Clueless About DIs

[SnowCal]

I play in a little originals band. We play in small venues with 2 or 3 other bands on the bill. Think 100-200 people in the crowd. These places normally provide a 'soundguy' and PA support for vocals and kick drum. Then your guitarist points his Twin Reverb at his feet and blows the eardrums of anybody near the stage. Good times.

I'd like for us to sound better. Even if I can't really fix all the problems with our live sound. I play 4-string and key bass. Right now I run both into my amp and kinda eyeball the volume knob. I don't really know what I should actually set it to as soundchecks are not a thing here. Quick line check and go.

I was thinking about investing in a nice DI and handing the 'soundguy' a cable to plug into his board, and a beer. I'd still have my amp on stage as a monitor. But I could let the PA actually carry the room and somebody who can actually hear what the band sounds like set my level. That seems like it would be for the better. Right?

Would it be best to run both the 4-string and keyboard through the DI (with an A/B first) or to give the soundguy two lines? And is this a bad idea or do you think it would actually work okay?

 

[Downunderwonder]

Venue that size is very hard to play quietly enough to run house bass without it turning to mud.

You'd be better investing in a brick and an sm57 for the guitar combo. A cunning old guy I used to play with would lay his combo right back on brick, next to him so it aimed up at his head, he could get feedback without blowing away the micro stage and sounded great in the PA.

 

[Joe Louvar]

OP: Adjust your bass volume so it works with the drums without a kick mic, then adjust the guitar volume to work with that and do the same thing for vocals. In other words - first get a good stage mix and instead of turning up - turn the guitard down.

 

[Up the dose]

Recently picked up the Radial Firefly DI. It has two inputs and would allow you to independently control the DI output for keys and bass. It works really well for bass. Not sure how the keys would sound through it. You may want to take a look.

 

[scatbass]

Just run two lines - one bass, the other keys - and let whomever is running sound mix it. It's two completely different instruments, treat them as such.