Choosing a "clean" preamp/DI

[agedhorse]

I've been an audio engineer longer than I've been gigging, and I've been gigging longer than I've played bass.

"Sound guys" can be real asholes. Their job is not to tell you what you can and cannot do, their job is to project *your sound* into the audience.

I have over 30 years of pro audio engineering experience, and I would never tell you what equipment you can or cannot use, because I am also a musician and more importantly, a professional audio engineer, not a neckbearded slob/petty tyrant. I went to university for Lighting & Sound Design at a global Top 5 school for Theatre.

When you are the performer, you are the talent, and the "sound guy" is nothing more than the hired help, your servant. Feel free to put "sound guys" in their place.

Then only time I will ever insist on doing things my way as an audio engineer is if I judge your equipment to be electrically or mechanically unsafe and a potential source of damage to the PA system. That would be a pretty extraordinary circumstance.

My preference is to take the bass DI from whatever point will deliver to my PA the best representation of *your sound*, not my personal interpretation of "what bass should sound like". This is usually the DI from your stage amp, but it can also be a DI box in front of your amp, or it can be a DI output on your pedalboard, depending on circumstances.

To be fair, if you don't have a particularly characteristic tone, I can plug you into a Countryman Type 85 direct box and make you sound like a demigod, if not an actual god. I'm that good.

I'm building a new bass pedalboard right now, and it's going to have as it's primary tone generator a DSM & Humboldt Simplifier Bass Station. The intent is to build a direct-to-PA/recording desk fly rig, and there really wouldn't be any point of taking the PA signal from anywhere but the Simplifier, the last device in the signal chain.

Any "sound guy" who has a problem with that will be standing on an empty stage trying to explain to the audience why there is no entertainment. A professional audio engineer won't think to do anything else.

I've played a lot of gigs in my life, from poopy dive bars to medium size theatres, like the House of Rock, and never once have I ever had an argument with a real pro. "Sound guys", well, they are a basement dwelling subculture, and unfortunately they can be problematic, but stick to your guns—you are the performer, not they.

For those of you who wonder why the sound guys at the lower end of the market tend to be "not so great", this is a good example of why the good guys get out of these gigs at their earliest convenience.

No good sound guy wants to be treated as "hired help" or "your servant", and in fact that's a really disrespectful way to treat anybody that you have to work with. It sets the tone for the rest of the night.

I did 40 years in the touring side of the pro audio market, nobody treats folks like that and it wouldn't be tolerated anyway. Respect goes both ways, and it's an earned commodity.

If you are gigging at the "sewer level" (one step below "ankle biters"), you are getting the guys who don't have the skills or the personality to work the "better" shows.

 

[Al Kraft]

I have always taken the approach that the sound tech becomes part of the band in terms of delivering a high quality performance for the audience. I am also very aware that they likely have a better feel for the acoustic quirks of a venue they work in than I do. And finally, they hear "the band that the audience hears" better than I do from up on stage.

I think the best performances are a collaborative effort between the band the sound tech. And that teamwork requires discussion and an occasional compromise to get to a workable solution that delivers the best audience experience...which is what a gig is supposed to be focussed on, not who outranks who.

 

[el murdoque]

I've been an audio engineer longer than I've been gigging, and I've been gigging longer than I've played bass.

"Sound guys" can be real asholes. Their job is not to tell you what you can and cannot do, their job is to project *your sound* into the audience.

I have over 30 years of pro audio engineering experience, and I would never tell you what equipment you can or cannot use, because I am also a musician and more importantly, a professional audio engineer, not a neckbearded slob/petty tyrant. I went to university for Lighting & Sound Design at a global Top 5 school for Theatre.

When you are the performer, you are the talent, and the "sound guy" is nothing more than the hired help, your servant. Feel free to put "sound guys" in their place.

Then only time I will ever insist on doing things my way as an audio engineer is if I judge your equipment to be electrically or mechanically unsafe and a potential source of damage to the PA system. That would be a pretty extraordinary circumstance.

My preference is to take the bass DI from whatever point will deliver to my PA the best representation of *your sound*, not my personal interpretation of "what bass should sound like". This is usually the DI from your stage amp, but it can also be a DI box in front of your amp, or it can be a DI output on your pedalboard, depending on circumstances.

To be fair, if you don't have a particularly characteristic tone, I can plug you into a Countryman Type 85 direct box and make you sound like a demigod, if not an actual god. I'm that good.

I'm building a new bass pedalboard right now, and it's going to have as it's primary tone generator a DSM & Humboldt Simplifier Bass Station. The intent is to build a direct-to-PA/recording desk fly rig, and there really wouldn't be any point of taking the PA signal from anywhere but the Simplifier, the last device in the signal chain.

Any "sound guy" who has a problem with that will be standing on an empty stage trying to explain to the audience why there is no entertainment. A professional audio engineer won't think to do anything else.

I've played a lot of gigs in my life, from poopy dive bars to medium size theatres, like the House of Rock, and never once have I ever had an argument with a real pro. "Sound guys", well, they are a basement dwelling subculture, and unfortunately they can be problematic, but stick to your guns—you are the performer, not they.

For those of you who wonder why the sound guys at the lower end of the market tend to be "not so great", this is a good example of why the good guys get out of these gigs at their earliest convenience.

No good sound guy wants to be treated as "hired help" or "your servant", and in fact that's a really disrespectful way to treat anybody that you have to work with. It sets the tone for the rest of the night.

I did 40 years in the touring side of the pro audio market, nobody treats folks like that and it wouldn't be tolerated anyway. Respect goes both ways, and it's an earned commodity.

If you are gigging at the "sewer level" (one step below "ankle biters"), you are getting the guys who don't have the skills or the personality to work the "better" shows.

I'm with agedhorse on that one.
Sound people at the lower end of the spectrum will usually work at the venues at the lower end of the spectrum, mixing bands at the lower end of the spectrum.

People who have more than a clue how FOH works will go out of their way to provide a signal that works.
My live pedalboard is all geared for that.
However, the bottom feeding servant does not like to be put in place by an upshot bassist whose band did managed the great achievement of playing in their dive bar.
As a gigging musician, there are two people of utmost importance to you when you enter a venue. The person that signs your paycheck and the person who does FOH. If you want something special of them, involve them, form a team, discuss how they usually run things and how that might or might not work for you and how to get that solved.

 

[jimfist]

^^^Yup. I certainly don't miss my old house sound mixing days, doing cattle-call tuesday nights with 4 or 5 bands, 40 minute sets, line checks and 15 minute change-overs. LOL. Survival as a FOH mixer doing stage duties.