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My rig plus PA

I love my tone and absolutely love my rig, but whenever I play at a gig with a PA support I feel like my sound is better.

I'm not familiar with those systems and how they work, but the times I've played with them, sometimes my cab was mic'd and other times they used the direct out of my amp, and as a result the sound is like more "alive" and with a little more "balls".

I think my tone goes from excellent to awesome with the PA but when I rehearse with the band or practice in my room I can't reach that level of complexity my sound.

I feel like t's a new world I just discovered
 
The reason it's more complex is that your bass cab may not be reproducing the entirety of the frequency spectrum that your bass is capable of creating, nor to the level of detail that the PA, with all it's compression, EQ, time alignment, etc., is capable of creating.
 
The new found excitement makes you want to play better, at least it does me. For me, when I hear the subs kick in during a gig, the creativity starts to flow because now I know where I can go and not go. Just thumping strings during a gig gets old, but when all the sounds are blending just right, playing off each other, makes the gig a pleasure to participate in. JMHE
 
Most guys don't like going into a PA because most PAs that most bands use or run into are on the cheap. Every big bang is playing in a pa. There is no bass rig that can play glasstonburg (spelling) by itself. At some point everyone has to go into a pa. They are absolute engineering marvels that will put any bass rig to shame. Now on the other end, your local county bar's 20 year old crate PA not so much, and there is everything in between. Lol. My band has a decent PA (we are upgrading our mains soon, then I will say it is nice). Our gear is nicer then a lot of other bands around here, I always go into the PA. We have mackie 18 inch subs that really give the growl. Plus we can keep stage volume low limiting feedback and keeping things clear.
 
Erm, if your subs are growling you're pushing them way too hard into distortion or crossing them over far too high. Growl is in the midrange.

Muddy bass isn't just a cheap PA problem. Bass rig plus PA in small/medium venues gets to be like listening to a dozen women holding three conversations at once. Most big bass rigs have poor dispersion so even if they turn you off out front, much of the venue only properly gets your low end.

OP has it sorted!
 
Erm, if your subs are growling you're pushing them way too hard into distortion or crossing them over far too high. Growl is in the midrange.

Muddy bass isn't just a cheap PA problem. Bass rig plus PA in small/medium venues gets to be like listening to a dozen women holding three conversations at once. Most big bass rigs have poor dispersion so even if they turn you off out front, much of the venue only properly gets your low end.

OP has it sorted!

Wow, really? That was kinda condesending. I think most knew what I meant. Our subs run barely on at most places.