mrtcat

Separating subs at outdoor gigs is far more important than at most indoor gigs. Yes in an ideal world you'll separate at both but in reality, unless your indoor gig is in a really well acoustically treated space, there will be so much reflected sound that you won't really find many noticeable dead spots caused by phase cancellation.

Lots of great info already given. All I would add is that its worth considering a Blue Acoustic system. Hand made here in the UK using top quality components. Designed to out perform similarly priced big brand gear and you can speak to them directly to discuss which of their setups would suit you best.

Big thanks to everyone who offered advice. I've had time to follow the tips properly and it has completely transformed the foh bass sound. As a side note, the Darkglass Anagram has blown me away with its features. Fully parametric 6 band eq, proper high pass filters that allow you to choose the slope type and can be added wherever you need them and just a load of great core sounds.

I use my DAW to check and correct the levels of all of my patches so they're all very much equal in terms of output level.

I rarely use the amp these days as we all use iems so, on most occasions, there's no stage monitor sound at all.

Understood, ill try that today and see how it goes. That may be the "fettling" I need.

So i used Bill's suggested approach to great effect. Instead of playing an open A i set up a new patch in the anagram with no blocks and connected to both my amp and the mixer. I set amp eq flat and removed any eq on either the channel or main out on the mixer. I then used a pink noise generator and used the sound analyser app to listen to the pink noise through my amp and cab. I took a screenshot and then sent the pink noise through the PA. I used the global eq in the Anagram to get the PA sounding as close to my cab as possible by matching the graphic eqs as closely as I could. It was quite surprising just how much mid and treble I had to add to get them close. The greenboy cab is definitely not lacking in the mids / high mids and highs. I had a gig tonight and ran the Anagram into the PA. I used a preset without a cab sim and it sounded much better. Our guitarist mixes and he noticed a considerable difference. I think it still needs a bit of fettling but its definitely much closer to what I want now.

Thanks so much Bill, that makes perfect sense. I've downloaded the app and will give it a go today.

We have a great PA (rcf 932a x2 and rcf 905 sub x2) and a capable mixer (XR18) and yet im never happy with the bass sound through PA. I have a Darkglass Anagram which sounds amazing for recording direct into a PC and awesome on the multi track live recording we take direct from the desk at gigs. It also sounds perfect in my iem mix. My amp is a Darkglasd M900 and my cab is a greenboy F112. That setup sounds killer too. Why is it then that the bass sound coming out of the PA just always seems to sound a bit woolly and soft and lacking those lovely clean piano type lows. Even if I turn all processing off on the desk it seems to sound like it lacks the clean weight of sound and crisp top end. Do I just need to be braver with the eq or is it something in the PA speakers that hates me?

6 gigs in last 14 days, all weddings, and all without noise restrictions (absolute miracle to get so many non restricted ones in a row) and 4 were in marquees (so much better for sound) so we we've been able to use my PA for all. Its a super simple setup of 2 x rcf 932a and 2 x rcf 905 subs run via a behringer x-air 18. All on in ears. Acoustic drums and i got to use my amp too. Lovely to have full control over sound with a simple PA that just does the job right. Pull up the band's standard scene, short soundcheck, tweak for room and away we go.

It's very rare that I really enjoy the playing side of it these days. Venues are getting harder to deal with, I've never liked the indie pop rock type covers that we play and brides / grooms / wedding guests annoy me more and more as time goes by. I do it because £400 for hanging out with my mates is better than sitting on the sofa. I have young kids so my wife and i wouldn't otherwise be going out on a Saturday night. The money pays for nice family holidays etc. I earn well enough away from music that I don't have to do it and im not playing in pubs which i have absolutelyno desire to do. I have other musical projects ongoing that I really love but thankfully they're not week in week out type things as there's no real money in it and I just want that to be for fun.

Venues are well aware they sound bad. They just have to comply with the local authorities regarding noise pollution. The problem is that they sell it to the clients as a positive thing. Conversely we advise them of the limitations of the system at the point where they book us. There is a whole section of our contract dedicated to absolving us of blame for the quality of the final sound when these systems are involved. It also covers them not informing us at the time of booking. In the world of wedding bands you just need to accept limiters and in house systems. If you refuse to play the game you just get far less work. Its part of why function bands charge more than pub bands. We are essentially just a pub band that are prepared to put up with more grief.