for the musicians how the music SHOULD sound. I have nothing but expletives deleted for those pretender sound engineers.
Back to live music in clubs; just no to headphones. The music may be loud; but the main thing going on in the clubs is the mating dance. Are we kidding ourselves (Freudian slip?). Headphones only? Ah, no; that would virtually eliminate the whole point of what’s going on.
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So what we are talking about here is BYOD (bring your own device vs venue provided). These kinds of things are much easier to to support when the venue can provide managed and supportable devices.
Letting people use their own devices could lead to a lot of problems. I'm a network admin and sometimes supporting byod for anything important can be a pain.
Off the op of my head I can think of quite a few and they might not be that big of a deal, and this there can be quite a few more..
1) Battery life
2) People will inevitably bring faulty/unprepared devices (or not have one)
3) Sometimes wireless client tech moves before infrastructure can update.
4 Wireless coverage in big venues like stadiums
a) Need about 1 wireless access point per 75 seats and thats when not everyone in that space is streaming. You might need more in this case.
b) Venues that double as sporting arenas/stadiums probably won't let tours use their wireless infrastructure, and it doesn't cover the playing field which double as concert seating. Tour would have to bring and deploy this each time.
I think it works better in smaller venues and I can definitely see it being used in certain spots in the future. Traditional FOH though is simple for the audience as it requires nothing but their presence. If a streamed audio environment would you issue refunds to those who end up not being able to hear the stream for one issue or another?
That makes perfect sense. I perhaps misinterpreted the post to mean using a sub exclusively as a bass amp. Mea culpa.
Certainly, I didn’t confer with the performer. But, this particular concert was SO far off from any of his studio work or YT performance vids that I did make the assumption. So, you are possibly correct.
But, this sounded like what you hear when the 92 Civic with the 400W sub pulls up next to you at the light.
Sure, I like dynamic bass. I’m a bass player. But, I can only go by what recordings sound like to infer the artist’s intent. When the FOH is way different...then I suppose the artist may have woken up that morning intending to be different, and directed the sound engineer accordingly. Could be. But, I doubt it.
There really are two different things going on. There is the performance intent; and then there is the sound engineer “interpretation.” One hopes the two are on the same page. This didn’t sound like it. Sounded more like a sound engineer who had a different concept. As always, I could be wrong.
I was talking Venue provided. Which the venue probably rents.
The concept of "casting" is much more under control this way.
As a 40 yr old who used to be a car audio installer.. Then a DJ tech..( I've rebuilt amps and reconed literally hundreds) and a stagehand for 11 years..
Yeah. I actually have it set lower at around 50hz right now.. It can play without a x-over as well as anywhere between 50-150hz.
This thing likely will never leave my bedroom or practice amp duty.. Lol it's a pair of 8"... But so many people poopie on the idea of using a subwoofer with you bass rig.. I figured I'd try it.
Lesson learned; DON'T KNOCK IT TILL YOU'VE TRIED IT!!
works well with a B string and amazing in general if you keep the level low enough to not just be mud.. I plugged my UBass directly into it just to see what happened there and it was laughable.
For some strange reason I never even considered adding a subwoofer to a bass rig. It just seemed in excess of something that was already purpose built... Make no mistake my little 8" isn't gonna change a damn thing on a stage or anywhere else but I think if I ever had to get to that need I'd likely skimp on my bass cabinet and add a dedicated subwoofer underneath say a Hartke 410. Stagehand experience has taught me not to do that anyhow but a Cardioid powered amp with the PA solves all your problems and can be shared with the rest. I do have a rather intense PA if required... So yeah.. I'll DI or even mic my little 8" zero shags given.
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Dirt cheap bedroom practice rig.
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Oh.. I'm very terrible at playing.. I literally am just learning.. So cheap gear is important.
The BEAD Samick isn't even soldered yet. It had a broken cap on the tone pot. I've got .22 and a500k pots to fix but I'm just not motivated since the Vantage works just fine.
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Hey, I’m the first advocate of actually trying things. Hypotheses are intended to be tested.
I just happen to be working through the whole ampless challenge; which means that my bass rig is now our FOH - a pair of QSC 153i’s sitting on JBL subs. When we started, the band member who was trying to run the PA was terrified that the bass would blow the 153i’s and initially had the bass going only to the subs. Pretty quickly, we spent some time setting the bass channel correctly to get something resembling what a bass amp does; and since then the bass is mostly in the 153i’s, with the subs providing a little reinforcement. Channel adjustment two years later is something that still has to be done from time to time, because Mr Nobody changes it; but, I’ve got it on a flash drive now. LOL.
Anyhow, back on topic, I’ve done the experiment with the bass only in the subs. So, my comment was based partly on my trial and error as well.
Yeah.. I never said bass only in the subs. That would be just stupid. I just posted what I did and you can laugh at my lack of chops first.. Because the damn thing works pretty well for jusy junk wired together.
And latency.. Could you imagine if people were trying to dance together and the units were out of sync..
No sweat. I mis-read your post. You’re just biamping. Mea culpa
Yeah Something like that. 3 actually. But yeah using a cheap subwoofer with another cheap guitar amp for practice at home is completely workable. I wouldn't take this anywhere but I can see why some people might prefer to DI and use like axe fx or whatever.
Well, amp less can work. With some effort. And, I understand why some cats like it. I prefer my amp; but will go with the flow.
With some shows and stages and given the right sound company, ampless simply can save a s**t-ton of work, and sound just great, even with open-air monitors. It all depends, but I've had many successful ampless gigs, even without a fancy pedal board. AND, I still love my bass amp
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First, certainly if some contractor is handling all the PA gear, then it would be a LOT less work for the band. My ampless gig does everything on our own. For that gig, I would just say that it’s about an equivalent hump for equipment, ampless vs amped; but, the ampless setup involves a crap ton more cabling. So, if DIY, I’m not sure I agree that it’s less work. Seems like more to me. Especially at load out, since all the cabling has to be bagged up in an organized way for the next gig.With some shows and stages and given the right sound company, ampless simply can save a s**t-ton of work, and sound just great, even with open-air monitors. It all depends, but I've had many successful ampless gigs, even without a fancy pedal board. AND, I still love my bass amp
Second, I would absolutely take an SVT over pretty much any PA, in terms of bass sound, absolutely any time. We have the QSC 153i’s, which are pretty nice; but, I am constantly struggling to keep the bass sound just ok. Both because the 153i may be a great all round speaker, but it’s a marginal bass cab (yes, we also have subs); and because fat fingers tend to inadvertently alter what my channel is doing from time to time. Still, I don’t have to listen to what the audience is hearing; so, the mediocre bass sound doesn’t directly affect my playing concentration.
Third, the IEM’s definitely give the player far superior monitoring for vocal harmonies and tailoring the monitor mix. Almost like being in the studio. As such, the system is certainly better for the music. But, then, I tend to find myself sitting around up on stage intently listening to and interacting with the music, rather than interacting with the audience. So, better for the music, but worse for entertainment. The challenges with the entertainment aspect and bass sound make the whole thing feel way more studio and much less R&R to me. My $0.019, YMMV.
