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Horrid "room boom" at the practice place

I have to fight this same thing at rehearsal rooms as well as at a lot of stages where the 40-80hz bass is just so overwhelming - I'm 60 and can't hear much above 8-10K anymore (40+ years of loud bands haven't helped any) so I'm always fighting to hear any clarity in the sound at all when the bass is so overpowering. (the sound guys are always surprised when the only thing I want in my monitor is hi-hat)

Adding foam, blankets, egg cartons etc. will not reduce low frequencies - those all help subdue high frequencies and reverb/echos. Bass traps can reduce low freqs but they are very large and expensive.

The suggestions about changing your listening position are spot on - there will be places where low frequencies will sound much louder than other spots in the room and you in the corner is probably making it worse for you.

Moving your cabinet away from the wall will help - and having the cab up off the floor helps (think you said you already did the latter).

Most people tend to set subwoofers way too loud - if you actually use a calibrated mic and spectrum analyzer to set subwoofer volume it is surprising how much lower the volume of the sub would be compared to how enthusiastic subwoofer owners set them. A flat reference mic can be had for around $50 and I think there are freeware spectrum analyzer plugins available. Lacking the mic/analyzer, simply turn the sub off and then listen to a full range recording (or some pink noise) and gradually turn the sub up until you just barely hear it adding the missing bottom.

But since this is Talk Bass .... there are only two acceptable suggestions:
#1) Fire him
#2) Quit
:laugh:
 
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Also, there will be pronounced 'standing waves' in this room with parallel walls.

After you've relocated your cabinet, also try standing in different areas of the room. There will be locations where the standing waves reinforce the bass and other locations where they will tend to cancel the boom.
 
If you want to go the parametric eq route, I can highly recommend the zoom ms60b. Highly versatile, inexpensive pedal.

It has a 2 band parametric eq on board with adjustable band width for honing in on problem frequencies. It also has a fishman preamp model that has a low pass filter for reducing rumble and 5 band semi-parametric.

For just these two models it's worth its weight in gold, but there's plenty more to explore and fine tune your tone that IMO it's a no brainer!
 
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I had another practice session this past Saturday, and the 'room boom' resonance was GONE. :bored: Apparently there were live vocal mics picking up the bass and sending it out through the PAs subwoofer. The live mics were muted, and apparently the sub was turned off too - end of problem. I wish I had taken up this issue with the BL sooner, it's his place and his PA. It's apparent that another band/group uses the room, there's 3 or 4 vocal mics hooked to the PA, and they're usually turned on when I show up. Anyway, I know what to check for if this happens again. It sure was nice to have a practice session without the distraction of audio weirdness...

Thanks to everyone who posted on this thread. :thumbsup:
 
I had another practice session this past Saturday, and the 'room boom' resonance was GONE. :bored: Apparently there were live vocal mics picking up the bass and sending it out through the PAs subwoofer. The live mics were muted, and apparently the sub was turned off too - end of problem. I wish I had taken up this issue with the BL sooner, it's his place and his PA. It's apparent that another band/group uses the room, there's 3 or 4 vocal mics hooked to the PA, and they're usually turned on when I show up. Anyway, I know what to check for if this happens again. It sure was nice to have a practice session without the distraction of audio weirdness...

Thanks to everyone who posted on this thread. :thumbsup:

Do you have access and are allowed to get at the mixer? If so make sure the low cut button is on on the vocal mic channels. If it doesn't have one then roll some of the low end out. Goes a long way to help those rumbling lows.
 
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