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What tone do you send?

What tone do you send to the board?

  • I send 'em whatever they want. I know what I like, and at least I get to hear it on stage.

    Votes: 19 30.6%

  • If they're willing, I run "my" sound to the board. But I won't fight it if all they want is DI.

    Votes: 12 19.4%

  • My tone is a part of our sound, and I do what I can to get it to be a part of FOH sound.

    Votes: 22 35.5%

  • I throw carrots at them from the stage.

    Votes: 9 14.5%
  • Total voters
    62
OriginalCrash

OriginalCrash

Apr 5, 2007
1,007
10
Metro Atlanta
#1
I know the topic has been discussed before, so this isn't so much a "what should I do?" as it is just a "what do you do?" for curiosity's sake... so... What do you do? Do you painstakingly ensure that "your" tone is what gets sent to the board? Do you try to get it that way if the sound guys are cooperative but not make too big a deal if all they want is DI? Or do you not really mind what they ask (so long as they're competent enough to make the band sound good) and just make sure that you're rockin' to your own tone on stage?
 
#2
Just some info for you. I have been performing for 33 years as a bass player, B.E., & M.E. 99.9% of the time you will perform in a live situation, you will NEVER have "your" sound. The p.a. you are playing through is not a bass cabinet. Sorry to be so bleek, but those are the cold hard facts. Just get the best sound you can get on stage and rock that performance like a virgin getting his cherry popped.
Blessings,
David"BigDaddy"Griffin
 
#3
Hi.

I was picky about my sound when I was young, but then again the gigs I played back then can be counted with woodworkers fingers ;).

If I ever am in the situation where a desicion like that is required, I'll give the FOH engineer exactly what he wants. I'd like to use the SVTDI just because it was darn expensive, but if the tech disagrees, that's his perogative.

I play rock mostly and also covers mostly so the tone pretty much stays the same :D.

Regards
Sam
 
#4
I have always let the FOH guy get a direct from my Bass. He knows what the mix sounds like much better than I do on stage and it's better to have a friend on the board than someone you've just had a fight about "Your Sound" with.
I mean, when in a mix, so much of what you think "Your Sound" is, is covered up by the guitars and cymbals to the point that the best you can do is play tight with the kick and be glad you can hear yourself. (even if "Your Sound" is all distorted and affected like J.E.s was)

btw I've been playing 43 years
 
#5
I always just send them a DI from my EBS Microbass II. I tried to build my sound where I was getting the tone I want at that point so when going through a PA I get somewhat close. Never had any issues in live or recording situations. Most engineers are more than happy with you giving them a DI. Easier on them. But I'm a solid state guy so its easier for me to use a DI, for tube guys you almost have to mic unless you have an emulator you like.

Only had one guy insist on a microphone saying he was "beyond using a DI", but he was an idiot and spent the whole night eating pizza and browsing the internet. He doesn't work there anymore:)
 
#6
Yeah, I'm just using the DI on my LMII to the board. It is post-eq, but I rarely touch the eq and find that a little of the VLE filter doesn't seem to hurt FOH sound any (especially since it sounds so clinical and treble-y otherwise)... haven't had any complaints. I leave the mixing to the sound guys and hope they're competent. If they are, it should sound good. If they're not, well, fighting with 'em ain't gonna help any. But I leave the FOH sound to them and just set my amp how I like it on stage so that I get to enjoy it.
 
#8
i voted throwing carrots because what i consider 'my' sound is the sound of my bass, clean, so i've begun setting up my JDI and giving them a signal from this rather than wait for them to plug into my amp di or give me another box, which are usually 'sufficient', but lower fidelity

many times, they'll voluntarily mic my cab as well, though this gives varying degrees of success because my cabs are 3-way with a mid driver and horn, so mic placement to pick up mids and highs is critical

the last gig i played, i asked the soundman if he could use the signal from my DI, and he said, "sure--but may i ask why?" i responded that i'd prefer to give him a pre-EQ signal so he would have the most to work with from the board, and he replied, somewhat pleasantly surprised, "oh--ok, cool" then when he saw the radial box, he exclaimed, "cool! this is a great unit!" and seemed happy
 
#10
I send them whatever I want to send them and I don't need any soundman telling me that I need to do something else. When I am onstage, I am king of bass and ruler of my domain, and I rule with an iron hand. Whether I use a mic, DI, combo of both, or whatever, my bass signal is always magnificent, and the soundman will deal with whatever I want to give them. If they don't want to, we will have a problem, and in the event of problems, I will always win. That's just the way it is.

Also, I almost never have a problem getting the sound from my amp into the PA. It's not an exact duplicate right down the line but it's always very close. I don't get why some people have so much trouble with it.
 
#13
"My" sound isn't much, so I'm not too picky about it. I usually try to send the signal from my Pod X3 Live to the board, since I've got it dialed in with a nice warm tone off the Aguilar model that sits well in mixes with flat EQ at the board. But if they want to take a DI, that's fine too. I just prefer the Pod because it gives me foot control of muting for between songs or when I need to tune. Plus it's got things that help the sound guy, like light compression to keep his board from clipping when my dynamics get...dynamic. :)
 
#14
He gets a DI signal from my programmable Sansamp and I make sure I like how it sounds out front, we've spent a lot of a time working on our band tone to suit our music and we want it to sound that way out front. Soundmen generally understand, though we tell them what we expect before we put a single amp on the stage.
 
#15
I'll use whatever they want to use.
I'm playing bass , I'm not mixing behind the desk.
I think it's a very selfish and stupid attitude to impose the tool to somebody else's job.


I never tell my dentist wich bit to use.
And it is MY mouth.
 
#16
fokof said:
I'll use whatever they want to use.
I'm playing bass , I'm not mixing behind the desk.
I think it's a very selfish and stupid attitude to impose the tool to somebody else's job.
Click to expand...
So now I'm stupid. Yeah, that's what all disgruntled employees think about their boss. Selfish and stupid.

Tough. I'm the boss, not them. What I say goes. Don't like it? Don't run sound for me. There was a time I didn't care. Now I do. That's my prerogative as the person working with the person who is paying their salaries that night. It isn't telling them how to do their job...it's telling them how to do MY job. Sheesh, you think soundmen would just be happy they make way more than I do.

Here's what you call a professional sound crew...

Hershey Park, Hershey PA. We do a show there twice a year for the last god knows how many years, and the first time I went there this year was the first time I did the SVT speaker DI there. When I came back a month later, the DI was tied into the speaker for me before I got there. I love those guys!
 
#19
I voted carrots, because there wasn't an, "I give them my DI out and they take it, and then I stand over their shoulder with my wireless during soundcheck, adjusting the controls on my bass until it sounds like I think it should" option.

But that's pretty much what I do, unless I'm the one running sound (it happens), in which case, I run my bass flat and adjust everyone else until they fit around it.

On the rare occasion that one of my bands pays the soundman, they do what we want. Or they don't get hired again. This is a small town, it's easy for a soundguy to run out of work that way.
 
#20
JimmyM said:
Tough. I'm the boss, not them. What I say goes. Don't like it? Don't run sound for me.
Click to expand...

If you come play around here and have a contract that says that the producer of the show ( probably the one hiring me as a soundman as well) has to hire the crew and is responsible of the sound and lights , well legaly , that would mean that the soundman is in charge of mixing the band , not you. Sorry......
 

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