Bass drum through my rig

[js1]

In the guitar/bass/drums/vox band that I play in, we rarely use a sub in pub gigs. No need to mic instruments. And in some of the place, there's either a basic PA with no sub as a house system that we have to use.

The only thing that needs the sub is the kick.

Now, I don't want the kick in my rig, so I often bring a spare Eden 2x10" cab, and use that for the kick alone. Sounds (in the words of the drummer) incredible.

 

[Warmuth]

We tested the kick and my rig tonight just for curiosity even though this thread had convinced me already that the kick nor my bass would be served running through my rig. The drums were already set up with a mixer so I plugged into his board and we sent the kick and my bass to my amp. The takeaway was that my speakers would probably get smashed without extreme caution, it would take very delicate mixing to make me happy and the kick drum sounded awesome. It was enough to convince him to get his own sub.

 

[Downunderwonder]

So how does existing PA work?

 

[Stevorebob]

It's a bass amp, not a bass drum amp. Right decision made.

 

[two fingers]

The foremost problem that needs fixin' here is the band dynamics it seems ...

And by dynamics, we don't mean pianissississimo. We mean how you guys get along with each other (or don't).

 

[Emanuel Apascaritei]

I´m sure you there are guys that if you take a normal active monitor and write on it: designed for bass, you´ll say that it´s made only for bass.

An amp is an amp period. The speaker on those bass cabs can handle this with the same precaution as for any amp and speaker.

Take for instance MarkBass. It´s made to be transparent. Take a cheap studio monitor and it will sound there. Use the Markbass for anything else and it will take it and reproduce well.

I´m not saying that you should use your amp to amplify the bass drum. I would say no to the drummer and the guitard as well. But the reasons that the amp can´t handle it don´t do it for me.

And yes, I have experimented and I´m not afraid to do it. Of course I´ve made mistakes (I just rememberd I almost blew an Neumann U87 by miking the kick drum inside. And once blew out the mic input of an SSL channel)

 

[chadds]

I´m sure you there are guys that if you take a normal active monitor and write on it: designed for bass, you´ll say that it´s made only for bass.

An amp is an amp period. The speaker on those bass cabs can handle this with the same precaution as for any amp and speaker.

Take for instance MarkBass. It´s made to be transparent. Take a cheap studio monitor and it will sound there. Use the Markbass for anything else and it will take it and reproduce well.

I´m not saying that you should use your amp to amplify the bass drum. I would say no to the drummer and the guitard as well. But the reasons that the amp can´t handle it don´t do it for me.

And yes, I have experimented and I´m not afraid to do it. Of course I´ve made mistakes (I just rememberd I almost blew an Neumann U87 by miking the kick drum inside. And once blew out the mic input of an SSL channel)

His amp can handle either bass or bass drum, not both at the same time.

 

[Emanuel Apascaritei]

His amp can handle either bass or bass drum, not both at the same time.

Aw!¡...

 

[tjh]

One of my drummers wanted to do that, I said no thanks ... but, I leave a Peavey amp at the practice room, and will bring that along for a back-up if anybody needs it ... so now the drummer is putting his kick thru their to get a little pop .. I dont mind him using it, as long as he hauls it now

 

[45acp]

Rock music, typical bar setting... you guys ever given a thought on running a trigger on the kick? It would probably be cheaper than a dedicated sub and they are pretty foolproof- your guitard could set the eq flat and it'll still sound good going through the pa.

Just a thought.