I can barely hear my bass on stage

[Ric5]

I have found that for me the best eq is a dual peak.

The highest and lowest band of my eq is set flat and is 500khz but I peak on high mids and low mids. This gets me an in your face aggressive tone like Entwistle got when he played his alembic through the Huge triamped Sunn Rig.

 

[Revvv]

Let's say that you are happy with your EQ, your tone, and that all things in terms of sounds quality are perfect. If that is the case, EQ isn't going to be an issue at all.

OK, hearing on stage, and hearing off stage are two seperate entities. I have had to play on stage before with lousy monitors. The only thing I was able to really hear was a jumbled mess that sort of resembled music. I played by watching the rhythm guitarists hands. He played by memory, and off of the sharp beat of the drummer's snare. The lead guitarist and vocalist were just as lost as I was. If we had not had this music down to perfection, we would have destroyed a set, and killed a band.

Why does this matter? I listened to a several recordings, both from the board, and from people's videos, and the mix was dead on. It was perfect, and I wouldn't have changed a thing.

My only suggestion would be this; Get a good set of monitors, preferably in-ear. Doing this will allow you to turn up the volumes you need, and turn down the one's you can live without. Monitors are worth their weight in gold.

Oh, and plenty of practice time. Gotta have that so you have a good, working relationship with the other members in your band.

 

[Ampegged Paul]

+1 This is a trick I have used in loud bands and it works just great. You essentially give yourself a bass monitor and you have control over the volume.

Using a more powerful amp will indeed improve your tone, especially when it comes to pumping out the lows, but you can't win that "guitar is too loud so I need to turn up" game. It just ends up driving up the band's overall volume to the point that it's a sonic mess and then the bar waitress brings you a snotty note written on a napkin (guess what it says)

OK just so I understand because this sounds like a good idea. I too have trouble hearing myself in front of my 410 ontop of a 15 driven by a 500W Ampeg.
I love my "guitard" but he wont turn down and most times I can hear him from the other side of the stage over my rig.
My amp has (2) 1/4" outs(not a true bi-amp). I also have a Behringer 125W tilt back. So...youre sayin take one out and drive the 410 with one and the Berhringer with the other? Then put the tilt back ontop of my amp? What about in front of me beside or in front of the monitors?
Or should I just boost the mids? Ha!

 

[butchblack]

To the OP: Boost your mids. If you are playing through a low-mid powered combo amp, tip it back a bit and aim the speaker towards you. Your stage tone might not be ideal to your ears (and it almost never will be in live, group settings), but the audience is mostly hearing what comes off the board anyway.

Good luck.

+1

I use an amp stand to put my bass cab on to get it near ear level on a tight stage. The sound I use in a live mix is much more midi and trebley then my preferred sound. The need for myself and the other band members to hear what I'm playing without excess volume is the important thing. Plus I've found that the way I hear my sound on stage is very different then the way it sounds in the audience. I play smaller clubs, so I'm not going through a board and my amp and cab are what's being heard by the audience.

 

[standupright]

OK just so I understand because this sounds like a good idea. I too have trouble hearing myself in front of my 410 ontop of a 15 driven by a 500W Ampeg.
I love my "guitard" but he wont turn down and most times I can hear him from the other side of the stage over my rig.
My amp has (2) 1/4" outs(not a true bi-amp). I also have a Behringer 125W tilt back. So...youre sayin take one out and drive the 410 with one and the Berhringer with the other? Then put the tilt back ontop of my amp? What about in front of me beside or in front of the monitors?
Or should I just boost the mids? Ha!

yep.

 

[MtManiac]

It helps if the band has an overall sound leader that could control it all, even when playing live.

I take it upon myself that this is my job. Tone police...

EDIT: I bet I'm lots of fun to be around at band practice...

 

[Basslice]

My only suggestion would be this; Get a good set of monitors, preferably in-ear. Doing this will allow you to turn up the volumes you need, and turn down the one's you can live without. Monitors are worth their weight in gold.

Oh, and plenty of practice time. Gotta have that so you have a good, working relationship with the other members in your band.

+1 - I doubt the louder is better argument will help. Probably the best thing to do is have you all turn down and let the house guy do his job through the mains. Barring that, ear monitors if you can afford them.

Blaming the other band member(s) is fine, but sometimes stage acoustics just suck. I've played big stages where I feel like I am in a vacuum with sound bouncing all over the place. That is when practice kicks in, because sometimes you can't hear squat. I've listened to the house sound at these same gigs and am amazed that in the audience things sound great. Good luck.

 

[Basslice]

Could somebody give me some tips on what to do. I played last month in a gig, and the sound guy recorded this. Just until now he sent me a copy.

I am listening and I messed up on a couple of lines. But when I played I couldn't really listen to these lines, it was just playing by memory.

One other thing that may have been mentioned: the sound you heard on tape may not have been the sound that the audience heard. Bass carries and the sound guy may have had to remove you from the mix because your rig was carrying the room by itself. Happened to me several times. Was the tape he gave you miked from the room or from what he was mixing on the board? Big difference.

 

[bassbrock]

One other thing that may have been mentioned: the sound you heard on tape may not have been the sound that the audience heard. Bass carries and the sound guy may have had to remove you from the mix because your rig was carrying the room by itself. Happened to me several times. Was the tape he gave you miked from the room or from what he was mixing on the board? Big difference.

+1 A very good and important question and I look forward to the answer.

 

[Intune]

Here's how we do it- After drummer is set up & BEFORE they begin getting mic levels he plays his drums at his loudest levels and I play my bass until we get a good onstage level. That level is usually right around where my cab begins to "woof" or get "it's" sound. I don't know how to explain it but it is a certain "voice" and the volume level where this occurs is different for every room. Small venues are usually harder for me to nail than large ones. This is also the time where I adjust my eq.

Then the rhythm git chimes in and then lead. So now we have a solid, basic onstage mix.

THEN the drummer gets his mic levels. After everyone gets mic levels we will see who wants what boosted or cut in their monitors. Drummer usually wants a bit more bass & some lead in his, I usually want some more lead.

Hope this helps, it works for us.

+++ on the "cut git mids & bass" comment. Cleans that sound right up!

 

[Rune Bivrin]

Another little detail is to make sure the guitar players have their rigs pointing at their ears. So many times I've seen guitar players standing perpendicular to their rigs, and cranking beyond reason because of that.

 

[JaneBass1]

hello all,

i remembered that the soundguy closed mic my cab and also the guitar's

So maybe what I am listening on the tape is the mix and I imagine thats what the crowd listened to...clear bass with the mistakes and everything

I like the following ideas:
- Raise the pickups on D and G
- Ok on the EQ
- Also ok on asking the guitar to fix his EQ. I guess it's the same as recording in the studio. Fixing the frequencies of all instruments as to not overlap with each other.
- Tilting that aint going to work, unless I put the cab on a stand and still I might be scared the whole thing just falls apart onto the floor
- Getting more bass on the stage monitors
- Getting an in-ear monitor. I might need someone to show me this cause I never worked with this kinda stuff

 

[MtManiac]

Here's how we do it- After drummer is set up & BEFORE they begin getting mic levels he plays his drums at his loudest levels and I play my bass until we get a good onstage level. That level is usually right around where my cab begins to "woof" or get "it's" sound. I don't know how to explain it but it is a certain "voice" and the volume level where this occurs is different for every room. Small venues are usually harder for me to nail than large ones. This is also the time where I adjust my eq.

Then the rhythm git chimes in and then lead. So now we have a solid, basic onstage mix.

THEN the drummer gets his mic levels. After everyone gets mic levels we will see who wants what boosted or cut in their monitors. Drummer usually wants a bit more bass & some lead in his, I usually want some more lead.

Hope this helps, it works for us.

That sounda like a great plan!