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Poll: Do you use your own DI live?
- Thread starter ()smoke()
- Start date
Were you plugging a passive bass into it? That's probably why.
GENERALLY speaking, you should go Active bass into passive DI, or Passive bass into Active DI. Going passive into passive will often give you gain issues.
Heh heh! Actually the name chose the founder, Bob HeilHeh, yeah it's a kinda odd choice of name for an Illinois pro audio company isn't it? All it means in German is "hail" anyway, dunno which is worse though, their arrogant choice name or the Nazi connotations
all my amps and preamps have di built in and are there for the soundpersons. I leave the applications to the soundpersons.
Heil PR40
dunno if he uses anything else though.Heh heh! Actually the name chose the founder, Bob Heil
Aaaah, thought it was a kinda strange choice
You had a chance to use an EV20 by the way? I got the engineer to use one in the studio a bit ago on the sub of my NV215 in conjunction with a 421 on the mid driver, and it sounded pretty good, but obviously not a very good test of it's wide flatish frequency response. How's it compare to the PR40, if you've ever used on that is?
First question...I've used a lot of other mics as well. Loved the 421, loved the Beyer M88, loved the RE 20, and believe it or not, I like using a SM 58 or 57 as well. The only mics I really don't like using are kick mics (too scooped).Heil PR40
Aaaah, thought it was a kinda strange choice
You had a chance to use an EV20 by the way? I got the engineer to use one in the studio a bit ago on the sub of my NV215 in conjunction with a 421 on the mid driver, and it sounded pretty good, but obviously not a very good test of it's wide flatish frequency response. How's it compare to the PR40, if you've ever used on that is?
Second, the RE 20 is an excellent mic for bass cabs. Any mic with relatively flat response is great for bass. I almost got an RE 20 but I went with the Heil because of its similarity to the RE 20 tonally, its extended low end and because it's $75 less than a RE 20 in the USA.
I usually carry one of the DIs I designed and built myself to gigs. Often for beta-testing purposes..... 
Woah only a $70 dollar difference? here the PR is £190 but the RE is £400+. Kinda like the look of the RE because it's so stupidly large and generally awesome looking, but the PR is less then half the price, and if it goes deeper into the bass then I'll definitely prefer it.
Kick mics do kinda suck your right, kinda almost put me off micing bass early on, and made my bass sound real sucky on my bands EP (used a D6 on my NVs sub in conjunction with a DI from my not too great at the time head). I think this might be what puts alot of soundguys off micing bass, the naff sound you get from kick micing is horrendous, don't get why some guys like them on cabs personally, if you like scooped then I don't see why you can't do it on your amp and let your speakers do the work.
Gotta love the sound of a 58/alike on an 8x10 though, a friends band has a real nice Ashdown one and it sounds great miced up like that.
DI off amp if i need it. i like it when the throw a mic on my cab as well. personally i like the kind show that just has vocals in the pa, maybe a bit of kick drum, so i can hear it in monitors.
I offer the sound crew to use either the DI on my amp (Eden WT-400 modded for pre/post switching) or my SansAmp BDDI. If they prefer their own DI, I'll use it unless it degrades my signal. That only happened once at an outdoor street festival gig. They had a Horizon passive DI (just like the one in my gig bag). Those are OK, but this particular one seemed to load my basses (both the active and the passive one), but I lived with it because
A. We got there a little late and there wasn't a lot of time to troubleshoot
B. I've known the sound guys doing the gig for decades, and they're great sound guys- good ears, knowledgable, and easy to work with.
C. We were about the 8th band they did that day with four more to go, and it was about 95 degrees and 100% humidity- just brutal and they'd been out since 7:00 AM.
I've only gotten attitude about my DI once, and I just aquiesed to the idiot- better to do that than annoy the dolt who is mixing your sound. Most of the time the sound crew is easy to work with and say "Use whatever you like for yourself".
jte
A. We got there a little late and there wasn't a lot of time to troubleshoot
B. I've known the sound guys doing the gig for decades, and they're great sound guys- good ears, knowledgable, and easy to work with.
C. We were about the 8th band they did that day with four more to go, and it was about 95 degrees and 100% humidity- just brutal and they'd been out since 7:00 AM.
I've only gotten attitude about my DI once, and I just aquiesed to the idiot- better to do that than annoy the dolt who is mixing your sound. Most of the time the sound crew is easy to work with and say "Use whatever you like for yourself".
jte
Wow, £190 is only $380 US and £400 is $800 here. Yes, I'd definitely go for the PR.
The Heil mic is awesome. First designed (IIRC) for the film industry, to record bombs sounds for Saving Private Ryan.
As a sound person, AND a bass player, I use the onboard gear as often as possible, or whatever the bassist has, unless it gives me an issue, usually no gain, or an un fixable ground loop, or just flat out broke. Always have a DI ready to go at a moments notice as a backup.
A very common standard these days is to do both. DI and Mic. Almost never see mic only, but I do see allot of DI only.
95 % (or better) of touring acts do both. Always have. Smaller clubs may not have the channels, in which case they use the lowest common denominator. 1 DI, or 1 mic. In smaller clubs, it is also common for allot of bands in a single show, not really giving a sound person time enough to dice out unknown bass DI problems, ie. why they will insist on using their own, known commidty. In a perfect world (we) would do whatever you want. It is after all a service oriented (sound) business. I for one, have never argued with an artist. I only try to offer solutions. If something is broke, it is my job to fix it. If a player wants a certain sound, its their job to inform me, and my job to make it happen.
No two situations are the same. Flexibility is KING. Kranky sound people suck. Kranky muso's suck. Can't we just all get along
As a sound person, AND a bass player, I use the onboard gear as often as possible, or whatever the bassist has, unless it gives me an issue, usually no gain, or an un fixable ground loop, or just flat out broke. Always have a DI ready to go at a moments notice as a backup.
A very common standard these days is to do both. DI and Mic. Almost never see mic only, but I do see allot of DI only.
95 % (or better) of touring acts do both. Always have. Smaller clubs may not have the channels, in which case they use the lowest common denominator. 1 DI, or 1 mic. In smaller clubs, it is also common for allot of bands in a single show, not really giving a sound person time enough to dice out unknown bass DI problems, ie. why they will insist on using their own, known commidty. In a perfect world (we) would do whatever you want. It is after all a service oriented (sound) business. I for one, have never argued with an artist. I only try to offer solutions. If something is broke, it is my job to fix it. If a player wants a certain sound, its their job to inform me, and my job to make it happen.
No two situations are the same. Flexibility is KING. Kranky sound people suck. Kranky muso's suck. Can't we just all get along
I though I was sold on the idea before! If that doesn't convince a sound guy to use one on a bass cab I don't know what will.
By the way Jimmy, the exchange rate was $1.28 = £1.00 last night. Not sure how the hell it's changed so drastically cos same time last year it was $2 = £1, so the PR's $324 and the RE's $684. Economics isn't one of my stronger point's, all I know is alot of it is a bit stupid if you ask me.
My Avalon U5 is my preamp and DI and I always use my own. I love the sound of my basses (Sadowsky Vintage 5, '65 Fender Jazz, Warwick Bolt-on Thumb 5 Fretless) and I just want my signal path to reproduce them faithfully. The U5 does that brilliantly.
Bassbone for electric.2 bass inputs,effects loop or boost or both loop,very useful
fishman platimum for upright
fishman platimum for upright
Aguilar DB900 with my AD200B, and sometimes the lineout on my SA450. I don't really allow anyone else to have a say in what I use
As it should be. I once busted a soundman trying to switch the DI of my LMII to a BSS DI while I wasn't looking. I asked him why he was doing it, and he said that I had a noise. Well duh! Of course I had a noise! I turned the amp off after soundcheck and turned it on right before I started...noise gone. I hate soundmen who do stuff like that.Aguilar DB900 with my AD200B, and sometimes the lineout on my SA450. I don't really allow anyone else to have a say in what I use
It's one thing if you're a dumb kid playing your first gig and not knowing the first thing about PA, but when you're an experienced player who knows what he's doing, the soundman needs to get out of your way, let you be you, and deal with what you give him.
There's a certain soundman mentality that thinks that your band exists solely to show off the PA. I did a gig like that in Bethlehem, PA, where a Clair Bros. B-crew wired the stage poorly and everything was making noise. We came in and Bowzer was telling the crew how they needed to set up for his show, and they fought him every step of the way. And this arrogant gal on the crew starts blaming the noise coming from the bass amp on my wireless and ordered me to use a cable, which still didn't fix it. I told her that she better just get out of my way and fix her crappy wiring. But they told us that there was absolutely no way their stage could be wired wrong and that our equipment sucked. Yeah, our equipment that worked just fine the night before in Detroit all of a sudden quit working, right? Boy, what a bunch of tools! Whoever said Clair Bros. was the best sound company going never met these "geniuses."
That only works if the experienced bass player knows about FOH sound. My experience is that most do, but that there are some out there who really don't.
When I'm running sound, I assume that everyone I'm dealing with is an idiot unless they are able to prove otherwise. Too many shows have been ruined by people with a lot of chops and matching ego who insist on any number of really asinine requests to get "their" sound.
Of course as a musician I've dealt with my share of sound people who were in too much of a hurry to get back to the bar to actually have a conversation about it. There are problematic individuals on both sides of the fence.
You can stop right there. You've turned me off completely already. That's one of the most arrogant things I've ever heard, and it's a good way to make a band hate you. Who are you to make that judgment sight unseen, and who are you to dictate to a band how to do things?
