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Cranking The Bass Knob

Everybody's sound man must be furious.

Yeah, when running sound, it can get frustrating when it creates a mess. I just try to kindly chat with the player and let them know what it's doing in the room and to the mix. If they don't change anything, that's where judicious use of Low Shelving EQ and HPFs on the mixing board come in handy. Gotta do what ya gotta do.
 
Do you play a passive bass? What is your current rig GK?
My favorite line of the thread :D

I do usually play a passive, but amps are all Ampeg.

Yeah, when running sound, it can get frustrating when it creates a mess. I just try to kindly chat with the player and let them know what it's doing in the room and to the mix. If they don't change anything, that's where judicious use of Low Shelving EQ and HPFs on the mixing board come in handy. Gotta do what ya gotta do.
If I'm screwing the pooch, I'd like to know about it. So far, nobody has.
 
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I hear you. If it gets to the point that their bass is simply overpowering the great sound that WAS in the mix.....I pull the XLR out of the mixer, show it to them, they ask what that is.....I tell them that it WAS the bass, but no sense having it plugged in since the fader on that channel was forced to off anyway. lol Something has to stop them. I've actually put the break music in the bassist's monitor mix only just to make a point. Let him know that if he wants to work himself out of the band and play with a band that will put up with it....then he can practice with the track that is in his monitor. lol. Cheers.
 
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I like the term crankened!

Release the Crankened!

release_the_kraken.jpg
 
My favorite line of the thread :D

I do usually play a passive, but amps are all Ampeg.


If I'm screwing the pooch, I'd like to know about it. So far, nobody has.
Being a passive player might explain why you are able to boost the bass on your amp to 10. Or maybe it's just your amp. As long as you dig your sound than go for it! As far as the soundguy statment. I'm a soundguy as well on Fridays and Saturdays. We have QSC K15"s hanging from ceiling, and 2 QSC subs underneath stage. With a Behringer digital Ipad crap mixer. Never had a problem with too much bass in a signal so far! I've had bad cords, faulty input jacks, forgotten cords/tuners/picks, completely out of tune singers, I've also had a girl player who had a electric violin running into a hug Boss multieffects board. As soon as I turned up the faders it was feeding back because she had the gain cranked to 10 on the pedalboard....well that's not gonna work at all! She was stubborn and wouldn't go in to change it in the pedalboard, and wouldn't not use the pedal board, and I did not have a feedback eliminator so I just let her play with all the feedback and shizzer, I turned down the gain to 1, cranked the fader and master volume fader, turned down the treble just in case her condenser mic was picking up the monitor mix and feeding back. But that was not the case, as it was feeding back without the monitors on. So from a live perspective/soundguy, don't crank your gain. That's the worst thing you could do! Also don't aim the monitors directly at your vocal mic if your doing backups, sorry but that might cause feedback even with a 58! You have to point it slightly off access and be at least 3-4ft away, otherwise the dreaded feedback kicks in! Now on a CD/digital Album if there's too much bass I will cut that shizzer out of there! I might also tell you to turn down the bass as well if it's muddying up the mix pre mixing, you don't want to just say..."I'll fix it in post" because if you do that next thing you know you've got 20 different things that you have to fix and that always takes the longest amount of time. Instead of mixing for a few weeks, it will be months of work to fix all the stuff! I think that if your gonna make a great sounding record/whatever, you've got to take your time and do the job right when it comes to mixing. If your gonna mix a song in a day, your not gonna be able to make it sound Radio Ready(or like Disturbed, Red Hot Chili Peppers, whatever's on the radio at present Lady Gaga?). I know of guys who come close, but that is definitely not me. I take a long time mixing, as every day ears change, and when you change one thing in the mix you might have to change 10 other things. Then something is off because of those 10 changes you did, so you've got to find it and fix it. Needless to say, for studio work you might wanna turn down the bass or talk to your engineer and ask him if it's too much for your style of music(Reggae has a lot of bass, so does HipHOp). He/she could make you turn down the bass during recording to get a clean signal, then add the bass back in post/mixing. Live though I don't see a problem with it, unless your recording live, then that might be a problem.
 
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For me it depends. In Judas Priest there are two guitarists, and one is always playing rhythm. They only thing the bass does is ride the root note of the rhythm guitar. The tone of the bass is ultra low. You feel it more than you hear it, and that mix is fine. For one guitar player bands you need the bass to be heard. I'll put in more high mids in this type of band so that I can cut through the mix and carry the melody when the guitarist is soloing.

I also believe the guitars and bass need to have their own assigned frequency range. In metal a lot of guitarists love that low, heavy crunch so they pump up the bass. It sounds great when they are playing alone, but not when playing with the band as a whole. If the sound engineer emphasizes the same frequencies in the bass and the guitar the mix gets muddy. It's best when the lows are cut or limited on the guitar and the bass is allowed to fill in those lows.
Those guitar lows of which you speak are the bass guitar's mids where our tone lives.
 
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I tend to dial out a lot of the bass, on my amp the eq set.... Treble 12 O'clock... High mids 3 O'clock ....low mids 9 O'clock....bass 9 O'clock ,also the bass is rolled completely off on the bass guitar with the middle all the way up, I'm aiming for a tight punchy sound that's defined and cuts through the mix, but then again as mentioned by others a do accationly add a little more bass judging the room.
With a lot of amps that comes out as a slight mid boost due to the noon positions being a misdscoop that sells amps off the showroom floor.
 
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Being a passive player might explain why you are able to boost the bass on your amp to 10. Or maybe it's just your amp. As long as you dig your sound than go for it! As far as the soundguy statment. I'm a soundguy as well on Fridays and Saturdays. We have QSC K15"s hanging from ceiling, and 2 QSC subs underneath stage. With a Behringer digital Ipad crap mixer. Never had a problem with too much bass in a signal so far! I've had bad cords, faulty input jacks, forgotten cords/tuners/picks, completely out of tune singers, I've also had a girl player who had a electric violin running into a hug Boss multieffects board. As soon as I turned up the faders it was feeding back because she had the gain cranked to 10 on the pedalboard....well that's not gonna work at all! She was stubborn and wouldn't go in to change it in the pedalboard, and wouldn't not use the pedal board, and I did not have a feedback eliminator so I just let her play with all the feedback and shizzer, I turned down the gain to 1, cranked the fader and master volume fader, turned down the treble just in case her condenser mic was picking up the monitor mix and feeding back. But that was not the case, as it was feeding back without the monitors on. So from a live perspective/soundguy, don't crank your gain. That's the worst thing you could do! Also don't aim the monitors directly at your vocal mic if your doing backups, sorry but that might cause feedback even with a 58! You have to point it slightly off access and be at least 3-4ft away, otherwise the dreaded feedback kicks in! Now on a CD/digital Album if there's too much bass I will cut that shizzer out of there! I might also tell you to turn down the bass as well if it's muddying up the mix pre mixing, you don't want to just say..."I'll fix it in post" because if you do that next thing you know you've got 20 different things that you have to fix and that always takes the longest amount of time. Instead of mixing for a few weeks, it will be months of work to fix all the stuff! I think that if your gonna make a great sounding record/whatever, you've got to take your time and do the job right when it comes to mixing. If your gonna mix a song in a day, your not gonna be able to make it sound Radio Ready(or like Disturbed, Red Hot Chili Peppers, whatever's on the radio at present Lady Gaga?). I know of guys who come close, but that is definitely not me. I take a long time mixing, as every day ears change, and when you change one thing in the mix you might have to change 10 other things. Then something is off because of those 10 changes you did, so you've got to find it and fix it. Needless to say, for studio work you might wanna turn down the bass or talk to your engineer and ask him if it's too much for your style of music(Reggae has a lot of bass, so does HipHOp). He/she could make you turn down the bass during recording to get a clean signal, then add the bass back in post/mixing. Live though I don't see a problem with it, unless your recording live, then that might be a problem.
I can sell you some paragraphs real cheap.
 
The "bass needs distance" notion came from the time of the folded horn cabs that were so common in the 70s. It was said you couldn't hear yourself at all on stage but twenty feet away the bass sound was so loud you could lean toward the stage with no risk of falling. A lot of writers and players bought that wholesale and repeated it endlessly. It strikes me today the same way it did back then: what a crock!

And there was/is truth to the folded horn argument, as well as Karlson cabinets if you ever encounter them. I have recollection of having to adapt to these. On a tight stage, by the time I had to my comfort level, folks on the back wall were suffering cerebral hemorrhages and miscarriages.

Acoustic suspension speakers (ported) are short throw and infinite baffles (fridges) are all in right up front. I finally settled on acoustic suspension... good compromise between efficiency and self monitoring.
 
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I wont' string you up (get it? string....you....up? LOL!!) unless you start to sound like a house PA with a subwoofer happy sound man. I like to rumble and feel the force as much as the next guy, but if it's mud then it aint gonna fly. As long as you maintain your articulation then I don't see why some bass boost would hurt anything. Some songs require it, imo.
 
I did FOH for a little while when I was helping out some club owners. To be honest, I would never tell a bass player or any player his tone sucked or he needed to change it. I really didn't have that type of time or desire to have that discussion. That only happens on tour when you have a dedicated FOH guy who is there with you every day and is really crafting the sound of the band, learning the songs so he can ride effects..etc.

What I did if the bass player had too much low end boost was just high pass him a little more. It retains his sound and keeps the mix clean. Pretty easy stuff. I did it a lot to guitar players who boosted their lows, which is truly the most annoying thing ever.

Turning the bass up is a personal choice. I personally just like to use flats or play with the tone knob dialed back a good amount. I prefer more articulation in my sound and honestly, I like low mids. I see guys saying bass is a bass instrument , but it's really not. It is a midrange instrument when it comes to proper mixes. That being said it sure sounds great with some fat lows and if you know how to control those lows in a mix, it's rarely an issue.

Personally, when I want the bass to be a "bass instrument" (which is technically considered sub bass) - I fire up the oc2. I love the dyanmic of going from a warm, tubby punch to a straight up sine wave. But that's just my thing.
 
And there was/is truth to the folded horn argument, as well as Karlson cabinets if you ever encounter them. I have recollection of having to adapt to these. On a tight stage, by the time I had to my comfort level, folks on the back wall were suffering cerebral hemorrhages and miscarriages.
That's because between the promulgation of bass waves and the dissipation of higher frequency waves, what was left was a lot of low end. Bass waves don't come out of your cab, magically disappear, and then reappear 40 ft away :D
 
That's because between the promulgation of bass waves and the dissipation of higher frequency waves, what was left was a lot of low end. Bass waves don't come out of your cab, magically disappear, and then reappear 40 ft away :D

Yes, partially. In the greater scheme of things a cabinet is simply a transformer to allow the driver to couple with the room air. A horn does this so efficiently that it result in very little pressure wave movement at the mouth as the amount of air engaged is so heavy. It passes that high acoustic impedance to the driver. In effect, the air mass at the mouth of the horn becomes the driver.

So the guy standing in front of it feels very little air movement, as it is spread over such a broad area. It doesn’t become evedent until further out exactly how much room air is displaced, and then the standing wave peaks and nulls come into play.
 
The word "bass" has 2 separate meanings in regards to music. One relates to the tonal qualities which you adjust with your settings on your bass guitar and amplifier. The second is in regards to the pitch range that you are playing in. There is suprano, alto, tenor and bass, from high pitch to low pitch. So when you say that you are playing bass, it means the second example, not the first. When you play bass, you are referring to the pitch range, not the tonal qualities. You can be playing bass with the treble settings on full and the bass settings on low and you are still playing in the same low pitch range. If a guitarist is playing in the upper register it doesn't mean that he is playing "treble", it means that he is playing "suprano" or "alto". Many folks get the 2 meanings of the word "bass" confused it seems to me. Should the guitarist when playing in the upper register turn his treble settings to 10 and lower his bass settings to 0? Of course not. Tone and pitch are 2 completely separate entities. JMO.

Furthermore, a 'tone' is not a single frequency but a combination of fundamental and harmonics.When somebody cranks the bass control it usually lifts everything from 40 to 120hz depending on the amp.
The fact is, because the second harmonic is much more audible than the fundamental you hear more of the frequencies between 82 and 160 because you're amplifying an already louder freq band.you actually get less low end but your brain will think that the low end is extending.
You are troubling the waters with your post.You can safely assume that we all know what 'bass' means.We all play in the same zone..unless youlre joking..
 
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