Can't hear myself

[eriky4003]

Slobake,
Another idea is to place your combo as a sidewash so your sound guy doesn't hear your cabinet(assuming he's doing sound up front), as well. With lifting the combo up and pointing at yourself, you should be able to hear your playing and he can use the di and flavour the foh mix with your bass.

 

[will33]

Slobake,
Another idea is to place your combo as a sidewash so your sound guy doesn't hear your cabinet(assuming he's doing sound up front), as well. With lifting the combo up and pointing at yourself, you should be able to hear your playing and he can use the di and flavour the foh mix with your bass.

This can help quite a bit when you have backline fighting the PA, though the lowest frequencies still go everywhere. Chopping the bass knob is the answer. Could be that your amp placement relative to the space just happens to make a big boom.

I take it you're dumping your bass knob and using the lowmid and highmid knobs...that's good. Oddly, people think "bass" when they think "bass", but oftentimes "bass" can do more harm than good.

I've taken to doing this with my GK's as well. Shutting the bass knob off, get as nice a tone as you can from the other knobs, then rolling up just enough bass to fill in whatever, if anything, is missing. Most will find themselves stopping before that bass knob gets back to noon. Bass doesn't always need super deep bass.

 

[gumbynotpokey]

I've bought the t-shirt on this type of issue, and I'm gonna give you my 100%. Sorry if I seem to rant or tell folks what they already know. I love to think this will help some suffer less for less time than I did. In no particular order, I offer the following:

The speaker has a cone of sound coming from it. You want to be in the cone. Position the cabinet in such a way that your ears are as centered as can be in the sweet spot of that cone.

Stand and tilt? Hooray.

Keyboard, piano, synth. First piano. Many piano players play in a band context like they're still in piano class. That is, they play full chords with the left hand, and well below middle C. This is your territory, not theirs, in a band context. The piano needs to think keyboards, play at or above middle C, and play thirds and fifths. Of course, I'm generalizing. You get the point.

Synth can be a nightmare if they play a gigantic bass register pedal E or some other obliterating tsunami. They should think about a unique part of the register, with a unique color and a unique part.

Drums. The kick and floor toms can bash the bass out of the bass register to an amazing degree. Consider tuning the kick to not compete. Some drummers don't know how to play with a bass in any way other than locking into a tempo. The part and the tuning make a difference.

EQ. Consider some bass cut. Counter-intuitive perhaps, but it can help a lot. You are wanting to cut sub-bass if you can get to it on your amp, head or board. If not, just take the lows or whatever the bottom third of the EQ is and cut it a bit, then boost the treble a bit. Overall, more bass boost or sometimes even a flat bass part of the EQ is a problem. It just contributes to "boomy".

Settings during practice and full volume. Don't be a sucker for super-clear bass being achieved without the drummer and keys guys bashing away. Wait until the nightmare can happen and THEN see how it all sounds.


Hope this helps a bit.

 

[Stumbo]

YOu might also think about adding TBr fdeck's HPF-pre series 3 to your rig. It will cut all noise/mud from 35hz to 140hz, user adjustable to fit the venue. Also, going wireless/using a longer cord may allow you to change your stage position more easily so you can get into a sweet spot to better hear yourself.

+1 on the stand (plus tilt).

 

[slobake]

Thanks everyone, good suggestions here. Right now I have the bass and treble set to 0 on my GK amp. I have the high mids at 9 o'clock and the low mids at noon. I usually have the contour turned on, the gain is at noon and the boost is at 2 o'clock. I also have the horn turned on but it doesn't seem to make much difference on way or another. If I need more treble or bass I try and control that from the tone knob on my bass, but I can't hear too much difference when I am playing on stage with the band. I have put my amp on a stand that points it right at me and away from the audience. I use two cords, one plugged into my amp one plugged into a tuner pedal then to my P-bass. We have a floor monitor on either side of the stage and our sound sytem sits behind and on either side of us. I'm going into our system with an XLR. Our sound guy says the movie theater we play in really projects the sound. It's long and narrow with a lot of wood on the walls. I can't really tell how I sound from up front so I just have to trust him. Maybe next week I will walk out and play as far as I can while the band is playing during sound check.

 

[SirMjac28]

I'm sorry I couldn't hear the question?