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Bass sound on stages

#21
two fingers said:
1) Turn your mids up. You have cut most of the frequencies that can be heard and only left tue ones that can he felt. As such, you're totally at the mercy of your environment.
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Yanking out all of your mids is a bedroom tone. It's no good for the stage. Put some mids back in and stack your rig vertically. You'll be a happy bass player.
Click to expand...

I like this point about the mids. It's been a long time since I played on a decent sized stage (and it wasn't a bass then either), but when I practise I simulate the sound of an open stage because it's good for the sound, makes it easy to go for long periods. The bass snaps and snarls like it should (Stranglers fan here), but when I listen on room monitors, sat in a comfortable chair, the first shock is how nasty it sounds till I cut 12 dB or more in a null at around 1400 Hz.

I need mids to hear the pitch accurately, when playing. There seems to be some correlation with this observation in a simulation, and in a real staging.

The other thing that occurred to me is that if stands had some crank thing, with everything sat on big prongs like on a forklift, then the boundary effect could be finely adjusted without moving the heavy gear across the stage. I bet someone could sell that. :)
 
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#25
There are so many things that influence whether you can hear your amp on stage. I notice in your pic you’ve cut bass, low mids, and high mids. Those are the frequencies you’ll hear on stage, so your amp settings are not helping you there. Next, what was the PA situation at each of these venues? The distance between subs, your amp, and you, play probably the largest role in how well you can hear yourself. If you’re standing in a place where the frequencies from each of those sound sources cancel, rather than reinforce, each other, there’s little you can do to fix it other than change one of those distances, or buy a digital delay with single millisecond capabilities and see if a full wet tone delayed by single millisecond values makes it better. My solution, once I started playing venues with subs, was to go full IEM. I let my preamp get my tone so my bass sounded good in my ears, and let the FOH sound guy make it sound good in the room.
 
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#30
mrcbass said:
So I'm finding that at certain venues, I can't hear my cab very well on stage - even at volumes that I'm asked to turn down from. It's hard to determine why this happens when at some places, I get to enjoy a nice full sound that feels too loud on stage, but is fine in the mix.

I always use one or two 210 cabs that sit on a metal amp stand so my cabs are somewhat isolated from the "stage". Some variation of this:
View attachment 4812329

This weekend I played two gigs; first was in doors on a floor that had some synthetic "wood" on concrete. Could not hear a thing all night. Yesterday I played indoors on a wooden platform stage, and it was a great big enjoyable sound.

I got to thinking that perhaps the "stage" being hollow and wooden helps this (I can feel the bass in my feet). It seems the stand is transferring some energy to the floor, which I was not expecting.

So first is there any truth to this "theory", that a wooden stage helps boost the bass output?

If so, could I accomplish some of that benefit by building a little hollow box for under my stand - or would it need to be bigger than I'd want to manage for it work?

Thanks
Click to expand...

The first thing I’d take a look at is your EQ. If your low mids are scooped out, you will have issues hearing yourself. IMO the best cure is set your EQ to flat, boost low mid at 165hz until your can hear yourself in the mix. From the looks of your rig, unless there is some sound cancellation going on with the monitors, you have more firepower than you need for good stage presence.

It’s going to initially sound odd when you are playing by yourself, but when the band starts, you should be amazed how well it sounds. Best wishes and give it a shot.

BTW, nice rig.
 
#36
mrcbass said:
So I'm finding that at certain venues, I can't hear my cab very well on stage - even at volumes that I'm asked to turn down from. It's hard to determine why this happens when at some places, I get to enjoy a nice full sound that feels too loud on stage, but is fine in the mix.

I always use one or two 210 cabs that sit on a metal amp stand so my cabs are somewhat isolated from the "stage". Some variation of this:
View attachment 4812329

This weekend I played two gigs; first was in doors on a floor that had some synthetic "wood" on concrete. Could not hear a thing all night. Yesterday I played indoors on a wooden platform stage, and it was a great big enjoyable sound.

I got to thinking that perhaps the "stage" being hollow and wooden helps this (I can feel the bass in my feet). It seems the stand is transferring some energy to the floor, which I was not expecting.

So first is there any truth to this "theory", that a wooden stage helps boost the bass output?

If so, could I accomplish some of that benefit by building a little hollow box for under my stand - or would it need to be bigger than I'd want to manage for it work?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Why are you cutting all your mids and lows? If those EQ settings are what you use, they might be the problem right there. You won’t need as much volume when your EQ is properly set up.
 
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