My rig sounds bad in practice room.

[travhop42]

UPDATE 10/18/12
Thanks everyone who had suggestions. I turned my 210 cab vertically, disconnected the 410 cab on the bottom, moved about 2ft from corner and it sounds much better!






I have a GB Neo-pak head (350w at 4ohms), GB 210XB cab, GK Goldline 4x10. I have played this rig at an outside event and it sounds great. Problem is when we practice in our 16x12 practice studio it sounds dead, muffled, lifeless. I have tried changing the settings on the amp with no success. I have tried my bass with active EQ and my passive J bass. We have a drummer and 2 guitars and a singer. My cabs are stacked 4x10 on bottom, 2x10 on top. I know the culprit here is probably the room size and acoustics. It does have a 10ft ceiling. Just wandering if anyone has dealt with this before and might have a suggestion.

Thanks

 

[Andyman001]

Try re-positioning or turning it so it is not pointing at the opposit wall. (If it is).

 

[NKBassman]

An untreated room that small will do weird things to your tone for sure. Have you tried walking around to different areas of the room to see if maybe you're just standing in a dead spot?

Also, try to keep your rig out of a corner if you can help it (tends to really muddy things up), and if your band has some extra money laying around you could try putting some foam panels up on the walls to help absorb some reflections that are probably messing with your tone.

 

[CL400Peavey]

Stack the 210 vertically on top of the 410, then disconnect the 410 and only run through the 210.

 

[DWBass]

Some things can't be helped. We rehearse in a storage unit. My practice rig sounds like crap in there! I just deal with it since we don't play loud anyway!

 

[Downunderwonder]

Stack the 210 vertically on top of the 410, then disconnect the 410 and only run through the 210.

Very good idea.

A big drop in volume for a confined space never goes amiss. The 4x10 will soak up some lows too.

 

[jackcheez]

Some rooms just sound like crap. You can try stuff like the above suggestions and you might get some improvement, but it will probably still sound crappy.

On the brite side, when you go out to gig it will sound awesome to you.

 

[anderbass]

I agree with the other suggestions, but some other things you could try are:

1 - Stuffing some rolled up towels in 1, 2 or 3 of your cabs ports to hopefully roll off some of its deep-lows.
You could also try placing any type of sound treatment over in your part of the room. You wouldnt necessarily need anything exspencive. You might find that some (carefully-placed) old carpeting, plywood or ???, around your part of the room would help tame the harsh-sounding/reflective mids & highs that are most-likely bouncing around in that small room.

2 - You also might find that having your guitarist turn their amps bass-knobs down will help too. If their rigs are pumping out lots of low-mid bass, Its prolly competing with your prime frequency and screwing up your tone and ability to hear yourself well...

3 - Getting the whole band to play at a reasonable volume level would prolly help things a bunch too.

Unless your drummer has a good sense of dynamics and volume control, get him to use Hot Rods when you guys rehearse in this small room, because guys in bands tend to set their amps volume-level to match their drummers volume, and If he's playing too loud for that tiny room, your basically screwed right from the start!

Getting the band to rehearse a bit quieter in that room will also alow the vocalist to actually be able to hear himself well without the PA feeding back too. This will also make him sing better and save him from having to strain his voice singing too loud at rehearsals, and be permanently ruining his vocal cords...

 

[Foz]

Forget carpet or other thin/closed cell materials = won't do spit on low frequencies.

Use mineral fiber panels - 4" or thicker - wrapped in fabric on a cheap wood frame. Mount them occasionally on the walls - hung from the ceiling - and especially diagonally across the room corners [both vertical and horizontal.

Invalid Link Removed

or just cut triangles and fill the corner with mineral fiber.

Invalid Link Removed

You could also add a big lug of Sabines [measure of absorptive efficacy] by building a "cloud" or dead end wall = light weight frame filled with a very thick layer of inexpensive mineral fiber insulation batts. Cover with tie-dyed breathable cloth for nice hippy jam vibe.

Then follow suggestions above to lower over all volume especially the really low frequency content.

 

[klokker]

Stack the 210 vertically on top of the 410, then disconnect the 410 and only run through the 210.

This. Why would you use essentially a 6x10 in a little practice room?

We use little amps when we practice because its such a small space (about the same size as yours). I just go through a little house PA.

I have a GB 6.0 into a 2x12. It always sounds better outdoors than anywhere else. That's just a part of the deal I think.

 

[christw]

Why would you use essentially a 6x10 in a little practice room?

Why not!?!

But seriously, this:

Stack the 210 vertically on top of the 410, then disconnect the 410 and only run through the 210.

 

[travhop42]

Success Story

I turned my 210 vertically, diconnected the 410 on bottom and moved out of the corner and I am very happy with the improvement in acoustics.

THANKS EVERYBODY!!!