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i hate sound guys

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#282
bucephylus said:
To the earlier post about using 10's or something else in the mains; would an array of 12's not work? We get good bass tone out of 4x10's in our amps. Why wouldn't 10's or 12's in arrays work for mains? I just see Peavey and JBL sort of doing the same thing year after year and not bringing anything new to the party. I understand the horns are needed for voice, but the rest of the drivers would seem to be up for grabs for improvement, no?
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Good question. Bass cabinets (well, 99% of them) do not go low enough to be satisfying as a PA sub. The other 1% (Acme) are not capable of sufficient output levels. Of course one could use a lot of Acme drivers, but one would have a mighty big cabinet, and would need a mighty big amp to drive it.

The best live bass sounds I've heard - by far - were when there was no bass rig, or the rig could not be heard in the house. I've heard a few rigs that were of merit, but most were nothing special. (So it does not look like I'm picking on bassists, I'll say that I've heard only a few guitarists who's live sound was anything to get excited about.)
 
#283
bucephylus said:
...a Southern Rock act I was working with about 10 months ago was running the powered QSC gear for FOH; and I though the bass sound coming out of that was just great.
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now that's good stuff, and helps make the point: when the PA is kick-ass, each instrument can sound like itself and sound "good" through it. when it's weak, well, you might need to bring out the big bass rig and handle it yourself :p
 
#284
TimmyP said:
The best live bass sounds I've heard - by far - were when there was no bass rig, or the rig could not be heard in the house. I've heard a few rigs that were of merit, but most were nothing special. (So it does not look like I'm picking on bassists, I'll say that I've heard only a few guitarists who's live sound was anything to get excited about.)
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Let me guess, the two guitar players also did not have a rig on stage.
 
#285
walterw said:
now that's good stuff, and helps make the point: when the PA is kick-ass, each instrument can sound like itself and sound "good" through it. when it's weak, well, you might need to bring out the big bass rig and handle it yourself :p
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(Groans loudly) You're totally correct. I just have a hard time getting excited about spending a huge chunk of dough on the PA and then having to hoist those multiple 100+ pound cabs around on a regular basis.

It is an unfortunate state of things that while we have succeeded in getting great tone from lightweight bass gear, the PA is still in the heavy = tone zone.:hmm:
 
#286
it's a lot lighter than it used to be, though. neos are all the rage in pa's now and that helps a lot. you'll never defeat the laws of physics so bigger will always sound better, but compared to what it was even 10 years ago, it's a lot lighter.
 
#287
oh my god we just got in a couple of those new peavey power amps at the store, 900w/side at 2 ohms and they feel like empty sheet metal boxes!
 
#288
walterw said:
oh my god we just got in a couple of those new peavey power amps at the store, 900w/side at 2 ohms and they feel like empty sheet metal boxes!
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ya, and with these digital boards, you can get rid of racks of eq's and effects. can't do much about speakers, but it's not as bad as it was, for sure. i remember lugging insane cabs around in the 70's and 80's.
 
#289
Not knowing much about the various mains out there, my only reference that I did like was the QSC HPR153i mains at 120 pounds apiece sitting on top of HPR181i subs that weigh even more. I don't know if they are neos or not, but they are heavy. Other than that rig, I've met very few that I cared for. I know I don't like this Peavey/Carvin thing we are currently using. Mud, Mud, Mud.
 
#290
My complete racks and stacks system for 1000 people, pretty high level rock, is only 1200 lbs... 12 line array tops, 4 - 218 subs and 2 - 8000 watt amp racks, triamped. It's pretty tiny too.

As far as eq goes, I have 4 band parametric on each channel, so there's noproblem with control. If necessary, I can patch in an additional parametric but I never have had to. I do not have any problems making bass players happy. Ever.
 
#292
bucephylus said:
Not knowing much about the various mains out there, my only reference that I did like was the QSC HPR153i mains at 120 pounds apiece sitting on top of HPR181i subs that weigh even more. I don't know if they are neos or not, but they are heavy. Other than that rig, I've met very few that I cared for. I know I don't like this Peavey/Carvin thing we are currently using. Mud, Mud, Mud.
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My band uses the JBL PRX535 which is a powered 3- way design like the QSC153. The PRX only weighs 74 pounds. The JBL PRX subs weigh about 80 pounds.
 
#293
ga_edwards said:
Just what I was saying, but in a much more eloquent and condensed form.

I think a lot of musicians don't know how to communicate effectively the sound they're after. One person's growl could be another person's mud.

It wouldn't hurt for aspiring musicians to investigate and learn about sound craft and mixing. To be able to say to your sound man 'I like a cut around 1kHz and slight lift around 250Hz' is a lot clearer than saying 'I want to sound fat' then arguing when you don't like it.

Come to think of it, I could do with doing that myself!
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/Agree

Any good bassist should be familiar with frequencies or at least know how they like their bass to sound frequency wise. I always have a graphic eq on my board so even if the soundman were to jipp me I can always boost/sculpt :P.
 
#294
JimmyM said:
Wanted to wait till I got permission to say. I just got it...

Invalid Link Removed

So once I get this, I won't care if the soundman wants to tie a string to a dixie cup to get my bass signal!
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...and the skies parted, and the angels started to sing...

but darn it, while I want to check out the VT, this thing is too much pedal for me (don't need programmable channel-switching craziness), while the original is not enough pedal for me (no XLR out like my BDDI).
I don't suppose there's going to be an "in-between" version, is there?
 
#295
walterw said:
...and the skies parted, and the angels started to sing...

but darn it, while I want to check out the VT, this thing is too much pedal for me (don't need programmable channel-switching craziness), while the original is not enough pedal for me (no XLR out like my BDDI).
I don't suppose there's going to be an "in-between" version, is there?
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I would imagine there would be, but I haven't been told about it. Guess we'll see in a week. But there is also a DI mod you can get for it...

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=605642
 
#297
I'm a long time pro bass player & pro audio engineer. Simply speaking, it's not a one way street, but a three way street. Everyone wants to hear themselves(and hopefully their bandmates too!) on stage, the audience wants to hear you clearly represented, & it's the soundman's job to assist to the best of his ability. Depending on the situation, turning someone down relative to the rest of the band may be necessary to achieve a balanced stage sound. After starting to use in-ear monitors about 11 years ago, I found the best situation seems to be in ears, minimal or no wedge monitors, the resultant stage volume drops by 6db or more & the sound is much more controllable for the sound guy. Strangely enough, educating your ear to work with ear buds or the like seems to help you decrease your volume over time. Less stage volume = less stage bleed = better quality FOH sound. It works in the casinos, which are probably the most demanding could-care-less-about-your-problem critics. Try it, you'll probably like it!
 
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