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Our sound engineer is killing me

SunneyBoy

SunneyBoy

Dec 15, 2005
239
3
46
Johannesburg : South Africa
#1
Ok so here is my problem. for the past year or so i have been struggling with the bass tone in my monitors. it always sounds thin and clangky more fingerboard sound then anything and i always thought it was the quality of the monitor cabinets blah blah.

But our regular engineer couldnt tour with us recently and i ask the new chap to see if he could improve the sound in my monitor so he called up the scene our regular engineer uses ( we use a LS9 digital desk.) and the new guy told me that our engineer was rolling off bottom end on my bass from about 380 hz down......... whaaaaat. that surely cant be right.

what do you guys think perhaps this works for him in the front of house but i cant see how and why.

i would like to bring the subject up with him. please help give me some good tech amo to use cause he is quite an uncompromising character so i will have to argue my case i am sure. if anyone knows the ls 9 desk is it possible to send a different eq to the monitors.

thx
 
#2
My guess is he think your playing is really bad, and like you wrote in the title, he's killing you. No other possible explanation. It's typical to roll off at ±90 Hz to leave room for the kick, then shelve @ around 1KHz to leave room for the snare(and cut nasty sounds), but 380 Hz is right where the bass lives. He doesn't want to hear you, plain and simple.
 
#4
Probably because you are so loud on stage ,it kills his front mix.

Next soundcheck , just bring you amp volume down, and place your amp sideways or in front, facing you if you can.
 
#5
Yes, what are you using live? Are you running direct out pre/post amp, micing the cab or both? Or are you even using an amp live? What style of music are you playing?

My best guess (if you're not playing loud shows with huge PA support) is that your amp is leaking a lot from the stage, and he's adding only some high end to even out the sound FOH because it doesn't need more volume, only more definition and clarity.

If you're not using an amp on stage, I don't know what he's trying to do. One possibility is that he simply sucks as a sound engineer... I've seen many bad ones, especially among those who are not hired by a larger company.

If he insists to roll off your low mid/bass frequencies, ask him to eq the signal to your monitor differently to get more bass through it.
 
#6
fokof said:
Probably because you are so loud on stage ,it kills his front mix.
Click to expand...

That'd be my guess, too. Low end carries better than high end, so out in the house all you really get from the bass amp is a muddy rumble.

Try asking him for help- "hey, my bass sounds real clangy in the wedges, is there anything I can do to get a fuller sound out of them? Would it help you if I turned down my amp?"

Of course, if you're playing DI or at low volume, my guess is as good as yours.
 
#7
bass in monitors??? wow, consider yourself fortunate to have anything at all.

most wedges can't handle bass/toms/kick at any useable volume, that could be his reasoning for cutting the low end from the monitor mix. why on earth that would be extended that much into the low mids is beyond me though.
 
#12
Not knowing your entire stage setup and why you have bass in your monitor it is kind of tough to give a real answer to your question.
I can say that I do own and operate my own PA system(s) on the local club level and I know when I mix a band on stage I want the least amount of stage rumble as possible. Too much low end floating around on stage creates problems, kick and floor tom mic's even when gated heavily will still get boomy sounding because of the low end that can saturate a stage.
What comes out of my monitor mix is completely different then what comes out of my FOH mix.

It would be better to know what exactly your stage setup is, venue size etc. to help you out.
 
#13
I'm going with the guess that you are sending out tons of lows and he's just adding some high end. But 380 seems a bit high. A dedicated monitor board could help a lot.

The other question is - how good are your monitors? Monitors that can handle the bass cost a lot. If you do have a dedicated monitor mix, he may just be saving the monitors from blowing. Perhaps you are not cut off at 380 in FOH.

just guessing here. :p
 
#17
SunneyBoy said:
hi thx for all your input I will try answer a few of you questions. I use a lakland 5594 run pretty much flat (I don't tweek) , into a ebs microbass pre eq to the desk which I link out to my little hartke 100 watt wedge which faces me side on so my conclusion is he doesn't enjoy my playing
Click to expand...

so your wedge monitor is your only speaker you use on stage? if thats the case then a "chat" is definitely in order. i couldnt imagine that being a pleasurable playing experience even if everything comes out fine at FOH. i think its gotta be either your way or the highway on this one, man.
 
#18
He may be trying to save the wedge if it's only 100 watts and isn't a 15" cone. Although usually in that instance you might roll off 100Hz and below. However if your band is loud and you have a sizeable PA and you don't have much problem hearing yourself albeit very tinny. Then I would think he's trying not to blow your monitor. He might be a bit gung ho at 380Hz though. A sub engineer might not worry about such things and happily give you what you want to make things easier for him since he won't have to worry about equipment malfunction up the road.
 

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