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Soundman insist on me going direct

badstonebass

badstonebass

Jun 7, 2006
579
75
ohio
#1
I have gig coming up with a soundman that is annoying me. He is a bassist himself and insists on running my bass through a DI and SKIPPING my Sansamp RBI. I HATE the super clean tone he is imparting on my bass. I like to have a little grunt in my sound.

We do very few gigs with him but he is getting on my nerves. I am not some rookie, I have been playing for 30+ years and SERIOUSLY no one has ever complained about my gear or tone...just this one guy....EVERY time we have to deal with him.

I have already told my bandmates to be ready as I am not going to take his BS for the upcoming gig. IYO How can I handle this situation without causing a problem?
 
#2
Did you know he was gonna be doing the sound when you agreed to the gig? If so suck it up and do it. Same if you didn't tell your band that you won't play gigs where he's doing the sound. Tell them now that you will not play any future gigs (that you haven't already agreed to) where he is doing the sound. Ask your guitarists if they are willing to go direct without their amp mic'd or without their pedals in the PA.
 
#5
Roadkill said:
Did you know he was gonna be doing the sound when you agreed to the gig? If so suck it up and do it. Same if you didn't tell your band that you won't play gigs where he's doing the sound.
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We did not hire him. He is doing the sound for a whole weekend festival. We have no say in the matter. This is a good paying gig. I am not a big enough ass to take $$$$ out of my bandmates hands because of this goof.
 
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#6
badstonebass said:
I have gig coming up with a soundman that is annoying me. He...Insists on running my bass through a DI and SKIPPING my Sansamp RBI...
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It's a pretty common way of doing it as far as I've seen.

If he's running sound for the whole festival weekend, then he has a lot on his plate and a lot on his mind. A lot of things are riding on HIS performance. He's probably thinking about a whole lot more than one bassist who wants to use his favorite toy. Try not to be too much of a diva.
 
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#7
Savage_Dreams said:
dont give in. if he insists, tell him to DI the guitars the same way, or put a mic in front of your cab the same as the guitars. why should bassists be treated like lower class citizens compared to guitarists?
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I don't see how it has anything to do with class. The bass frequencies can be harder to manage than the treble frequencies. DI to the FOH board for bass is pretty common from what I've seen.
 
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#9
totallyfrozen said:
He's probably thinking about a whole lot more than one bassist who wants to use his favorite toy. Try not to be too much of a diva.
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Just so I understand...they will be changing out and re-micing guitar amps and whole drum kits and because I want to take the direct out of my Sansamp instead of his DI, requiring ZERO effort or hassle on his part, I am being a diva? :thumbsup:
 
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#10
It's all politics. If you can get a few of your band mates to speak up for you then the power might swing to you. It's hard to say exactly what will work to your advantage, but if you get the sound guy ticked off, you might be in for a long evening.

I'm sympathetic to your dilemma, but you may have to just bite the bullet on this one. Then again if you have the political capital you can spend it and see how far you get. Good luck.
 
#11
badstonebass said:
Just so I understand...they will be changing out and re-micing guitar amps and whole drum kits...
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You KNOW this for certain?

Are any other bassist at the festival who are not going DI?

Well, wait. I understand what you're saying. You want to use YOUR DI; he wants you to use HIS DI. I suppose he just wants predictability maybe. Still, I'm not sure he's being overboard.
 
#13
totallyfrozen said:
I don't see how it has anything to do with class. The bass frequencies can be harder to manage than the treble frequencies. DI to the FOH board for bass is pretty common from what I've seen.
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And I guess that's why it's fairly common for every bassist to have the exact same boring tone onstage.

If this is so common and the way to do things can someone please tell me what the point is of the companies that manufacture bass amps or effects. Good thing they look cool since i guess they're there just to look pretty since no one hears them when you di straight out of the bass.
 
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#15
Oh, BTW the OP was talking about wanting to use the balanced output of his sansamp to feed the board - he wasn't talking about micing his cab. You can't really mic a bass cab that has a tweeter or midrange in it - most have tweeters in them these days so I can understand why he'd not want to mic it. OTOH those of us running tube amps do not use tweeters as they sound like crap when you "push" the amp.
 
#16
Two options, both are kind of on the sly --

1 - plug in his DI after the Sansamp.

2 - he plugs your bass into his DI and the XLR to the board. When he walks away, just replug your stuff how you want, and don't say anything to anyone. Leave his box onstage near your stuff. At the end of the set, reconnect his DI to the XLR.

I've been caught in your situation many times, at festivals and recording studios. I took control of the situation when the soundguy / engineer walked away, and no one ever noticed either way.
 
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#17
Leo Smith said:
2 - he plugs your bass into his DI and the XLR to the board. When he walks away, just replug your stuff how you want, and don't say anything to anyone. Leave his box onstage near your stuff. At the end of the set, reconnect his DI to the XLR.
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If he's using a phantom powered DI (quite common) the PA and monitors will sustain a huge "pop" from that unless the channel happens to be muted :( .
 
#18
I love it when the sound man takes a DI so I don't have to do anything. He knows what is coming out front in the mix. That is what is important. Now, if you want a side tap to a small monitor so you can adjust it to your liking so what you hear is comfortable, so be it. I have also played bass since 1976, and a lot of other instruments as well, and before that, and 99 44/100 of the time the cleaner signal mixes better. Let the sound man do his job.

I used to play a large Independence Day gig where I was very, very happy to only have to show up with a bass and a cord.
 
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#19
iiipopes said:
I love it when the sound man takes a DI so I don't have to do anything. He knows what is coming out front in the mix. That is what is important. Now, if you want a side tap to a small monitor so you can adjust it to your liking so what you hear is comfortable, so be it. I have also played bass since 1976, and a lot of other instruments as well, and before that, and 99 44/100 of the time the cleaner signal mixes better. Let the sound man do his job.

I used to play a large Independence Day gig where I was very, very happy to only have to show up with a bass and a cord.
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thats all fine and dandy if all you want is a common bass tone. some of us like to use other options that are available to color our sound.

why not make it all simple and easy all the way around and make the guitarist use whatever distortion patch the soundguy wants to use as well?

just because some players are happy with a barebones sound doesnt mean those of us who want more should be forced to do it that way just to make it easy for the soundguy. a good soundguy should have no problem taking a line from a bassists own personal di, and god forbid he has to spend a few extra seconds to check the channel and have to turn a knob or two. it doesnt take that long.
 

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