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Uncontrollable Boom!, a bad gig.

#22
Bassometer said:
On the weekend I had a gig in a pub that holds about 125 people; the room was about 75% full. I was a bit late for sound check and got stuck setting up in the corner (which no doubt contributed to the boom).

All night long I fought with my tone, it was muffled and boomy. My gear consisted of a P-bass with round wounds and a 200 watt combo (Traynor SB112). I immediately turned the bass down to 9 o'clock, then I turned the midbass down to 10:00 but it still sounded boomy and undefined. I have never had this problem before in the room and I have played there half a dozen times before. My EQ points on my combo are 60hz, 200 hz, 800hz and 2.5khz. As mentioned above I cut the 60 and 200, the problem was if I cut too much it just pulled the whole bottom end out. The pub has a hard wood floors and wood walls.

Has anybody had this type of thing happen to them? Like I said, I have played that room before (with the same gear) and never had a problem. There just seemed to be a "soupy fog" of boom. Many of the locals noticed it and at one point they were yelling "turn up the bass" (a bass players dream haha) after I cut the low end.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
you weren't at the Tranzac club in Toronto were you?......I had the same experience with the same amp in almost the exact same type of place/# of people......I felt so loud and boomy, kept adjusting the amp and playing lightly...we opened and the headliner bass guy was doing the same...I felt it was the PA a bit too much as well....couldn't sort it out..fans afterward said it all sounded good...

edit..oh yeah the bass cab was in the corner for both of us
 
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#25
Gravedigger Dav said:
What about the stage? is there empty space under the floor? for that you will need acoustic decoupling.
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^^This^^
I use one all the time, but especially useful on hollow stages, a decoupling pad (I use the Gramma V2) may help eliminate issues like this. Since I started using mine, I have had no such issues on ANY type of stage.
 
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#27
Bassometer said:
Maybe the problem occurred because I was set up in the corner - could it have that much of an affect? I know it is +3db for a wall and +6db for a corner but it just seemed way beyond that.
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It darn sure could have been that. 6db is plenty for you to think you're getting hammered with low end. But something made it thin out as it went through the crowd. I've had that happen...I think all I'm putting out is low end sometimes, then go out in the crowd and it sounds normal. If at all possible, go offstage and listen to your mix from the audience perspective.
 
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#31
Pat C. said:
Yeah, the 1/4 wavelength boundary cancellation is a cool thing to note, but frustrating too because a bass produces all the frequencies. It's a bit easier dealing with just a kick drum which usually has a peak at its fundamental. Best practice is probably to move the cabinet further from the offending boundary to lower the frequency of cancellation if possible. Seven feet is about 40hz, that'd be the minimum distanced to avoid cancellation from the E fundamental on up. At least nine feet for a low B fundamental.

I first came across this info a long while back in a tech note from Peavey. I searched it out, here's the .pdf for anyone who's interested.

http://assets.peavey.com/pv/support/soundsystems/new_boundary_cancellation.pdf
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A kick drum produces many frequencies, but the problematic ones are a bit more isolated. EQing with pillows and tape is a bit harder, and you can't move the kick drum independently
 
#34
Had the exact same problem in the summer at a country golf club bash.

We were set up against a huge plain brick wall which seemed to suck the life out of my rig.....in the end I had the bass dialled back to 0 and the mids and top dimed....still sounded mushy and indisdinct...worst sound I've ever had.
 
#35
Downunderwonder said:
The acoustic guitar can boom the same frequency in the room.

Maybe someone took the 100hz filter off the guitar or a tomtom.
Click to expand...

First thing I do on a mixing desk, after muting the channels is put the low frequency filters in. I might unlatch later to see if that improves a feed, but for most things it doesn't help

I've seen Heaven 17, and whilst there is only keyboard bass these days (from either Martyn Ware or Robin Scott (M)'s daughter) it's the best balanced bass sound I've heard over a variety of venues. That's mostly FOH and monitor speakers and IEMs but it works. The smallest venue was about 150 to 200 capacity, so in the ballpark, and I also heard one of the boomiest, badly mixed gigs I've been to in the same venue, so it's not like the venue is magic. In fact, it's a basement bar with a low ceiling, especially on stage as I managed to poke a hole in it when performing. Put it this way, if the actor that plays The Hound on Game of Thrones played a gig there (he does play) and pogoed even a little they'd have to go to the offices above to prise his head out.

So whatever it is that H17 does, it works.
 
#36
I get sound issues when I have to set up in a corner. Too much bass in you sound can make the sound worse. I've also noticed that a bad sound on stage doesn't always translate into a bad sound out in the room.

I had the least problems and the best sound on bad stages when I was using my Bergantino cabs. The Bergs seemed to control the low end very tightly and prevented most of the problems.
 
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#37
I had the same problem last week for a little show I did. Had to put my little combo in a corner. Man, was it boomy! I just played at a low enough volume to make it work. I left my knobs mostly at noon except rolled off the lows a tad. I've never heard that combo sound so huge (Markbass CMD 121H). I had no choice, that was the spot they left me to set up in.
 
#38
Bassometer said:
On the weekend I had a gig in a pub that holds about 125 people; the room was about 75% full. I was a bit late for sound check and got stuck setting up in the corner (which no doubt contributed to the boom).

All night long I fought with my tone, it was muffled and boomy. My gear consisted of a P-bass with round wounds and a 200 watt combo (Traynor SB112). I immediately turned the bass down to 9 o'clock, then I turned the midbass down to 10:00 but it still sounded boomy and undefined. I have never had this problem before in the room and I have played there half a dozen times before. My EQ points on my combo are 60hz, 200 hz, 800hz and 2.5khz. As mentioned above I cut the 60 and 200, the problem was if I cut too much it just pulled the whole bottom end out. The pub has a hard wood floors and wood walls.

Has anybody had this type of thing happen to them? Like I said, I have played that room before (with the same gear) and never had a problem. There just seemed to be a "soupy fog" of boom. Many of the locals noticed it and at one point they were yelling "turn up the bass" (a bass players dream haha) after I cut the low end.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Pull the bass out and boost the mids not cut them only makes it boomer add a little treble for top end zing and you would have been in the ball park
 

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