line out or mic for gigs?

[fokof]

That's great !

Continue to do gigs without soundman if it works for you, more money , more beers after the show etc....

 

[lorenk]

Hey, if you think a DI works better for your rig, by all means DI. I just know what works for MY rig, and that's what I do, and I really really really don't like being second-guessed by a soundman who assumes I'm some sort of noodnik with no clue, or being told I'm doing the wrong thing when it's what I like and want. That's all.

BTW, I have been micing cabs since 1977, and would you like to know how many times my bass cab mic has caused feedback? 0.

I'm guessing close to zero

Feedback and cabs have been super rare in my experience. The few times it happened was because someone was using an acoustic guitar and had "issues" with the pickup they had just mounted in it.

I'm the same. Mic right in the center of the cone. Tried angling the mic off to the side of the basket, but I like the sound right in the middle.

I am the same way, dead center of the cone

 

[(b)Assman]

Everything has a sound of its own. However in the big scheme of things, with very rare exception, you've heard one bass rig, you've heard 'em all. They are like vanilla ice cream - every brand tastes different, but except for that rare brand, none are sufficiently different from the rest to be special.

Well said.

Yep. IME the best one can hope for is a rig that is not overloading the room at certain frequencies, so that the entire band has to me mixed up to the level of said overly loud frequencies, as having the snare and 4x12 (that's shooting past the guitarist's knees) are enough to fight already. The best bass sounds I've heard by far - both with myself and with others at the console - were bassists who used no rig, relying on IEMS or a wedge (along with PA spill for feel).

Interesting...

 

[(b)Assman]

Two thoughts spring to mind...

1. I hope you don't say that to anyone you run sound for, lest you bum them out and ruin their set.

2. I hope you don't try to impose your will on bands by doing things like refusing to run them a mic when they want one or insisting that they turn down so low that they can't even hear their amps onstage (don't laugh...I've had a handful of idiots try to do that).

Whether someone's rig is special enough or not to mic up really isn't your call. If a bass player thinks his rig is special enough to where it should be mic'ed up instead of DI'd, there's usually good reason for it. Maybe bass doesn't take the "traditional" role, or maybe they're going for a sound that desn't work with a DI. Or maybe they just plain like the sound of their amp mic'ed into a PA. It's not something that you can apply a one-size-fits-all solution and make blanket statements about.

A couple other comments...

Running without an amp? Not in this lifetime, bro! I don't care what you say...I think it sounds like crap to have to listen to the bass in monitors, and sorry...what I listen to onstage is every bit as important as anything coming out of FOH.

High passing and fuzz...it's not the low end that's a problem with fuzz and distortion. It's the high end. Anything past 5 or 6k, especially if it's coming out of a tweeter, sounds harsh and annoying. So I'm not sure why you would high pass it. That will make the low end less woofy maybe, but it doesn't do much for making the high end less annoying, which is what's needed.

Insightful as usual.

 

[(b)Assman]

What I like about a DI is that I don't color the sound of my bass to a larger extent. I've found that I'm the most pleased when the sound is as true to my bass' own sound as possible. For that same reason I don't like active basses and effects.

IOW, I want to hear an uncolored sound also from my cabs, which is why I think it's rather unnecessary to mic it. I've tried it, but the results weren't the best and it was tricky to find a good mic placement... I have full respect for people wanting to do it this way though. I'm just not one of them.

This post just keeps giving me more and more.

 

[(b)Assman]

Most every bass rig I've encountered was so hot in the room in a certain frequency range that I had to either mix the entire band up to that hot spot, or adjust the bass rig in order to get rid of that hot spot. The former usually would have resulted in a mix that was too loud for the room, in which case the latter was necessary.

Unless you are listening from out in the room, you have no idea what havoc your rig may be wreaking.

Exactly

Wow fokof, you're shot out of a cannon today!

Here's the deal...you know what you're doing, and I know what I'm doing. But you don't necessarily know what I'm doing. Now once I explain what I want, you're free to pursue that goal any way you see fit, and you are in total control of everything that happens from the snake back to you. But if it doesn't sound like what I like, hey bro, sorry, but I'm pulling rank. That's just the way it is. If that bothers you, I suggest not taking the gig.

Almost all soundmen, despite my quirks, love me. I am easy to work with, I respect everyone on the crew, I always say please and thank you, and you'll love working with me as long as you don't fight what I and our band members are trying to accomplish. The only ones who don't like me are the ones who fight us. If they fight us, we'll call someone else next time. And if you're a house soundman, we'll put up with it if we have to, but then you only force me to pull out a VT pedal or an outboard EQ and give you what I want you to have regardless of what you want to do. And we won't be calling you for any side gigs, either.

Very well put.

So, for those of you who condone sound guys being able to completely dictate and control the tonality and overall sound of the bass, do you also then think it would be okay for the priest of the Sistine Chapel to paint over some of Michaelangelo's work because certain colors clash with the new upholstery on the pews? Is it okay for a book printer to re-write the Scarlet Letter because it looks neater to always have chapters end at the bottom of a page?

Obviously, there's a point where the tone or volume of any instrument could be unusable and distracting from the overall performance, and yes, I agree those situations need to be corrected. But many non-musician sound guys are so focused on the technological side of the show that the fact the musicians are there to create an artistic performance is of little consequence to them. I've run across several sound guys who clearly felt that musicians were a nuisance.

Lol