Struggle with live bass tone

[Mike Caldwell]

I would fix this first.

You have some work to do--set up your PA somewhere when you have time to chase this down. Since bass is causing you issues, I'd start with soloing the bass channel and get the signal processing so it sounds right. Check your mains crossover points also--I've seen a gap where for example subs are crossed over at 80 hz and mains are crossed over at 120 hz, leaving a huge gap between those frequencies, so be sure to check that.

Actually "underlapping" the crossover frequencies in some cases will give you a flatter response through the crossover frequency range.

 

[Mike Caldwell]

Exactly this. Start by learning your PA and make it sounds good with recorded music (and don't use mp3).
Once your recorded music sounds good in your rehearsing space, then start mixing.

*** Do the exact same thing in every space your are playing ***

That can get the system fairly balanced but does not tell you how it will work with live open mics in the room.

As for the earlier mentioned auto EQ functions some DSP's have those results can vary all over the place.

 

[DonaldR]

It's your point of reference, to know how the place sounds. You can stop doing this once you are more experienced.

 

[Wasnex]

Very interesting, thank you! I will be doing some reading on occlusion effect.

You may benefit from viewing videos on Real Ear Measurement.

This one seems informative:

 

[Zbysek]

F.S.Sorrow thank you for the insight! I could definitely try something other than the Tone Hammer. I also have an MXR M81 preamp/ DI that is very neutral when set flat. Would that work along the lines you are suggesting?

If you want to try how your bass sounds flat, just disengage the Tone Hammer pedal (by switching off the "Engage" footswitch). In that mode, Tone Hammer acts as a plain active DI box. You do not need to get another device...

 

[Deleted member 271037]

F.S.Sorrow thank you for the insight! I could definitely try something other than the Tone Hammer. I also have an MXR M81 preamp/ DI that is very neutral when set flat. Would that work along the lines you are suggesting?

I've never tried the M81 so I can't really comment on that, sorry. I have no idea how neutral the M81 is when set flat. But any standard, clean DI box would do the trick.

But if you try the M81 and get a better tone you will of course be able to identify the Tone Hammer as the problem so it's definitely worth a try.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Bring in a good sound tech for a gig or two to come in and straighten out your system and get a good base line mix put together and save those scenes.

This would only work if they only ever play in the same room. Move to a different venue and the behavior of the low frequencies will be a lottery. It might work just to get a better starting point of course, but the mix, and particularly the low frequencies WILL have to be adjusted in a different room.

 

[Wasnex]

This would only work if they only ever play in the same room. Move to a different venue and the behavior of the low frequencies will be a lottery. It might work just to get a better starting point of course, but the mix, and particularly the low frequencies WILL have to be adjusted in a different room.

The benefit is if the OP receives some mentorship and training, rather than just having the guest audio tech tune the system for a certain gig. In general PAs need to be retuned every time they are set up. Sometimes the retuning is rather significant.

I used to save the last scene from every show. This served as baseline for the next show. Because of variation from venue to venue, eventually I started saving multiple scenes for different types of venues. I used three categories: 1. Indoors dry, 2. Indoors (overly reverberant), 3 Outdoors.

The biggest difference is the amount of mid scoop. As the reverberant energy increases, I tend to scoop out more and more of the low mids from the system EQs to try and get a bit more clarity in the vocals.

I ring the system for feedback every time I set it up. Even if you set up in the same venue, it's still a good idea to ring the system. This is because the problem frequencies are dependent on more than just resonant modes in the room. If a speaker is aimed slightly different or a mic is in a slightly different position, it can result in different frequencies wanting to feedback.