RBI

[Floyd Eye]

I know, I know.

Here's the thing. I really love the mid range punch I get from my RBI and while I'm standing in front of it playing it sounds great to me. Cuts through the mix really well. On live recordings though there seems to be a lack of gut punching low end. I really want to retain the mid-grit thing, but I also want massive low end.

Any RBI users care to share the settings they use to obtain nice punchy mids and pants crapping low end?

 

[NKBassman]

How are you producing your live recordings? It could be more a problem with audio capture than it is with your rig...

 

[Floyd Eye]

I've recorded on different devices. Some pretty decent little digital recorders and digital cameras.

 

[NKBassman]

With the XLR outs on the RBI, or are you using a microphone of some kind?

My only suggestion at this point would be to try backing off the "blend" control a little bit to blend in some of your natural bass signal.

Or try boosting the bass?

 

[Floyd Eye]

With the XLR outs on the RBI, or are you using a microphone of some kind?

My only suggestion at this point would be to try backing off the "blend" control a little bit to blend in some of your natural bass signal.

Or try boosting the bass?

No. The only time anything has been plugged into the XLR was last weekend when the soundguy insisted on DI'ing me and then just left me hung out to dry. Sounded OK to me at the time, you know, with my rig blasting in my ear, but everyone in the audience could barely hear me. I am pretty sure he did it on purpose. But I digress. My tone isn't unacceptable to me or anything, but I would like to find a happy medium between mid range and thundering low end. I will try tweaking the blend knob. Thanks.

 

[stingray69]

My solution is running a 5-band full parametric in my rack after the signal goes through the RBI. I know I could simply back off the blend & do the delicate balance thing, but IME I start losing too much of the pants crapping low end as you say, lol (and some of the Drive knob's grit if you have some dialed in). Doing it this way has been extremely effective for me to dial in those very aggressive tones while counteracting the mid-scoop as you move higher on the Blend settings. It also helps me tweak & notch in troublesome rooms.

 

[Floyd Eye]

My solution is running a 5-band full parametric in my rack after the signal goes through the RBI. I know I could simply back off the blend & do the delicate balance thing, but IME I start losing too much of the pants crapping low end as you say, lol (and some of the Drive knob's grit if you have some dialed in). Doing it this way has been extremely effective for me to dial in those very aggressive tones while counteracting the mid-scoop as you move higher on the Blend settings. It also helps me tweak & notch in troublesome rooms.

Ah. I am running the RBI into the FX return on the old Carvin 1000 watt head I use. There is a 9 band parametric EQ on this head. Could it be as simple as cutting the mids and highs here?

 

[stingray69]

Ah. I am running the RBI into the FX return on the old Carvin 1000 watt head I use. There is a 9 band parametric EQ on this head. Could it be as simple as cutting the mids and highs here?

I would think through EQ experimentation, you could enhance the live recording tone a little more if it doesn't effect your tone out of your rig in a negative manner or more importantly, the overall band tone. The 5-band EQ I'm using is fully parametric & is very useful at getting tight EQ notches or cuts right exactly where I need them. I don't know much about older Carvin heads, if their parametric EQ's are fully parametric (control of the Q width or fixed Q-width parametric).

That said though, I tend to agree with NKBassman, in the sense that if you are really pleased with your live rig tone, the problem seems to lie more with either the recording technique, device or recording environment (the overall capture process of the audio). Something seems to be lost in translation going to the recording device & it doesn't sound like it's your rig tone. To me it seems about the only options are to adjust at your amp to project or transfer more of the missing recorded-tone frequencies to your recording device (and hope it doesn't mess up your stage mix) or experiment further into the recording device, positioning of it (if its a mic-based system), general recording technique etc., and try to get a truer recorded tone at the device itself without having to adjust at your amp. Wishing you luck either way.

 

[Floyd Eye]

Thanks for all the replies. My rig is a little strange. It's a Carvin RL1000 head that has a blown preamp and I have an RBI running into the FX return. My bass plugs into the RBI. I have a 4x10 and a 1x18. Also this is a bi-amp rig and now that I'm thinking about it, the thing that usually turned me off about simply cranking up the bass a little bit was that it tends to get a little flubbery ( if that makes sense). Maybe if I run it full range and try to EQ some low end into it via the Carvin head, I might have better results.


Thanks again guys, I appreciate it.

 

[NKBassman]

Hmm, I actually completely forgot about that part of the discussion! haha

In my experience (I own a Zoom H4N), you will not be able to really capture a true representation of your tone using a pocket recorder's onboard mics alone. I was able to get the best tone out of my Zoom H4n by blending the onboard mics with either an external mic or a DI line off the back of my Sansamp plugged into one of the aux inputs on the H4n, and then blending it with the onboard mic signal after the fact in Cubase.

I think in general the onboard mics of most pocket recorders produce a good sound, but not necessarily accurate of what's really going on in the room in terms of bass response.

 

[stingray69]

I think in general the onboard mics of most pocket recorders produce a good sound, but not necessarily accurate of what's really going on in the room in terms of bass response.

+1

I own the Zoom H2, and one of the very first tests for capture accuracy I did was to simply play back an mp3 from my computer through a nice set of studio monitors to see how true & natural the recorded playback sounded vs. what I was hearing in the room. There was definitely some bass frequency loss happening for sure. Don't know if that is common to most mic-based recorders on the market (or what recording equipment the OP is using), but it is definitely something to consider when judging the audio playback of any recording device. One has to test & determine how accurately the device itself is capturing the audio. I found that some post-recording EQ was usually in order to make the H2 recordings sound their absolute best.