Too much bass

[brianrost]

I told the sound-douche- "Turn it down, or I will turn my amp off, and just mime playing this whole show."

One night I was playing a club I had played many times before but the sound guy thought my stage volume was too high. I turned down, he told me I was still too loud, etc. I spent the last set with my amp turned off and had to listen to whatever was bounced off the walls from FOH back on to the stage.

Another time I was doing the so-much-loved-here-at-TB DIed and ampless routine where after a good sound check the guy took me out of the monitors and I played by watching my fingers on the fretboard.

 

[Robroy]

Like most of us I've attended lots of live shows. But my god these sound engineers need to ease up on those subs. Within the last few weeks I've seen Duran Duran and Hall and Oates and the bass has no definition. Just one big low freq that rattles everything in site. Why? Why must this be. HPF's for everyone!

Back when I was younger I do not remember it being like this.

Last time I went to a concert by a major group it was Genesis in 1981 at the paramount in Seattle. Sounded awesome.

Well, I did take my wife to see Reba and Strait a couple of years ago in downtown Nashville. We will never go to an arena show again. It was awful. Bad sound, noisy crowd, cost more than $20 each. No longer interested in that sort of thing. Its time has passed for us.

 

[psyoniksoundz]

Hip Hop & recent Rock & EDM music are the ones to blame. (I say this as a Hip Hop Artist)

As a FOH engineer @ my church and the engineer on one of my buddy's albums, I am constantly fighting them about "loudness" and "clarity." They think because it's louder and they can hear the audio as a whole more that it equals clarity. I had a well balanced mix on the church's band and my Pastor goes "I know you're used to the way you mix but we like a lot of bass here"

I checked out of actually mixing at all and just pumped the bass up. I can't deal. I also quit mixing my friend's music.

 

[tspallone]

As I age, I question my hearing too. I probably have my own LPF built into my ears at this point. Put a HPF on the whole thing and, it'll be good for ME. Maybe not for everyone else.

 

[Robroy]

As I age, I question my hearing too. I probably have my own LPF built into my ears at this point. Put a HPF on the whole thing and, it'll be good for ME. Maybe not for everyone else.

I've got enough hearing loss that I no longer trust myself to run a live mix. When I listen to FM on my car stereo I can turn the treble all the way up and I don't hear much difference. I do hear a difference, just nowhere near as much as I used to.

The good news is that tape hiss is a thing of the past for me.

 

[AngelCrusher]

I dealt with this problem a lot on larger tours. I hated it too. Couldnt hear the bass out front. Its a complex issue though. Subwoofers, gain staging, max db. Its a volume battle.

Pro FOH guys are all about max db. Thats what gets them off. They crank guitars loud as hell and the kick overpowers everything else. My guy had done countless national tours and there was no way i was getting him to give me a good bass tone. His focus was loud and huge. His gainstaging was immaculate for this sound, but at the cost of the bass definition, and well, dynamics in general.

It sucked, i hated it, but its how rock and country tours are done so often that after years and years i just said screw it, im done. Id rather play jazz fusion live, thats why i started playing anyway.

I go see friends bands on tour and its almost always the same thing. It gets tough to bear after 4 songs.

Have a friend in a pretty popular band that now is all direct, and no stage volume at all. I went with two producers and an a&r an we all raved about the sound. You could hear everything! Here is the funny part- they were not as loud as the opener, but they destroyed them anyway. So maybe things are slowly changing, but i wouldnt hold my breath.