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Big PA support problem

V

Vinpaul

Aug 24, 2005
108
0
Melbourne, Aus
#1
Hi everyone,
Last week my band had our first gig. I have a hartke 3500 with hartke 410 plus 115. I have a Spector Q4, which unfortunately is in repairs at the moment (its taking bloody ages, not impressed) so I had to use my friends Bass Collection 5 string (Im definetely a 4 string man). The bass is pretty cool, but straight away even with a new battery in rehearsal i found that I had to turn my amp up way more to get enough volume than I did with my spector. Anyway at the gig the bloke hooks up the DI at the back and says the signal hes getting is not loud or strong enough, so had t bypass my amp and I went straight to the PA. Things is he couldnt turn me up loud enough with that anywau and everyone said I wasnt loud enough (the band is loud heavy rock by the way). My question is, is the problem with the head, or the bass. Im thinking maybe the pickups arent would hot enough and cant get as much volume out of it? Im a bit stumped. Bloke said there must be a switch on my head to turn the signal up but I dont think so. Have another gig at same venue tomorrow nite so Im thinking of just running through my amp, its louder than PA, and the place aint that big so should be cool. Still any input or suggestions on what is wrong would be much appreciated. If I sound like a dummy its cause I havent had much experience with going through the PA. Thanks

By the way as a whole the gig went really damn well, everyone loved it, and we rocked out with an hour set full of originals, was pretty cool.
 
#3
Sounds like the problem is with the soundman! The DI signal should be line, not mic level, and if he can't figure out how to get enough gain from his console for a line level signal, well, a new soundman might be in order . . . . . . .

Regarding on your amp, how much lower? Different instruments do vary, and if it was not something like 5x, it is probably a non-problem.

- Tim
 
#4
With a different instrument you might have to turn up the pre-gain, but not the master. I agree that if he couldn't get enough signal at the board via either the direct out or a DI he was at fault. You do have a pre-post switch on that amp that determines where in the signal chain the direct out taps the circuit, before or after the master volume. Try it both ways. Since the balanced out is at line level and the balanced in at the board is mic level if anything he should have found the direct out signal hot enough to require extra padding.
 
#6
Which amp input were you using? Passive or active? If, by chance, you were plugged into the "active" input, you should try plugging into the passive,even if that new bass is active.
Spectors seem to hove hot outputs. Even with a passive Spector I was using, its output was MUCH hotter than my ESP bass with active preamp on it. That Bass Collection 5 string probably isn't as hot. The passive jack would really help in this case.
If the new bass is active, might also want to check on the battery too. Might be low, causing a weaker output.

I agree with the others. Your soundguy should have been able to get enough signal to work with, one way or another..

Mag...
 

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