Help My Cab Sounds Like Garbage

Expecting way too much from a single 210, you need another one.

And I'd lose the Sonic Minimizer.

 

ditch the BBE.
try again with all controls except volume and gain set at noon (or center position).
whatcha get?

 

Turn the bass WAY down. You are probably murdering that cab with low end, because that amp is very low end heavy.

 

A single 210 is completely an utterly useless in a band. Need moar.

 

+1. Get a second Avatar 2x10. Doubling speakers quadruples your sonic output.

 

Once you hit the power compression point on a speaker cab you are DONE adding more power until the speakers fry. You NEED more speakers than a single 210. (Personal note only, dump that BBE in scrap where it belongs.)

 

Butch Vig would be proud to hear that!

 

You may need a second cab, but definitely lose the bbe and try cutting the bass as said before. Also boost some mids.

I practice with an Aguilar 210 and do fine, and that's with a very loud drummer and guitarist. Not everyone have the same experience, but it is possible that you can still get away with the 210.

 

Garbage in garbage out.

2x10 performs plenty loud for plenty of bands, maybe not enough for your band.

 

Look at how much larger your strings are than guitar strings, and how much longer too. You need at least twice what they use for speakers too.

 

Get rid of the Sonic Maximizer! In practice, it boosts the lows and highs which on first listen makes it sound impressive. So basically you have a fairly powerful amp, with a lot of low end, and its low end enhanced by the BBE into a cab that can't handle the power.

Also, what kind of band is this? If it is a drummer and a couple of combo amps for guitar that rig should be able to keep up. If it is a super loud drummer and a couple half stacks you will need more.

 

Yep. Check your load too, that 210 is probably 8ohm..if you want to stay small, but loud go the 2/12 route.

 

That amp is pretty loud and has tons of great tones. You need another 8ohm 210. Also, set the EQ in a neutral position: noon on everything, keep the deep switch un-pulled, and set the tone contour selector to 3 (flat).

Then crank the amp with both pickups and tone (on the bass) full-on. Dial back the treble as needed, boost the mids a hair, and adjust the bass as needed. Try other contours switch settings, and visit the M9 carbine mega threads.

I don't think the BBE unit is helpful in this context. Try it in a home studio setting.

 

get a second Sonic Maximizer to quadruple and maximize your sound.

 

I like a good joke as much as the next guy but he might just do it. Wouldn't want that on your head, would you?

 

Maybe it's Sonically Maximized too much. Yeah I know, everyone hates a smart ass.

 

i cant remember where but i remember reading recently that going from a single driver to a pair of the same drivers, assuming ohms and frequency curves and everything else stayed the same, with the same amount of power will give you about a 6db boost, which is huge. doubling again to 4 speakers will again give you a 6db boost. doubling a 3rd time will give a little more boost but not quite 6db because of sonic beaming and some other fancy sciency stuff that goes beyond me.

what does that mean? in practice it means that doubling your speakers will give you a huge boost in SPL, much more than doubling the amount of power would. also someone said earlier that you are probably reaching the max spl/compression point for your speakers long before your amp runs out of steam. turning up the voulme more just adds distortion and causes them to overheat rather than getting louder. i do not own an M9 but i have played through them a couple times at gc and they are very nice sounding amps with a lot of power on tap. last time i tried one i was playing it through a markbass 4x10, the expensive one with the yellow cones, and it will get plenty loud.

also have you checked the sensitivity of your cabs drivers. a good 2x10 should be able to keep up with a drummer and a couple guitars if they are not playing stacks. if your cab is in the 92 db area then upgrading to a cab sporting at least 3db more would make it perceivably louder, 6db more and its going to be a lot louder.

lastly i would agree with those other posts about flattening out your eq and setting your volumes, then shaping your tone but not scooping all of the mids and boosting all of the bass. the mids kindof define the sound in a way that is very important and they make the bass cut through and be heard a lot more than if you scoop them out. the low freqs can be very taxing on your cab to be reproduced especially if you are playing a 5er. That mid contour know on the m9 is extremely useful.

i hope this helps and if i misstated any of the sciency stuff i welcome correction from those who have more experience than i.

BTW, what type of music and what kind of bass do you play?

 

Ill be the guy that says theres nothing wrong with the sonic maximizer. You need more speakers. At least a second 410. The only issue with the Sonic maximizer is if you have the lows cranked up. I've been tempted to get rid of mine a few time but the fact is I like the tone better with it on.